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View Full Version : HELP!!!!! Seemingly Gone In An Instant!



samcatj
06-13-2005, 06:39 PM
Today I did a wc exactly as I have done before using the same water source and changing 90% of a 120g tank. When I started adding my new water and had about 25% of the tank filled I noticed my cardinals tetras all either dead or about to die.

I then noticed most of my 14 discus lying flat on the bottom of the tank some very close to being dead in a very larthargic stage. I moved the worsed ones out to another tank of water that had been aerating about 36 hours. The 7 that I moved to the new tank all seemed to be dead or dying.
Gasping for air color gone and turing very dark. Within the last hour they have somewhat come back to life. I have raised the temp. to approx. 90 and added salt to the tank.

The fish in the 120g seem to be o.k. now and the ones in the aux. tank are slowly looking better although they have a long way to go. At least now they are swimming somewhat and not lying flat.

My question is what could of caused this sudden change when I did my wc the exact same way that I have been doing for years using the same source and method for my water?

Thanks in advance for your response and I for your expertise.

Samcatj

P.S. Carol the "great one" are you out there???????

RyanH
06-13-2005, 06:54 PM
I'm not "the great one" :D but I would suggest that you call your water company to find out if anything has changed on their end. Perhaps they switched to chloramine or increased the amount of chlorine they're adding to the water. They could be flushing lines as well. Has it been raining alot where you live?

hth
-Ryan

samcatj
06-13-2005, 07:01 PM
I live in Texas and it has not rained here in Austin since about two weeks ago. I'll check with the Wate Company and see if they have made any changes.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Samcatj

Cosmo
06-13-2005, 09:39 PM
Sorry, not Carol either :)

Do you add the water straight out of the tap, or do you age? My suspicion is similar to Ryans, but my take is that the water company "flushed" the lines with a heavy dose of chlorine or chloramines. Did they shed their slime layer? If so, could be chloramines and if you used a dechlorinator the ammonia got them. Safe bet it was something your water company did if you didn't change anything

Did you test for ammonia?

Add non iodized salt, at least 2tbl/10gal and treat with Furan2, temp around 83/84 so as not to promote any bacterial infections

Would help the great one (as well as us other not so great ones :D ) if you posted actual water parameters, maintenance routines, and tank info instead of only stating nothing changed..

Jim

Spices
06-14-2005, 08:33 AM
I'm with the majority...

Run your water for a few minutes first. Then collect some in a cup. If you smell an odor, chances are your town's water has been changed.

I usually collect my water in a few buckets and let it sit for about 5 minutes (aeration removes the gases including chloro-agents).

It will be a good idea to store water overnight (with some agitation) before using it in our tank.

Sorry you had that experience. :(

Angie

Carol_Roberts
06-14-2005, 03:06 PM
I too am guessing chlorine or some other chemical added by the city. Sometimes a city will change the source of their water. In that case the pH could be dramatically different.

Kagan
06-15-2005, 11:35 AM
I am not Carol neither but I do know her :)

In addition to what is written above, I would also recommend to check the storage tank. Something might have happened to it.

Kagan

Anonapersona
06-15-2005, 08:06 PM
Sounds like chlorine, any chance you bleached the water lines to clean them recently? I killed a tank of cardinals that way and full tank of serpae tetras, almost killed the big cichlid tank. I rinsed the line, laid it in the sun, it smelled OK but obviously still had a lot of chlorine in it.

Jeckel
06-16-2005, 02:48 PM
About 10 years ago I killed three discus with a 30% water change. I used water straight from the tap as usual. Fifteen minutes later I happened to look at the tank and saw the fish flipping around in great distress. They soon died. At that point (too late) I noticed the water I had put in was cloudy. I don't know what the cloudiness was (I even got someone from the utility to come to the house to examine it). It was some kind of fine solid precipitate; it settled to the bottom when I turned off the filter and the water looked clear, but when I agitated the water the cloudiness returned. There had been some work on the water mains in the neighborhood around this time, which may have been the origin of the problem. Since then I always age (and look at!) my tap water before I do a wc.