what happened? what did i do wrong?

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5

5am

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 7, 2006
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lalaland
yesterday i bought a new canister filter for my 55g planted tank. originally i had an overhead wet dry filter... and it has been working fine for my fish... PH has always been 6.8-7.0, temps are consistently 78. the tank is moderately planted, and everything had been fine with minimal effort. the tank has been up and running for over a year so i am sure the filtration was sufficient for my set up. i have never done any water changes, only top off and adding nutes and ferts to the water when i topped off. to continue on with my story, i thought that it WOULD be better if i added another filter to the tank so got a canister and installed it. then i did the FIRST water change (only 5 gallon bucket) and topped off with treated water.

today i woke up, ALL my discus are dead. my bigmouth pleco dead, and my female bristlenose dead as well. the whiptail cat, corys, and fancy guppies are alive... the guppies stayed at the top of the water (i guess for air) and the corys were swimming to the top periodically (i guess for air too).

can someone tell me what might have gone wrong, or what i did that caused my discus to die?

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my favorite leopardsnakeskin
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wild cuipera
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First guess would be the water change. Die offs often happen when people don't do a water change for an absurdly long amount of time and then finally do one. The fish adapt to the poor water conditions, and the sudden change shocks them. I have seen this happen on display tanks when I worked for an aquarium maitenance company before.
 
an experienced fish owner told me NOT to do water changes because the water in san francisco has gone chemically bad for aquariums... he suggested that i top off only. my fish were ok, disease free, and ate like there was no tomorrow all the time. i wouldnt say my water conditions were poor JUST because i didnt do water changes... but would 5 gallons of water be TOO much of a water change? i didnt want to change the water, i took out 5 gallons because i wanted to start a quarantine tank outside so i needed some tank water to get the water goin...

i guess this proves the phrase, "if it aint broke, then dont fix it." i shoulda never got a new filter and never pulled out water for the quarantine. arghh!
 
Angler;3358391; said:
Why did you not do a water change for 1+ years?
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i agree here. and you wonder why you have problems. haha:ROFL:
sorry about your fish but no matter how good your filter is you always do water changes. a fish keeper should know this:screwy:
 
i KNOW water changes are important... but the fish store owner advised water has gotten worse throughout the years. oh wells, time for new fish.
 
do u think 5 gallons of water had such a dramatic affect on them?? this is my first time experiencing this in all my years of fish keeping.
Hillbilly: thanks for providing a possible problem and not bashing on my lack of waterchanges...
 
I have no way of knowing what went on in your tank, but burned gills is a sure sign of ammonia and or nitrite exposure, and leaves little doubt about what caused the deaths.
 
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