Will adding plants with water change kill my fish!

So after having my tank up and running since about April and everything doing fine I had my first death last week.
I change my water on a weekly basis as my nitrates tend to get a little high this is mostly because they are elevated coming from my tap that's another subject. Mu ammonia & nitrite are 00ppm.
So after not having any issues Added a few Amazon swords and did my normal water change that night I found one of my fish dead!I chalked it up as just a freak death as all seemed fine and other than elevated nitrate when I say elevated I mean 40-50ppm nothing changed other than adding plants.I vacuumed the top of my sand as normal stabilized the water temps of the new water and added prime so I chalked it up as a freak thing.
this past weekend I decided to add some more plants this time I added a small Madagascar lace,crypt & nice sized rotalla it was suggested that being my canister has never been cleaned I do that to lower my nitrates a touch so after adding plants this weekend rather than doing a full blown water change I cleaned my filter in some water from my tank.I did add a bag of chemI pure to try and lower my nitrates a little bit but nothing else.so after putting my filter back together I started it back up and as canisters usually do it shot out a bunch of when I stated it back up.it actually turned the rank cloudy for a little while.
By the time I went to bed last night I lost an additional two fish.I am hoping someone may gave an idea of what I may have done wrong as I want to add more plants but I cannot have fish die every time I do so luckily no more fish have died overnight so I think I may be through the woods.any ideas on what could have caused this?did I do something wrong?I want to replace the 3 fish I lost as it brings my Black ruby count down to 6 but Iam afraid of adding fish and having them die. Other than elevevated nitrate levels other parameters all seem fine.I even thought by adding chemI pure it may have thrown my ph out of whack but that was not the case so now I am a bit confused all seemed to be doing well till I stated adding plants!

Hoping someone could shed some light on this thanks.

ps don't know if it matters but my substrate is sand!

 

Sorry if this post is hard to read it came out as one big paragraph After realizing I wrote it as such I went to seep rate it into paragraphs to make it easier to read but I hit the wrong button and I was not able to edit it into paragraphs!

 

How deep is your sand?

If you have over 3 inches of sand, you could have gas pockets, and when you added the new plants, the pockets could of been released causing fish death and nitrate spikes. I've read it happening in 2 inches if sand as well, but this is a rare occurrence.

My recommendation is, when you want to add a new plant, get your vacuum out and a chop stick. In the place you want to put the plant, use the chop stick to aerate the sand and have the vacuum going above the sand where your working at. It will catch most of the junk coming from the spot and reduce the amount going through out the tank. It's better to be done with 2 people, but one person can do it as well.

 

My sand is not too deep and I don't believe it to be air pockets as whenever I do water changes which is on A weekly basis I am churning up the sand to a degree as before I decided to go with live plants I have/have about 7-8 plastic ones where I am constantly pulling out and re-arranging so I can get up the poop that settles around their base and behind them,

Its just strange that all was good till I added my first batch of plants last week then I had A fish die that night I chalked it up as A freak thing because there were no other caualties and everything/everyone seemed to be doing fine,

then yesterday after adding some more plants and cleaning my canister I lost 3 more.I don't know if cleaning the canister caused the deaths or if it was adding the plants,like I said I did add chemi-pure to the filter I don't think that would have made A difference A bunch of stuff came out of the canister outtake when I started it back up the usual stuff that comes out when you clean and start your canister back up.it did cloud my tank for A bit but its back to being clear this morning.

Everything was washed in existing tank water it was not washed in untreated tap water so its got me scratching my head that I did nothing different other than adding plants and cleaning my canister,even so I had one fish die last week after adding the amazon swords and this was before cleaning my canister!

 

Was the plants in a tank with fish or in a separate tank with just plants?

 

the amazon swords from last week were in with fish,the rotalla from this week was with fish,the crypt and madagascar lace were by themselves!

 

I'm with you on this one I am thinking something could have been transported into my tank with the plants!if that's what you are getting at!

 

That's exactly where I was going. Something could of been transported in via the plants. Are you noticing like grey lips on the fish that died or on any of the other fish? Is there any white spots on any of the fish? Any signs of fungus?

When getting a new plant from a store that has them in the tanks with fish, a light bleach dip would be good to kill any problems that might come in with them. Maybe 1 tsp of bleach to 5 gallons of water....Quick swish, rinse in prime water, and plant. Won't help with snails though.

 

I am not too good in diagnosing fish disease I was just kind of ed my fish kept dying if I have any more casualties which I cross my fingers I don't I will have to take A good look at my fish and try and diagnose what it could be.

 

White specks is ich. Looks like white little bubbles on the fish.

White cottony patches is normally a sigh of fungus. Looks like a small cotton ball attached to the fish.

White slimmy patches on fish is normally bacterial, but not always. Can be very confusing and be read as fungal instead of bacteria, because enough growth can look like fungus.

Grey lips or grey lip lines that the fish normally does not have is a sign of Columnaris which can turn into mouth rot or fin rot and moves pretty fast in the tank from fish to fish. It's also a natural bacteria in the water, but goes crazy on the fish if the fish become to stressed or sick.

Hope this helps.

 

yes it does I have had ich already and knocked that out A few months back will have to keep an eye on the rest of them to make sure nothing changes.thanks for the info and tips!

 

Just got back home and my remaining fish are now back to full color and back to their active selves I am tempted to replace the 3 fish I just lost.IYO should I wait a few days before replacing them. It's a real head scratcher being washed out,pale and very sluggish last night its almost a complete transformation from about 12 hours ago very puzzling!

 

I would wait a few days to make sure the fish are sound. What ever it was sound like the fish fought back, but it could still be in the water waiting for a host with a weakened system from stress....And buying new fish is stressful on the fish. In a few days the bacteria should be almost dormant and a new fish shouldn't have an issue.....I hope.

 

Advice taken I would not be able to get back till my lfs till next weekend anyway if I did not go today so that would give it a good week to make sure my current fish are doing ok it's a sigh of relief to see my fish back to full color and actively swimming around less than twenty four hours ago I thought I was going to lose if not all most of my fish just by how they looked and how they were acting.its good to see them back to their old selves.thanks again for your advice and opinions it's much appreciated!

 

Your very welcomed. Glad I could help. Keep us updated when you add new fish.

 

So after getting input from some others on another forum someone suggested that the cause of my deaths may not have been the plants at all with my first fish being coincidence that it just happened to die after adding plants.

their theories were by opening the canister and cleaning it when I started it back up all the toxins went into the tank poisoning the weakest rather quickly first and foremost the two new additions who would have been the most stressed and the third took a little longer because it was probably weak to begin with and once all the toxins got flushed into the tank the weaker fish died.they were all effected that's why they were all flush and pale.

it was also suggested although plants can transport disease the quick turn around
in my remaining fishes behavior suggests that the filter cleaned up all the toxins that were in the water along with the bacteria that's why the fish had such a quick turnaround.

a lot of what was told to me makes a lot of sense and I'm hoping this was the. Case.

next time I need to open my canister I am going to make sure once I prime it and turn it back on I am going to run the outtake into a hose with a bucket till all the toxins are flushed through

just wanted to post an update also to educate those that made the mistake of restarting their canister and having the toxins flushed back into your tank which may be the case with me.I am still going to take caution when adding fish or plants but this theory sounds sound and makes me feel better that it was possibly an error on my part not a disease introduced into my tank.