Tio

ok something just went through my tank wiping out all but one fish.now i want to start over but i am worried what evr killed my fish might still be there in my plants.i want to clean and sterilize everything. how can i make sure there is nothing harmful still left on my live plants.can i sterilize my plants?

angelfish220

Ive read that they could be put in a bleach water solution but I couldnt recomend it. What was the thing that killed your fish. lots of time if you dont have fish the deasise will die out because they depend on the fish to reproduce/get food ect.

susitna-flower

Tio, lets go through it step by step....I don't think you have really figured out what happened to your tank yet, so it isn't necessary to tear it down and sterilize your tank until you do a few things....

Exactly what are your water readings....

Ammonia?
Nitrite?
Nitrate?

How big is your tank?

I will look on your other post to get the fish, but if you want to include them in this post it will keep it all together.

The reason you don't want to tear your whole tank down is because you will be right back at step one of your cycle. If you can just run your tank at over 82 F for 3 or so weeks, it will kill all ick. Your molly wouldn't still be alive if you have a deadly disease.....My gut feeling on this is that by adding more fish to a tank that was already overstocked you sent the tank back into a mini cycle. The fish that died may just reacted to toxic levels of ammonia or nitrite, which will not be possible to determine now, but to keep strict account of what your water tests in the future, you shouldn't have this happen again.

What do you test your water with?

I would love to try and figure this out with you, so post back and we'll see.....

sirdarksol

Regular, unscented bleach can very easily be used. In fact, it is one of two cleaning chemicals that can be used with an aquarium. The other is ammonia. The reason bleach can be used is that the harmful ingredient in it is chlorine, which our water conditioners can easily deal with (just use more dechlorinator).

However, I agree with Susitna, there isn't a reason to tear the tank down until it's been verified that there is something harmful in the water, or, conversely, after thorough examination, a reason can't be found.
If you just tear the tank down and rebuild it, there is the possibility that the condition that caused the problems in the first place will be re-created.

Tio

i have tested my water since i got my tank almost 6 months ago amonia went up then it went down tank cycling great amonia testing at zero nitrate 20 nitrites at zero ph close to 7 hardness at 180 we have hard water in there area so does the fish store where i got all my fish.i have a 55 gallon tank with there were 9 platties total of 8 tetras i mollie and a pleco i did a 1/3 water change every week ( i also add stress coat to the water at every chage) and filter change every month(carbon) there is 5 plants total in my tank along with some drift wood (heard it can help with water hardness)my water temperature always between 76 - 78.the large fin tetras tails were completely gone along with their fins same with the cardnel tetras.it seems so strange that all them would die but the mollie is doing fine and shows no signs os illness (all by himself in the 55 gallon)still treating for fin rot and the temperature is at 82 now for 2 days ( slowly raised it)plants not affected doing great.i really dont know what happened.getting a quaritine tank hopefully this weekend and going to use it before adding new fish to the 55g, i use the liquid test(tetratest) to test the water along with the test strips,the fish store checked my water also said it was fine.all they deal with is fish there not like walmart

sirdarksol

Alright, so I think I see why the tetras succumbed to fin rot, but not sure about the platies.

Tetras like soft, acidic water. The hard water probably stressed them to the point that their bodies couldn't fight the illness.
Platies and mollies, on the other hand, love hard water. So that explains why the molly survived, but that doesn't explain the platies. It could just be that they happened to be from weaker stock, or maybe the molly you bought just happened to have only been in the store for a short time (the longer a fish is at the fish store, the weaker it is likely to be, as a fish store's display tank is not an ideal situation for a fish to be in)

Tio

the platties were my fist set of fish got all 9 at once then i got three mollies two died shortly after this guy survived everything tough little guy.then my cardnels and another type of tetra then the pleco and large fin tetras.the platties almost looked like they had ich but also velvet on a couple not sure.

susitna-flower

The only thing I might add is that even though nitrates of 20 are technically not "high", you can cut stress on your fish significantly if you will keep nitrate down to between 5-10....Some fish and inverts. HAVE to have lower nitrates, cardinals are just like neons in that they are notorious for needing a tank fully cycled & good water conditions.....Stress leads to fin rot....this can happen from water conditions, aggressive fish, fin nipping ANYTHING that upsets the fishes natural balance and immune system.

It almost sounds like you may have had a touch of ick also, as you said with the platties....but neither of these things would suggest you have to tear your tank down....To kill ick raise temp OVER 82. 83 or 84 would do it. Keep it there for over 2 weeks. Do water changes and gravel vacuums, and your tank should be good to go. Next time you choose fish, research the water temperature they like - also a stress factor. It may be that your fish would do better at 79 than they would at 76...I know this sounds nit picky, but I am just trying to help so next group of fish will give you a long life of joy.

We all loose fish from time to time. It is all part of fish keeping.

Good Luck

Tio

well i got more fish so far so good now my mollie is no longer alone in a 55g tank.3 silvertail mollies,3 neon blue mickey mouse platties and a common pleco along with my dalmation molly.to start.i had a quartine tank (5 g)but cracked it so will have to get another.