Nitrite spike 7 fish lost. Help please

[bored411]

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 55 gallons
How long has the tank been running? 3 years
Does it have a filter? Yes. Fluval 307
Does it have a heater? Yes. 2 adjustable heaters
What is the water temperature? 78F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
2 red skirt tetra, 3 otos, 1 bristle nose, 3 balloon belly rams, 6 (now 4) Australian rainbowfish, 3 (now 0) turquoise rainbowfish, 6 (now 3) boesemani rainbowfish, 5 Venezuelan cories, 2 green cories

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 1x a month, usually just top up when low, change when I can
How much of the water do you change? 1/4
What do you use to treat your water? Prime and Stability
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Vacuum the surface of substrate

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes
What do you use to test the water? API master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 2ppm, 0.5 after 50% water change
Nitrate: 10
pH: 7.8

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Every other day
How much do you feed your fish? Pinch of flakes, 2 algae wafers, 10 sinking pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega One and Hikari wafers
Do you feed frozen? Yes, brine shrimp 1x a week instead of usual food
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Most 3 years. 3 Australians are from a month ago. 2 ballon belly rams from last week.
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Yesterday
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Gasping at surface, dead fish
Have you started any treatment for the illness? 50% water changes, 5x Prime
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? All fish were gasping at surface

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
I had a nitrite spike overnight last night. I fed the fish and they were fine. Next day, 6 of my rainbowfish were dead. Nitrite was at 2-5ppm. I did a 50% water change, tried to think what I did the last couple days (broke my small bucket and used a clean Tupperware container instead to top up water, cleaned out the circulation pump), then noticed my filter was not pumping out water. It was a trickle. Cleaned out filter, media was covered in muck so I replaced the sponges with new ones after soaking them in the tank water for a while. Dosed 5x the amount of prime and added stability. Checked the nitrite and it was down to 0.5ppm.

This morning they were gasping at the surface again and one more rainbowfish had passed. Nitrite was right back up to 2ppm. Did another 50% water change, made sure to get in the very back and check dead spots for any missing fish, but nothing. Cleaned out the inlet for the filter and used a wire brush up the inlet and outlet to ensure nothing was clogged. 5x prime again and added stability. Nitrite back down to 0.5ppm.

I admit this is most likely my fault. I’ve neglected to clean the filter in a while as my mental health isn’t great and doing water changes on a 55 with just buckets is literally backbreaking. I’ve got no way to use a python as the only water source I could attach it to has high ph and other parameters. I also tend to over feed as there’s a lot of fish in there and the rainbows will eat everything before the others get a chance so that may also be a contributing factor. I plan to lower the amount I feed them now to account for that.

I’m doing what I can but the nitrite goes back up to 2 ppm overnight. I’ve added more floating plants and will add aquarium salt as well today. Is there ANYTHING else I can do? I don’t want to lose anymore fish though I can already see my last big Australian struggling.

 

[fishywoo]

Changing the water with extra prime was very good first start. I would continue to do daily water changes until your cycle catches up and clean the filters in aquarium water ASAP.

I'm so sorry you're struggling. Just try your best. If daily water changes aren't doable then maybe every other day? Or at least twice a week?

Going forward it's best to do water changes at least once a week and 25% or more depending on how much your nitrates build a week. Topping off isn't helpful because it doesn't remove the nitrates.

Perhaps you can use a python to at least empty the tank if you can't use it to fill. That will make at least half the work easier.

I'm not sure what else can be done to help you with your fish. I'm sure others here will be able to help more than I. This is just the best advice and ideas I can offer.

 

[FishDin]

Sorry your tank is causing you grief. For the future, there is no need to replace sponges, simply clean them and reuse (no matter how dirty they are). The fluval sponges are quite durable. I have never replaced a sponge in any canister filter, even after a decade or more of use.

Note: If a sponge is actually starting to fall apart, then yes, it's time to replace it. Also the problem your having was not caused because you didn't keep up on maintenance, it was caused by discarding those sponges along with the established population of bacteria. Just keep up with daily water changes to keep those nitrites no higher than .5 until your new sponges can be repopulated.

I like fishywoos idea of using a python to at least remove water. Also, smaller more frequent changes might make them less arduous. Maybe use smaller buckets??

Hang in there. Don't beat yourself up. I like your tank and I'm sure it brings you pletny of satisfaction.

 

[bored411]

I checked the levels just now and there are no dead fish today! Nitrite was at 0.25ppm.

And normally I wouldn’t have changed the sponges because I know that can be a huge problem HOWEVER they were so mucky I couldn’t clean them and some were falling apart. And I’m not talking about little bit of muck, I mean LAYERS of slime and even after getting that off they still make the water black completely. They’ve not been changed for the three years I had them. I usually just squeeze them out in tank water once a month but I’ve neglected that for a while. With the nitrite as high as it was I didn’t want to take the chance of the sponges being the problem. I soaked the new sponges before adding them and there’s enough surface area and plants in the tank I felt comfortable swapping them with new ones without crashing my cycle. I don’t think they’re the problem because the nitrite was high even after I let the old ones float in the tank after putting in new sponges.

I was also using a smaller 3 gallon bucket but broke it moving rocks out of a smaller tank (oops) so all I have is 5 gallon buckets. Place that sold the smaller one doesn’t anymore so I’ve got to find a new one. Was doing about 1/4 with those buckets 1x every 2-3 weeks before tank maintenance became difficult for me to do.

All in all, I’m glad to be seeing progress. I’ll do another water change today, add the normal dose of prime since it’s only 0.25ppm. And see how it goes from there. I feel like between the clogged, nasty filter and the debris caught in the dead zones of my tank, my older rainbow dying may have just been the tipping point that set off a nitrite spike. I’ll definitely pay better attention and do more regular maintenance and testing from now on. This was definitely a wake up call

 

[_Fried_Bettas_]

I think everyone has addressed your issue. I just wanted to say you are not alone in struggling with mental health. I have a mental health disability, and I have had many a tank crash because of a period of neglect. What helps me, other than not having two dozen tanks, is having my routine written down, or better yet, having it programmed as reminders on my phone, and doing the minimum, no matter what else is going on. Looking at your tank, I am surprised that it blew up in the way it did because you have plenty of plants. Usually, they will utilize any excess ammonia or nitrate (as well as have enough beneficial bacteria on them) to prevent what happened to you, even if you remove the filter media. The way planted tanks usually crash due to neglect is through runaway algae blooms, which generally don't affect the fish.

 

[bored411]

I think everyone has addressed your issue. I just wanted to say you are not alone in struggling with mental health. I have a mental health disability, and I have had many a tank crash because of a period of neglect. What helps me, other than not having two dozen tanks, is having my routine written down, or better yet, having it programmed as reminders on my phone, and doing the minimum, no matter what else is going on. Looking at your tank, I am surprised that it blew up in the way it did because you have plenty of plants. Usually, they will utilize any excess ammonia or nitrate (as well as have enough beneficial bacteria on them) to prevent what happened to you, even if you remove the filter media. The way planted tanks usually crash due to neglect is through runaway algae blooms, which generally don't affect the fish.

Yeah I was asking a few other fish keeping friends and once they saw the tank they were questioning how it happened too. It has a LOT of java ferns and my Val is always needing to be trimmed back. So I’ve not had any crashes or anything since it was fully cycled years ago. The worst I’ve had is high nitrates (~40ppm) but I get that problem with most of my tanks and it never went higher than that (never went lower either even with water changes so I didn’t push myself to try and lower it other than adding more plants).

I do have a LOT of tanks as well (11… whoops) but I only have two “big” ones. This 55 community and a 22 betta sorority with a canister filter. All the others are 10 gallons or less with minimum bioloads (bettas usually though the 10 gallons have betta and small schoolers). They’re a lot easier to deal with. The 55 and 22 I admit to neglecting more but mostly because it takes a lot of time and effort to do water changes on them. My mental health really screwed that up for me, but I try and now I know what I need to do better. I appreciate your guys help! Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything that could help more, or be a cause for the spike.