Accidentally forgot to treat new water

[Marineboy22]

As the title states, I forgot to add seachem prime to my new tank water on a 90% water change..

It’s a 10 gallon tank thats been established for about 2 years. I filled the tank as usual and noticed my jewel cichlid, Billy who is the sole inhabitant was acting funny, but I didn’t think anything of it.

Fast forward about 30 mins, water change is done and lights are turned off. I walk up to the tank just to check on it and billy is laying on the bottom completely lifeless and looks dead. I immediately knew what I had done..

I took him out of the tank as fast as I could and siphoned some good clean water out of my 125g (running for 5 years) into a separate 10g I had in the garage, and put a well established sponge filter in along with my fish and an airstone.

He’s burned badly but alive. My first thought was euthanasia. All the skin on his underside looks pale and is peeling. His left eye is cloudy and has slime hanging off of it. The ends of his fins are all red and burnt looking. After speaking with my LFS, I ran to the pet store as soon as I could and bought melafix and dosed the hospital tank. l also dosed vita chem in the water, thinking that extra vitamins in the water column can’t hurt.

In case I crashed the cycle on my 10 gallon (dont think that can happen from 30 mins of non treated water) but for the people who say it can, I bought some beneficial bacteria as well and dosed the main tank. I plan to test the water for ammonia and nitrite when I get home to see if it’s still cycling.

How am I handling this? Any pointers/tips? Has anyone gone through something similar before? Obviously as a loving fish caretaker I am absolutely gutted that this happened to my boy by my hands.

As a side note, he accepted food last night. Granted he didn’t seem to be able to see it(could I have blinded him?). The day of the incident. Which amazed me. And also gives me hope. What do you guys think about my situation? Should I not get my hopes up?

 

[FishDude92]

Keep the sponge filter in tank at all times is all I got

 

[RayClem]

Why did you do a 90% water change? Even if you had added water conditioner to the water, replacing 90% of the water at one time will be a shock to the fish's system. If your water has chlorine, without treatment, the fish's gills would be harmed. If you water has chloramine, that would be even worse as the water contains both chlorine and ammonia, enough to kill the fish if your water is alkaline.

In the future, I would suggest you limit your water changes to 50% max. I prefer doing 10-15% water changes, but some would say that is not enough. Always add water conditioner to your water 10-15 minutes before adding it to your tank so it will have an opportunity to react with the water before the water change.

If your water contains chloramine (check with your water supplier), I would suggest limiting your water changes to 20%. Water conditioner will break the chloramine bond to release chlorine and ammonia and then neutralize the chlorine, it does not eliminate ammonia. Seachem claims that Prime will detoxify the ammonia until your beneficial microbes can convert it to nitrite and nitrate, but a 90% water change is still da big change in the composition of your water.

 

[Sewerrat]

Shouldn't have crashed the cycle but can sometimes lead to a mini cycle would test water every couple days and change as needed. Also sounds like you have high levels of chloramine or chlorine in your tap for it to affect a fish that quickly. Sounds like your doing everything you should be.

 

[bgarthe]

I agree w RayClem, but might add that you store your future WC water for days before the actual WC. It could then be degased, temperature matched, and tested for parameters prior to putting into tank. My WC percentage is usually around 30-35%. 90% WCs, imho, is too much for the fish to deal with. 10g tanks require careful water management as smaller tank water parameters are less stable.

 

[Marineboy22]

Hi and thanks for the replies,

Why did you do a 90% water change?

Very large water changes have been advocated to me since the beginning of my fish keeping journey by my LFS to keep nitrates and phosphates in check. Since cichlids are apparently so sensitive to nitrates.

I’ve been doing 90% every 2 weeks on this tank for almost 2 years now conditioning with prime without any problems.. until I forgot the prime. The tank is extremely overfiltered, i’ve got an aquaclear 75HOB with tons of biomedia which denitrifies very fast

If your water contains chloramine (check with your water supplier), I would suggest limiting your water changes to 20%.

My water contains a heavy concentration of chloramines. It will test 8+ppm of ammonia straight out of the tap. But when conditioned with prime i’ve never had an issue. This was from me forgetting the prime.

Shouldn't have crashed the cycle but can sometimes lead to a mini cycle would test water every couple days and change as needed.

I planned to do this and will stick to it. The last thing I would want to do is put him back in a tank that’s still reading ammonia.

Thank you guys for the words. And I will adhere to smaller water changes in the future. If I had made this mistake on a 25% water change then my fishes situation may not have been so dire.

Im really hoping that he can recover from the burns. Are there any other recommended products for treating his wounds other than melafix? Just wondering.

And would it be okay to move him back into his main tank before he’s healed? Or should I keep him in hospital for the full duration of his healing? If he heals that is..

 

[BeachCruiser]

In 40yrs of keeping cichlids, I've never seen them be overly sensitive to nitrates at a reasonable level (under 40ppm). Unless you have basic water problems or overfeed regularly, keeping under that with a 50% water change shouldn't be a problem. I've tap water with 5ppm nitrate & 1.5ppm phosphate and never get above 25/2 by the end of the week even with additional ferts...

Hope your guy recovers

 

[Fishfur]

There isn’t an antidote for chlorine so removal to chlorine free water asap is the only logical first step and you did that.

A little salt in his water will make osmoregulation a bit easier - roughly a tablespoon of salt to 5 gallons is ok or a little less than a teaspoon per gallon and there’s no problem using that with Melafix. Melafix is mildly antibacterial and though far from my favourite med, since you have it, keep using it.

Then it’s a matter of time to heal the wounds. Keep a close eye on the fish because fungal infection may set in and if so, a better anti fungal may be needed.

I favour using Methylene blue because it is such an effective anti fungal and also an excellent disinfectant & antibacterial but let’s hope no fungus shows up.

You did everything right for this emergency & I sincerely hope the fish recovers.

 

[Marineboy22]

Thank you for the reply fishfur, I will be going to the petstore this evening to get some aquarium salt as well as a small heater for the hospital tank. I guess it’s because theres no lid but the water was at 69 when I woke up this morning and 71 right now. Which I don’t like at all.

I tested the main tank and its still reading about 2ppm of ammonia. Would it be a good idea to water change? Or ride it out a little longer? I dosed the water with a little more prime in hopes that it would help the filter convert the ammonia. Clearly he’s not going back in his main tank anytime soon.

Good news though! He was swimming around when I got home and hanging out around mid water column. No longer sitting on bottom! His one cloudy eye even looks a bit better and he reacted to me walking up to the tank so he can’t be completely blind!

 

[Fishfur]

This is in the 10G that didn’t get Prime on time?
Given that the fish has chemical burns, it’s logical to assume that many, possibly most of the nitrifiers are deceased.

The thing about chlorine poisoning in water is that it does not happen instantaneously at the levels found in tap water.

It takes a little time. A few minutes exposure to the levels typically found in tap water does virtually no harm and nothing noticeable is likely to happen.

You can actually rinse filter media under tap water and the nitrifiers will be ok. They aren’t exposed long enough to cause problems.

Chlorine damage such as the poor fish has is due to acid burn, because chlorine in water is oxidized it forms hypochlorous acid.

The acid penetrates into the cells it comes in contact with & reacts with the interior cytoplasmic proteins, destroying their structures.

How severe the burns are depends on the amount of chlorine that’s present plus the exposure time.

So I would not be surprised if your nitrifiers are either all dead or mostly dead.

Since you have another cycled tank, you could seriously kick start cycle recovery in the 10G by rinsing the filter media from the other tank in a minimal amount of water and pouring all the dirty rinse water into the filter on the 10G.

Rinse the big tank’s media quite vigorously and harshly because you want to knock off a good lot of the superficial nitrifiers. It won’t harm the cycle in the big tank but should reestablish a cycle in the 10G in just a couple of days.

The bacteria in a bottle won’t hurt anything, might help, but the filter rinsings will work better to reestablish the cycle. So I’d leave the ammonia as it is and get some filter rinsings in there asap.

 

[FishyChaos]

This is in the 10G that didn’t get Prime on time?
Given that the fish has chemical burns, it’s logical to assume that many, possibly most of the nitrifiers are deceased.

The thing about chlorine poisoning in water is that it does not happen instantaneously at the levels found in tap water.

It takes a little time. A few minutes exposure to the levels typically found in tap water does virtually no harm and nothing noticeable is likely to happen.

You can actually rinse filter media under tap water and the nitrifiers will be ok. They aren’t exposed long enough to cause problems.

Chlorine damage such as the poor fish has is due to acid burn, because when it is oxidized it forms hypochlorous acid.

Acid penetrates into cells & reacts with cytoplasmic proteins, destroying cell structures.

How severe the burns are depends on the amount of chlorine that’s present plus exposure time.

So I would not be surprised if your nitrifiers are either all dead or mostly. So it may take some time for the tank to be fully cycled again.

Since you have another cycled tank, you could seriously kick start recovery in the 10G by rinsing the filter media from the other tank in a minimal amount of water and pouring the dirty rinse water into the filter on the 10G.

Rinse the big tank’s media quite vigorously and harshly because you want to knock off a good lot of the superficial nitrifiers. It won’t harm the cycle in the big tank but should reestablish a cycle in the 10G in just a couple of days.

Wait... have I been lied to? Filter media won't die if it's rinsed under tap water?

 

[Fishfur]

Wait... have I been lied to? Filter media won't die if it's rinsed under tap water?

Not if it’s a brief rinse - a few minutes won’t do any harm to speak of in municipally treated water. The level of chlorine is regulated throughout North America to, IIRC, no more than 4ppm and is often half that. Plus, before it harms it has to oxidize.

So yeah, you can rinse media under cool tap water, no problem. Been doing it for years myself.

 

[Marineboy22]

So, i’ve actually heard all the cries of not washing media in tap water and have completely ignored them and have been doing it for 3 years no problem. If tap water kills bacteria then why doesn’t it clean our toilets? Why dont we just use tap water to clean the counter? Lol. Its common sense.

When i first set up the 10g i actually quick cycled it using the same exact method you just described. Along with robbing filter media out of the fx6 to supplement the HOB. I guess i’ll just have to do that again if it’s still showing ammonia tomorrow.

I just dosed with the aquarium salt and added a heater to the hospital tank. I didn’t realize that you should dissolve the salt first so now i have a pile of salt on the floor. But its dissolving slowly. Now I know for next time lol.

 

[Fishfur]

So, i’ve actually heard all the cries of not washing media in tap water and have completely ignored them and have been doing it for 3 years no problem. If tap water kills bacteria then why doesn’t it clean our toilets? Why dont we just use tap water to clean the counter? Lol. Its common sense.

When i first set up the 10g i actually quick cycled it using the same exact method you just described. Along with robbing filter media out of the fx6 to supplement the HOB. I guess i’ll just have to do that again if it’s still showing ammonia tomorrow.

I just dosed with the aquarium salt and added a heater to the hospital tank. I didn’t realize that you should dissolve the salt first so now i have a pile of salt on the floor. But its dissolving slowly. Now I know for next time lol.

Just fyi, there is a slight flaw in your thinking about water, chlorine & cleaning and so on.

When it gets to the tap, water doesn’t contain the full dose of chlorine or chloramine anymore. Some gets oxidized along the way, some outgasses and is lost. But the dose is never higher than 4ppm because we drink it.

If you check instructions for using chlorine as a disinfectant or sanitizer, it will describe something like the following.

First, clean the surface thoroughly with detergent or a degreaser because chlorine won’t get through greasy or oily dirt or heavy soiling.

Then it’ll say you need to keep that cleaned surface wet with a solution of water and chlorine bleach for at least ten minutes to kill bacteria.

Lastly, the recommended dose for effective surface disinfection is between 600 - 800 ppm, For sanitizing, it is less, 50 to 200 parts per ppm.

Compare those to a mere 4ppm and you see why tap water isn’t going to disinfect the kitchen or bathroom

The reason why many larger cities use chloramine is because it is a bit less volatile than chlorine so it will last longer in very long pipe runs, even though it isn’t quite as good a disinfectant as chlorine is.

It is the concentration of chlorine and the duration of exposure that dictates how much damage may be done or bacteria killed and that’s the reason why it’s possible to get away with rinsing filter media under tap water.

Aquatic life like fish & shrimp are a lot more sensitive to chlorine than bacteria are.

 

[RayClem]

Typically, water companies using chlorine add 3 ppm chlorine and 1 ppm ammonia. If your water tests 8 ppm ammonia right out of the tap, either your are testing wrong or the water company is overdosing by several times. Water with 8 ppm ammonia is going to taste pretty bad if you drink it. Call your water company and complain.

While 3-4 ppm of chlorine is not sufficient to kill a fish quickly, 8 ppm of ammonia would do serious damage in a hurry.

Rather than doing a 90% water change every two weeks, I would suggest doing a 50% water change each week, if you think that is necessary. Your LFS is the first source to recommend a 90% water change I have ever heard. Although I do not currently have cichlids, I have kept them in the past and have never considered them to be more sensitive to nitrates than most other fish.

 

[TClare]

Although I do not currently have cichlids, I have kept them in the past and have never considered them to be more sensitive to nitrates than most other fish.

It is true that some cichlids, particularly soft water species, are sensitive to nitrates and are definitely more vulnerable to conditions such as hole in the head when nitrates are high. Having said that I keep some of these cichlids and rarely do more than 40-50% water changes per week (never 90% even when moving fish to a new tank) and I still manage keep nitrates below 5.

In this case perhaps 90% is necessary as a 10 gallon tank is far too small for a jewel cichlid. I hope the fish recovers, its a good sign that he did take some food, so maybe you got him out in time. If he does, I recommend getting him in a more suitably sized tank.