Problems with water quality or suicide pact????

[Sparky19862]

So I came home from a reasonably good day at work, should have known something bad was coming, and I find my two Pakistani loaches, female blue ram, harlequin rasbora and my pride and joy, my 12" black ghost knife all dead in the water.

No obvious indications or poor water quality, no red gills or anything like that, the only obvious thing was the two loaches were very bloated. But I can't understand why. Water quality tests good. The only thing that's a bit high is my GH which was at 161 ppm or 9 drops on the API test kit. KH was 5, Ammonia 0ppm, nitrate 0, nitrite 0 and PH around 7.2-7.4. Temp is at 27deg.

The only thing I've done with this tank recently was a 40% water change with rain water but still used prime but I added some pimafix and melafix because one of my male bristlenose had a white patch covering a fair portion of his head, presumably he's burnt himself on the heater again which he's done before. I've used this stuff heaps of times on this tank with no problems. I added 10ml of pimafix and 5 ml of melafix which is a half dose for this tank because of my clown and Pakistani loaches. I'll also add I'm using pond strength Pima/melafix so dosage rates are done for a 200L tank rather than the actual 400L which it is.

Any ideas why these fish all died at the same time?!? I'm at a loss and rather p!ssed off at the loss of my fish.

Thanks for any help.

Luke

[Sparky19862]

Don't know if it's pertinant but the water change was done yesterday?

[Tristan]

Using rain water for the first time or do you always fill this way? Do you have plants in the tank? Hard to have 0 nitrates

[TED]

yeah, if the fish werent use to rain water and this was the first time it might have been the water change.

i know loaches, clown and pakistani, are both suseptible to medications in the water.

i dont use or know enough about the medications you are useing to comment on them.

[Sparky19862]

Use rain water all the time as well as town water. Tank fills off the mains when it's low.

Always used Pima/melafix on the tank at half doses because of the loaches and never had a problem.

[gingerbeer]

The fish you have lost are all very sensitive fish - Rams will die before discus if there is an issue with water....

Wondering if an accidental overdoes due to not shaking the bottles well before use?

Where does your pH and hardness normally sit?

[Donny@ageofaquariums]

Oxygenation?

[Sparky19862]

PH normally sits around the 7.4-7.6 range. But it hasn't for a little while now since I stopped dosing Co2 for the plants.

[MENTION=231]gingerbeer[/MENTION], I'm pretty anal when it comes to dosing with meds. Always shake first and always re-read the label for dosing rates just to make sure.

[MENTION=9246]Donny@ageofaquariums[/MENTION], I have two external canisters running on this tank with one drawing from low and pumping in high and vice versa. Also have a 2000L /h internal making sure theres no dead spots in the tank. The one canister that pumps back in high is close enough to the water surface to agitate and give enough oxygen/gas exchange. Never had an issue there. None of the other fish are displaying any symptoms of stress or lack of O2.

It's really got me baffled.....

I'm assuming the reason I also have 0 nitrates is because of the two canisters and one internal filter. These filters are cleaned maybe once every 3 months on alternation just in-case. The internal is the only one I clean once a month but I really only use that as a power head.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Sparky19862

[Donny@ageofaquariums]

Usually tanks with canisters have at least low level nitrates, as unless they were just cleaned you get some nitrate leech back into the water after a water change.

Poisoning of some type?

Equipment failure?

[Tristan]

Clean filters wont = no nitrates. Id be checking your test kit. How often do you do waterchanges?

[Jase86uxb]

This may sound dumb but I once had a power head fail and electricute everything only way I knew I had a cut on my hand and got a small shock when getting dead fish out

[Donny@ageofaquariums]

When things fail they can put toxins into the water too, burnt plastic etc

[aquaholic99]

Suicide pact. ..

[Sparky19862]

[MENTION=470]aquaholic99[/MENTION] I'm starting to think it was a suicide pact.

No broken or faulty equipment.

[MENTION=12090]Tristan[/MENTION], no matter how many times I test and test and test my nitrates always come up 0ppm......

I do water changes most weeks, at the most every second week. Usually around 40-50% if done every two weeks.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Sparky19862

[Tristan]

[MENTION=470]aquaholic99[/MENTION] I'm starting to think it was a suicide pact.

No broken or faulty equipment.

[MENTION=12090]Tristan[/MENTION], no matter how many times I test and test and test my nitrates always come up 0ppm......

I do water changes most weeks, at the most every second week. Usually around 40-50% if done every two weeks.

Get your water tested at the lfs... Just to rule faulty test kit out

[Sparky19862]

I will admit it's always seemed dodgy to me that I never get a reading on my nitrates. The test kit is of fair age....I'll see if I can get a mate to test with his kit but I'm fairly certain it's still ok

[Bubblegirl]

When you test for nitrate with the API test kit do you shake the bottle and then the vial for the required amount of time? I think it's 30 seconds for one of the bottles and 60 seconds for the vial but I always have to check the instructions when I do it. If you don't shake the chemicals as directed the test doesn't work. Even out of the tap the water is usually 5 ppm for nitrates.

[bluebelle]

Have you considered if anyone used insecticide anywhere in the room the tank is in?

[Sparky19862]

Have you considered if anyone used insecticide anywhere in the room the tank is in?

The wife knows not to use any sprays near the tanks. However she does get an itchy trigger finger every now and then and does tend to go a bit overboard when spray a bug or two..... Nothing says I hate you more than using an entire can of Moretein on two ants.....