Did water change now all fish dying....HELP!

[tmnterminator]

Hey guys...

Tank been up and running abotu a month now...cycled with Bio-spira...had 6 Von rio (flame)tetra, 2 dwarf gouramis and 2 bloodfins in a 75G...been monitoring all params and noticed that my nitrates were starting to creep up...also had some brown algae starting to pop up...

So i figured it was time for my first water change...used my python to suck out and put it...now I know my water is very hard, high ph, etc. (the highest in the test kits) so when I set up, i initially used some filtered water than was softer, lower ph ect....but it was such a mess to go through i figured i was just slowly switch to my normal tap water...guess that was a bad idea...

This morning, 1 von rio was dead and another on the way out...2 other ones i cant even find anywhere which has me concerned about them being stuck somewhere decomposing in my water...the other 2 von's look pretty sorry, along with a bloodfin...they all stay very close to the bottom of the tank...the other bloodfin seems alright, as do the gouramis...but obviously im concerned...

please any help/tips?

 

[f8fan]

Sorry for your fish losses

How much of a water change did you do? (Percentage-wise)?

Did you dechlorinate the new water?

Did you closely match the temperature of the new water?

If you did a whopping large W/C then they are probably reacting to the change in ph and/or hardness.

 

[tmnterminator]

yea i did dechlorinate it (is it possible to put TOO much dechlorinator in?)...and i guess it was a fairly large water change, like maybe 25-30% or so...i actually didnt mean to take that much out...

And no I didn't closely match the tmp...man, i suck...

 

[Pure]

In a 75 gal a 25-30% WC shouldn't have that much of an effect on the temperature of the water unless the tap water is ICE cold.

In most cases in order to use too much dechlorinatore you would have to use an extreme amount above and beyond what the normal dose is.

You're flame tetras may be reacting to the PH more than a temp change. A PH spike of more than a couple of points can be deadly. Fish react better to PH drops than rises.

What is the PH of your tank...or was it? I know it's probably a little late to tell us now unless you already knew what it was. This is a prime example of why we shouldn't mess with our PH unless we really know what we are doing.

 

[MissFishy]

Some water changes PH over time. A lot of people on here like to age their water over a couple of days before adding it to their tank since it comes out of the tap at a different PH than it settles at. Check the water out of your tap and the water in your tank and see if there is a large swing.

 

[echoofformless]

Always, always test the pH of the tank water against the pH of the water about to be introduced before adding it.

The reasons are as stated above, but also because water sources can change. My tap water used to be off the charts alkaline and hardness. It was like that for as long as I've been keeping fish. Then suddenly earlier this month at started coming in medium hardness and a neutral pH!

 

[tmnterminator]

THnx for the input guys....

At this point, i've lost 4 von rios..the other 2 just swim very close to the bottom (very unlike them) and they havent eaten at all (normally very vigourous towards the top of the tank)...

The 2 gouramis seem to be ok...they ate pretty normally...and the other 2 bloodfins are very active just not eating....so I guess we'll see what happens...

Man, this sux soo bad...eveything was going so good...and to make things worse, im going out of town for the next couple of days, with noone to check on the tank....i guess i'll see how things go in the morning...though to be honest I don't know what to do next....