tissue box

Hi people. I'm new to this forum idea, so bear with me.

Here's my history. I have a 90 gallon freshwater set-up, about 2 years old. It's well established and well-stocked. (3 adult discus, 2 pictus cats, 1 gold nugget pleco, 12 silver hatchets, 12 penguin tetras, 12 rummy nose tetras, 1 mated pair of cockatoo cichlids, a couple baby emerald brochis, and a bunch of ottos.) It's densely planted, and there's 6 halogen strips in a vented hood across the top. The temp is always around 82F, and the ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are all 0.

And here's my problem. Yesterday, I did a 30% water change, and suddenly my pictus and a discus started acting skittish. This morning, I found a pictus and a rummy nose dead. The gold nugget is lying on its side barely breathing, and the discus are all lying in the plants at strange angles. The other pictus is very pale and sluggish. All my fish are slightly more pale than usual, and a normally silver hatchetfish has gone a sickly shade of yellow.

I've been in the aquarium hobby for about 8 years, and I've never seen anything like this. My only theory is that a recent water shortage in a nearby county could be causing strange water chemistry fluctuations that I'm not detecting.

Anything you guys can come up with would be a life-saver.

Chief_waterchanger

It is probably a antibiological agent put into the water, since a lot of municipalities are hitting the bottom of their reserves. So instead of being out in the main, open body of water, a lot of them are pulling water from close to the bottom of their resevoirs. [This water generally has a higher bacfterial count] So they are probably super dosing chloroamine or adding ammonia to the water supply. Before doing any other waterchanges you need to test the tap water for ammonia, as that is the more likely of the two. If no ammonia is detected I would attempt another waterchange with double the amount of anti-chloroamine product. Though we do not use it (we are on well-water), 'Prime' also has some ammonia countering properties.

Best of luck, let us know what happens.

You can send e-mails to me or Dino if you need further assistance. I believe we both have our e-mail addresses listed in our profiles.

tissue box

Deeper reservoir water. Sounds promising. Is there any way to test my incoming tap water for chloramine or chlorine? Any ideas as to which bacteria, or would it just be a whole mess of them?

And as for the ammonia, I tested the water 5 minutes ago for No, Ni, and A, and they're all 0.

Thanks again, I'll keep you posted.

tissue box

Well, thanks everybody for all your wonderful suggestions and moral support. I especially liked the fact that I had 23 views and one reply.

I enjoyed talking to myself, and hope to do it again soon.

By the way, my water problems are fixed and my fish are fine again. Only those first 2 or 3 losses.

lilsoccakid

i have a quick question, how can you keep nitrates at 0? because of all the plants?

Butterfly

14 minutes after you posted your problem you got an answer. Thats a record
Sometimes when people don't know an answer or don't have a clue they don't respond. sorry you were disappointed in the responses.
Sorry you lost fish and we weren't able to help more.
carol