It's just a box with water... and a few extremely expensive mutts...
At this time the only possible thing that I can think of is the windex I used to clean the tank... but I highly doubt this because of how I thoroughly washed the tank after, used soapy hot water, then hot water, then air dried.
It's just a box with water... and a few extremely expensive mutts...
Unfortunately that did it. Im so sorry for what happened this is the worst possible way to have to learn. Never ever under any circumstances ever wash anything with soap that will ever go back into a fish tank. It leaves a residue that is very difficult to remove and will kill fish very quickly. They were likely dead in under 30min and probably couldn't have been saved. When cleaning a tank use straight bleach it does not leave a residue, once bleach is dry its gone.
I have to agree with Snap, depending on the soap and depending on how much residue was left, it is the most prominent cause.
I agree, bleach is the way to go, chlorine and bleach are very close in chemical structure and prime or safe does the same job to chlorine as it does to bleach.
how well did you rinse the soap off?
What type of soap did you use?
And no I would say, shouldn't have caulked it, it was just a stab in the dark, some caulking is poisonous, and some you have to let cure for weeks or the half cured caulking can be toxic to fish as well.
I'm so sorry for your loss it totally sucks when this happens
Geoff
and I though I was doing the right thing by NOT using bleach.... guess I learned the lesson the hard way
It's just a box with water... and a few extremely expensive mutts...
On the bright side if you rinse it very well you can get it clean enough. I would use paper towels and warm water and rinse many times
Squeaky clean
I also wanted to mention microbubbles here. Cold weather is upon us (well, some of us) and we always see an increase in this issue around winter time.
Cold water holds more dissolved gases than warm water. In the winter time, your water may be full of dissolved gases. The water remains saturated with gases while under pressure (while sitting in your house water lines, for instance). As soon as you turn on a tap and the water begins to warm up, it can no longer hold as much dissolved gas as before and the gas starts to appear as microbubbles. Changing 25% or even 50% may not harm your fish, but a 90 - 100% water change with water that has not been off-gassed could essentially suffocate your fish. It happens fast. This is why so many people age their water. It gives the water time to warm up and the aeration allows the gases to dissipate out.
It could very well be the soap you used, depending on how much and what kind, and if the tank wasn't well-rinsed. But just in case it's an issue with microbubbles, I'd be very careful about doing large water changes on your other tank without aging/aerating it first.
To add to Ryan's comments; If you're using well water it is generally supersaturated with nitrogen (>120% of ambient air) and lacking dissolved oxygen. I've seen DO out of a well at 40% of ambient air. In aquaculture where they run flow-through tanks all the well water is passed through gas stripping columns (especially heated water), a stripping column is basically wet dry media to trickle the water over to equalibrated it with the atmospheric conditions.
Also, in general NO One should use any scented cleaning products around aquariums; including lotions, bleach (regular unscented is good), 'febreze', etc. Also some scotch bright pads are toxic to fish; http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...-aquarium.html
In general I've heard most all household sponges get treatment with anti-mold chemicals, so I buy those cheap aquaclear sponge-filter-media packs and use them to scrub my tanks.
Cheers,
DC