Upgraded our tank and all of our fish died :(

We upgraded from a five gallon tank to a 9 gallon Fluval Flex. I treated tap water and ran the new tank for about 24 hours. Next we transferred all of our old gravel, all of our fake plants, and the filter from the old tank. I bought a temporary filter to clip on the side of the tank with the old filter cartridge because the new tank uses a totally different filter. Anyways, the tank has three compartments in the back and in the empty compartment I put the sponge from the old tank. I was trying to transfer as much bacteria as possible. I checked the water several times and all of the parameters were the same, except the nitrates in the new tank were lower. We moved over four, glofish tetras and one immediately acted funny and went to the bottom. I got him swimming around and thought it was a fluke but then he eventually died. Then, within a few more hours, two more died. Then we had one left. It acted like it was doing okay. I decided to remove the extra sponge and the extra filter system which I had initially added for bacteria. After removing these two items, the fish seemed really happy. It was swimming around, acting normal and doing great. Then it died! I am wondering what I did wrong and what to do moving forward. I wondered if I somehow messed up the intake and outtake flow of the tank by adding the sponge in the empty compartment. The only thing that I have noticed is that the tank is slightly cloudy. Can anyone shed light on what could have happened? I feel terrible and now I'm scared to get new fish. I forgot to mention that I bought a new heater for the new tank. So both tanks were properly heated when we moved the fish over.

 

We upgraded from a five gallon tank to a 9 gallon Fluval Flex. I treated tap water and ran the new tank for about 24 hours. Next we transferred all of our old gravel, all of our fake plants, and the filter from the old tank. I bought a temporary filter to clip on the side of the tank with the old filter cartridge because the new tank uses a totally different filter. Anyways, the tank has three compartments in the back and in the empty compartment I put the sponge from the old tank. I was trying to transfer as much bacteria as possible. I checked the water several times and all of the parameters were the same, except the nitrates in the new tank were lower. We moved over four, glofish tetras and one immediately acted funny and went to the bottom. I got him swimming around and thought it was a fluke but then he eventually died. Then, within a few more hours, two more died. Then we had one left. It acted like it was doing okay. I decided to remove the extra sponge and the extra filter system which I had initially added for bacteria. After removing these two items, the fish seemed really happy. It was swimming around, acting normal and doing great. Then it died! I am wondering what I did wrong and what to do moving forward. I wondered if I somehow messed up the intake and outtake flow of the tank by adding the sponge in the empty compartment. The only thing that I have noticed is that the tank is slightly cloudy. Can anyone shed light on what could have happened? I feel terrible and now I'm scared to get new fish. I forgot to mention that I bought a new heater for the new tank. So both tanks were properly heated when we moved the fish over.

were they breathing harder? what else did you notice them doing before they died?

 

were they breathing harder? what else did you notice them doing before they died?

After the first one died, I noticed the other three at the top. So I moved the water aerator (not sure what it's called). I adjusted it so that it was shooting up above the surface and then they acted fine again and weren't at the top. My daughter also had a little bubbler going. Not re if that matters.

 

After the first one died, I noticed the other three at the top. So I moved the water aerator (not sure what it's called). I adjusted it so that it was shooting up above the surface and then they acted fine again and weren't at the top. My daughter also had a little bubbler going. Not re if that matters.

good to hear that you had a couple air sources including the airstone/bubbler. were the fish new? if you got them recently and didn't quarantine, they could have been sick, and not able to handle the stress of the move. glofish also tend to be slightly weaker than their normal non glow counterparts.

sorry this happened, did you daughter like these fish?

 

good to hear that you had a couple air sources including the airstone/bubbler. were the fish new? if you got them recently and didn't quarantine, they could have been sick, and not able to handle the stress of the move. glofish also tend to be slightly weaker than their normal non glow counterparts.

sorry this happened, did you daughter like these fish?

They weren't new. Just switching them to the new tank and this happened. Also, her snail is acting strange. My daughter did really like the fish and was sad that they died. We plan to get more to replace them. We thought we were doing something nice for them because they had outgrown the original tank and I guess I accidentally killed them. So sad! I guess my biggest concern now is when we can get new fish. I really don't want to start over and kill more fish. I plan to keep the new tank running until we get new fish. I just want to figure out what's wrong with the tank or water to prevent this happening again.

 

It has to have been some kind of contamination in the new equipment. you might want to demand your money back, possibly from the manufacturer. I don't think I would use any of the items again. Something could have spilled on something in the factory, not knowing what it could be, no amount of rinsing would satisfy me.

I suggest you get a 20 gallon long, and a school of no less than 6 tetra. This is an ideal situation for them, but I'm not suggesting that keeping them in a different situation caused the sudden deaths. That is not likely.

 

It has to have been some kind of contamination in the new equipment. you might want to demand your money back, possibly from the manufacturer. I don't think I would use any of the items again. Something could have spilled on something in the factory, not knowing what it could be, no amount of rinsing would satisfy me.

I suggest you get a 20 gallon long, and a school of no less than 6 tetra. This is an ideal situation for them, but I'm not suggesting that keeping them in a different situation caused the sudden deaths. That is not likely.

Oh how terrible! I hadn't even thought of that. That makes sense though, I did a lot of research before moving tanks and I thought I did everything in a way that would be successful.

Oh how terrible! I hadn't even thought of that. That makes sense though, I did a lot of research before moving tanks and I thought I did everything in a way that would be successful.

It has to have been some kind of contamination in the new equipment. you might want to demand your money back, possibly from the manufacturer. I don't think I would use any of the items again. Something could have spilled on something in the factory, not knowing what it could be, no amount of rinsing would satisfy me.

I suggest you get a 20 gallon long, and a school of no less than 6 tetra. This is an ideal situation for them, but I'm not suggesting that keeping them in a different situation caused the sudden deaths. That is not likely.

As of this morning, the rabbit snail is alive and going around doing its normal thing... Can it still be contamination if the snail survived?

 

Hi, welcome to fishlore. I'm sorry to hear about the sucky situation especially when there is a child involved =(

Curious if you remembered/checked what the temperature of the tank is or what the heater is set to?
This is something I completely forgot to do at the beginning of my hobby when I moved a tank and transferred my Tiger Barbs into cold water from room temperature water. This is the only time I've noticed temperature shock, they looked almost stunned as they went into there new tank.

 

Did you move the water from the smaller tank to the bigger one or start with all new water? If you didn't move the water and didn't acclimate the fish to the fresh water the different parameters may have caused this. I always recommend using at least half old tank water and the rest fresh dechorinated water when upgrading. There is little to no bacteria in the water but it is the water the fish are used to. By doing this the fish will just feel like they have had a 50% water change.

This is the only thing I can think of that might have caused this. How often were you doing water changes and how much were you changing each time on the smaller tank? the more often you were doing them and the more you changed each time would have kept the parameters in the tank close to the parameters of the tap water. If small water changes were done and not done often the fresh water would have been too different and without acclimation the fish would not have fared well.

If it was an acclamation issue that caused this you should be able to add new fish after acclimating them without a problem. Hopefully this is the case and not contamination in the tank that caused what happened.

 

If the buffers (KH) in your old tank were used up, the water may have very different parameters to fresh tap water. Changing fish between these two conditions can cause instant death.

I doubt it's equipment related...

 

Oh how terrible! I hadn't even thought of that. That makes sense though, I did a lot of research before moving tanks and I thought I did everything in a way that would be successful.


As of this morning, the rabbit snail is alive and going around doing its normal thing... Can it still be contamination if the snail survived?

Snails and fish are very different species. I can not say for sure that the tank was contaminated. But i can say that tetras need a 20 gallon tank and a larger school to thrive, so why not just get a larger tank, and toss or return or complain to the manufacturer about the other one. And I sincerly hope hope this will never happen again because it really sucks! I lost an entire tank to Anchor worms once.

 

Did you move the water from the smaller tank to the bigger one or start with all new water? If you didn't move the water and didn't acclimate the fish to the fresh water the different parameters may have caused this. I always recommend using at least half old tank water and the rest fresh dechorinated water when upgrading. There is little to no bacteria in the water but it is the water the fish are used to. By doing this the fish will just feel like they have had a 50% water change.

This is the only thing I can think of that might have caused this. How often were you doing water changes and how much were you changing each time on the smaller tank? the more often you were doing them and the more you changed each time would have kept the parameters in the tank close to the parameters of the tap water. If small water changes were done and not done often the fresh water would have been too different and without acclimation the fish would not have fared well.

If it was an acclamation issue that caused this you should be able to add new fish after acclimating them without a problem. Hopefully this is the case and not contamination in the tank that caused what happened.

This is all good advice.

. . . I doubt it's equipment related...

I agree. It's of course possible that it's related to the new equipment, but I very much doubt it.

There's one thing I don't think anyone else asked. Presuming you're on a municipal water system, did you remember to add dechlorinator to the water in the new tank?

 

It has to have been some kind of contamination in the new equipment. you might want to demand your money back, possibly from the manufacturer. I don't think I would use any of the items again. Something could have spilled on something in the factory, not knowing what it could be, no amount of rinsing would satisfy me.

I suggest you get a 20 gallon long, and a school of no less than 6 tetra. This is an ideal situation for them, but I'm not suggesting that keeping them in a different situation caused the sudden deaths. That is not likely.

Thank you for your feedback. I hadn't thought of that. We are pretty new to this hobby. The rabbit snail is still happy and the cloudiness in the tank has cleared up.

Snails and fish are very different species. I can not say for sure that the tank was contaminated. But i can say that tetras need a 20 gallon tank and a larger school to thrive, so why not just get a larger tank, and toss or return or complain to the manufacturer about the other one. And I sincerly hope hope this will never happen again because it really sucks! I lost an entire tank to Anchor worms once.

Thank you for your feedback. It does suck! So much research and planning and work and then everything failed.

This is all good advice.



I agree. It's of course possible that it's related to the new equipment, but I very much doubt it.

There's one thing I don't think anyone else asked. Presuming you're on a municipal water system, did you remember to add dechlorinator to the water in the new tank?

Yes! I added the water treatment to dechlorinate. We are on a municipal water system. I appreciate the feedback. I wish I knew what went wrong.

It has to have been some kind of contamination in the new equipment. you might want to demand your money back, possibly from the manufacturer. I don't think I would use any of the items again. Something could have spilled on something in the factory, not knowing what it could be, no amount of rinsing would satisfy me.

I suggest you get a 20 gallon long, and a school of no less than 6 tetra. This is an ideal situation for them, but I'm not suggesting that keeping them in a different situation caused the sudden deaths. That is not likely.

Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate all ideas because I want to know what could have gone wrong.

This is all good advice.


I agree. It's of course possible that it's related to the new equipment, but I very much doubt it.

There's one thing I don't think anyone else asked. Presuming you're on a municipal water system, did you remember to add dechlorinator to the water in the new tank?

Thank you for your feedback. I hadn't thought of that. We are pretty new to this hobby. The rabbit snail is still happy and the cloudiness in the tank has cleared up.

Thank you for your feedback. It does suck! So much research and planning and work and then everything failed.

Yes! I added the water treatment to dechlorinate. We are on a municipal water system. I appreciate the feedback. I wish I knew what went wrong.

Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate all ideas because I want to know what could have gone wrong.

This is all good advice.



I agree. It's of course possible that it's related to the new equipment, but I very much doubt it.

There's one thing I don't think anyone else asked. Presuming you're on a municipal water system, did you remember to add dechlorinator to the water in the new tank?

We used all new water in the new tank. We were trying to do a water change once a week in the old tank but we usually went 2-3 weeks. So maybe it was the all new water that they didn't do well with? Poor fish!!!

Hi, welcome to fishlore. I'm sorry to hear about the sucky situation especially when there is a child involved =(

Curious if you remembered/checked what the temperature of the tank is or what the heater is set to?
This is something I completely forgot to do at the beginning of my hobby when I moved a tank and transferred my Tiger Barbs into cold water from room temperature water. This is the only time I've noticed temperature shock, they looked almost stunned as they went into there new tank.

Thank you so much for responding, I appreciate it! I actually bought a second heater and heated the new fish tank before transferring them. I didn't want to take the heater in their tank out because I wasn't sure what would happen if I did.

If the buffers (KH) in your old tank were used up, the water may have very different parameters to fresh tap water. Changing fish between these two conditions can cause instant death.

I doubt it's equipment related...

I'm new. What do you mean by buffers being used up?

 

I know this is a bit late, but was the water the same temperature as the old tank? I saw a video where a biologist talked about how water temperature affects fish. A little colder, and they are pretty much fine (because they have to deal with rain and flooding in the wild), but even 5 or so degrees WARMER can kill them off in hours. I'm not saying that is what happened, but it sounds like the same type of situation.