Possible Issue with Tank

[lewrosa]

I am wondering if I am having an issue with my tank. I did a water change about 3 weeks ago on my 55 gallon tank that has 5 angels and a mickey mouse platy in it. A couple days after doing the water change my mickey mouse platy died.

I just did a water change on Thursday this past week and now tonight I found my one angelfish upside down toward the bottom of the tank. As I was getting water to move him to another tank he went right side up but stayed at the bottom of the tank and was extremely easy to get (which normally he fights being moved the few times I have moved him.) I moved him to another tank I had free and now he is pretty much laying at the bottom of the tank. I am thinking he will probably be dead by morning since I am unsure of what else to do.

Now I am concerned either something is happening when I'm doing water changes, if it was just that the angel was getting picked on and I didn't notice it, or just natural causes... When I do a water change, I wipe down the sides of the tank then siphon about a quarter of the water and replace it. I also put water conditioner in the water I add. I have had no issues with my other tanks that I do water changes the same exact way (except I usually siphon more out of my smaller tanks - up to half). I have 4 other tanks I do water changes on.

Also, nothing has been changed to the tank since it was set up. Nothing was added or removed.

Any help in this situation would be greatly appreciated. I just don't want to lose any more fish if I can help it.

Thank you in advance!

 

[hollyfish2000]

The first thing I would have done with a dead fish soon after a water change is check your water chemistry -- particularly the ammonia and nitrite. If either of these register, you've disturbed your bacterial colony in some way. You can do this by removing too much filter media from your filter (or rinsing it too well or in tap water) or, theoretically, by not dechlorinating enough. If your chemistry is fine and your temperature is stabilized, I'd start looking at other causes -- did you have soap on your hands as you started to clean the tank, for instance.

I'd also recommend that if you're starting to have fish issues after water changes that you consider aging your water. I occasionally had problems with my nitrite skyrocketing and -- once -- taking down an entire show peacock/hap tank for unexplained reasons. I'm assuming insufficient dechlorination killed the bacterial culture. Since I started aging water (35 gallon plastic trash can in the bathtub dechlorinated with prime and left with airstones for 24 hours) I've not had any probelms.

 

[Avatar]

Ocam's razor

Simplest explanation is usually correct. Given that you're typically not experiencing problems anywhere/anytime else, probable that something was amiss in your water-change procedure this time, your angel panicked and brained itself on the side of the tank or that it's demise simply coincided with the water change . Uncommon for just one of a group to fall prey to a water change IME unless it was already distressed.

 

[lewrosa]

I did get my water tested at petsmart and all tested perfectly fine.

At this point I can only assume it was either getting picked on and I didnt notice it and got stressed, or natural causes.

I also haven't cleaned my filters in this tank since it was set up. It has only been set up for almost 2 months now

Sent from my SCH-I535 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[Avatar]

Your filters are almost certainly fine

Assuming they're working to begin with, cleaning filters is mostly a waste of time/energy and may actually do more harm than good. Think of them as digestive units - their job is to be home to bacteria that break-down waste (ammonia) and ours is changing water and removing the resulting by-products (nitrates) of that digestion as they are released back into the water. If water is flowing through the filter, no reason to ever clean it as anyone who has gone a year or more using a canister or matten filter without cleaning can attest. That's not to say that sponge filters/HOBs don't benefit from periodic purging, but again this is to enhance circulation and restore flow rather than to actually eliminate waste.

 

[hollyfish2000]

I really urge you to get your own set of API test bottles so you can test at home. Taking water to Petsmart isn't going to help you when you need to know what's happening in your tanks in the middle of the night. The full API kit, including pH and nitrate only costs like $40

 

[lewrosa]

Thank you both for all of your information. I really appreciate it!

I am going to have to invest in one of those testing kits. Will definitely come in handy in the future.

I am going to keep a close eye on the tank just to be sure nothing else suspicious happens with the tank.

Once again... thank you!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[ezrk]

I really urge you to get your own set of API test bottles so you can test at home. Taking water to Petsmart isn't going to help you when you need to know what's happening in your tanks in the middle of the night. The full API kit, including pH and nitrate only costs like $40

Less than that more like $20 for the API freshwater master.