what happened? what did i do wrong?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
What did you treat the water with? If the tap water had chlorimine instead of chlorine and product you used was just for chlorine, it would release the ammonia from the chemical bond.

I know some tapwater has high nitrates, but I haven't heard of tap water having ammonia ... could be possible, hence the warning by the pet store guy.

You just added the cansiter, not replacing the old filter correct?
 
i took some of the old media from the previous filter and placed them in the canister filter. you think i should have left the old one running as well?? could that have been the problem, that there was no old bacteria in the filter to help with the water change?
 
why dont you test your water. test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

test your tank water.
then test your tap.

list the results. i dont think your 5 gallon change killed them. more then likely your new filter didnt have enough bacteria from the media you moved over. so you had a ammonia spike.

btw no water changes with out testing your nitrates is a recipe for disaster.
 
I have to agree with sostoudt...

i cannot imagine just doing a 5g wc would create such a result.

but probably that in combination of all the other factors would...
 
Hey all, first post. Just a couple of thoughts:
Was there any active carbon in the filtration system anywhere? How old was it? Carbon has a habit of leaching toxins back into the system. If you distrubed an old carbon cartridge, you may have released old toxins all at once.

Was that bucket for aquarium use only? Or had you used it for something else in the past? I agree with hillbilly, those gills look like the fish suffered some kind of water toxin, probably ammonia, the question is where did it come from?
 
A couple of things:

Darth has a point, did you use anything to treat the tap water? The ammonia released from treatment isn't the kind that is harmful to fish. However chlorine is toxic., although much of it would gas off, and chloromine may still be present.

Assuming your 55 actually only holds 40 gallons of water because of displacement and internal, actual measurements, a 5 gallon change is much more of a change. So, Hillbilly, if your reading this, chlorine can cause the same gill burn, right?

mconrad, activated carbon only releases toxins at temps above 400f or 700f or something like that. That's something aquarium companies say to sell more carbon.
 
Bobears - sorry mate, I can't let that unchallenged :) Water boils at 212f, so at 400f - 700f the water would boil off and eventually the carbon would smolder. So I guess in that regard you are correct, burning carbon would release trapped toxins.

There are some theories that the van der waals forces which bind toxins to carbon hold long enough for bacteria to form on the carbon and consume the toxins, however these forces are relatively week and can be broken. It doesn't happen often, and it's probably not as pervasive as people thing, but if you have year old carbon on a tank that never has water changes? It's possible.

Also, the idea that the filtration industry circulates this myth to sell more product is probably flawed. If the industry did drum up this little "myth", then it back fired big time because I would say there is no bigger detriment to sales of active carbon filters than the pervasiveness of the idea of active carbon desorption.
 
Answer is quite simple actually. Your fish had adpated to a constant state in terms of water quality - poor or not. The adition of a filter changed that a dimension of that quality. You say you haven't never done any water changes? That equals fish ready to die at the slightest change in environment. Water changes are a must with keeping any animal in a closed system - without them, well you saw the results. Sorry for your loss.
 
I would say it is much more likely that the container, bag, or whatever carbon is held in will trap debris and cause problems way before that carbon ever "leaches" back into the aquarium.

But, point taken, well done.

Sorry to derail the thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom