RabbitsAreSlow

Well, the inevitable has set in and my fish have begun to die.... My fish over the past week have been dying off pretty rapidly. The count as of tonight is at 5 now. Here is where it gets interesting...my tank is a 36 gallon freshwater bowfront with fake plants and a wet dry sump. NEVER has my water been bad. I have an API freshwater master test kit. When testing my water I follow the instructions to a "T" and make sure my measurements/dosages are spot on. My water parameters as of yesterday when I did a test was pH 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20 PPM. My water with my awesome wet/dry filter couldn't be clearer. Whenever I add water or do a water change of 20% monthly I always add powder neutral regulator to keep my pH around 7. I also add Prime to dechlorinate and whatnot the water. I also have been adding API Stress Zyme+ for beneficial bacteria. I always measure correctly.

My tank is a community tank composed primarily of tetras, 3 angels, 1 dwarf pleco, and 4 cories. Altogether I had 28 fish in my tank and everyone was happy. I check my little friends daily and since I have purchased them from my local fish store (not petco, petsmart or any chain store) they have grown, become more active, and to my surprise developed colors I have never seen or expected. They look completely healthy. Upon close examination there is no damage to indicate bacteria, parasites or nipping. I am at a complaete loss as to what is going on.

I talked to my fish guy and the only thing he could come up with and I think is the culprit is ammonia spikes and here is why I think it could be this. Since my aquarium utilizes a wet/dry system I am forced to use an overflow box. This box has slits in it (for those who dont know, the slits allow water and debris to pass through and filter through the system). The downside is the slits in the overflow box are big enough to allow fish to slip through if they get too close and decide to see what's on "the dark side". When I first got my system set up during the transition from my hang on back emperor 280 filter to my new wet/dry system I would always monitor the overflow box as I would always find a tetra who "got too curious" and got sucked into the box where he/she would be swimming for their life. I would check this daily and have gotten quite quick at shutting they system down, saving the little guys/gals and returning them unharmed to the main tank. After weeks had passed occurences of "fish in box" decreased to the point where I assumed they learned their lesson. So I stopped checking so often...bad idea! lRecently, my wife noticed an Angel dead in my tank getting "tasted" by my dwarf pleco ( I thought these guys only ate algae?). I removed him and noticed my population looked smaller so I checked my overflow box. NOOOOOOO!!!! I noticed two dead bodies stuck to my prefilter and another tetra swimming for his life again. The only thing I can think is a fish died, an ammonia spike occured, killed another fish, causing a chain reaction that has begun to kill my little guys. What do I do?? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be as thorough as possible while making this an interesting read. What do you all think? Oh boy.....

metal_fish

There is many products that can help get rid of the ammonia.
https://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-...ps/c/3578/3978

But you should probably do a large water change not too much to restart a cycle, but I'm sorry for such misfortune!

Btw, how long did you let your tank cycle before adding fish?

aquarist48

Good morning RabbitsAreSlow. I hate to hear that you're having fish loss. I would like to suggest that you stop using chemicals to adjust your pH levels. They can be very unstable and can even cause your pH to crash. Here is a link you may find helpful with ways of changing your pH levels naturally. Most fish for home aquariums will adapt to the pH right from the tap. Sudden fluctuations in pH can be fatal to your fish.
Properly Maintaining the pH in a Freshwater Aquarium - Rate My Fish Tank

As for your over flow box, I suggest adding a sponge banded around it to prevent fish from going inside of it. I have a wet/dry system on my 265g but my fish are way too large to go in it. In the past I had the same issues and the sponge wrapped around it worked really well. Too, the sponge will act as more bio media if you just rinse it in siphoned tank water every now and then.


I would recommend more frequent water changes. Instead of once a month to once a week or at the very least every two weeks. This will have a major effect on your pH levels and helping to keep them from large fluctuations. There really is no such thing as a stable pH. It will naturally drop over time. Thus the need to increase the water changes to maintain a certain level.
Best of luck!
Ken

Shawnie

im also so sorry for your losses....I think between using stress zyme and the ph controller, both could have killed the fish...the ph controller works way too fast and could cause a major ph shock...a fish can do much better in a stable ph so you dont have to mess with it to keep it at 7..and the stress zyme eats all the good bacteria up as its not self sustaining type ..thats why you have to add it constantly...I would do the daily water changes as other suggested with some prime water conditioner and thats it....dont add anything else and your fish babies should recover ....good luck!

Lucy

I'm really sorry about your fish
I'm with Shawnie on this. (I think) Products like strss zyme give a false sense of security imo. The tank never really cycles properly.
Could you fill in your aquarium info? How long has the tank been set up?

Nate McFin

Ditto Shawnie on the PH adjusters and Stresszyme being the problem here.
How stable are the temps by the way have you noticed any fluctations?