Tank of death

[NJmom2002]

Well the 10 gallon tank seems to be the tank of death. I bought some fish on Sunday. There was already 1 neon tetra in it and I had given the CAE to my boyfriend on Saturday. So I added 5 tetras on sunday and all 5 of them are dead. I have no idea why either.

Temp-78
Nitrates-5
Nitrites-0
Ammonia-0

Right now there is only 1 tetra left. Not sure if its the original one I had or not though. Does anyone have any idea of whats going on? I also got fish for the 5 gallon tank the same day and no problems in that one. So far in the 10 gallon I have lost 5 tetras, 3 molies, and 2 mickey mouse platys. Im afriad to lose any more money and any more fish..

 

[Fuzz16]

how long has your tank been setup?
do you know if any chemicals have been used in it beforehand?
what about your ph?
are you using chemicals to get rid of the bad stuff in your water?

 

[NJmom2002]

Tank has been set up since beginning of December. Only thing that has been in there was the dechor, salt, and stresszyme. This was a tank that my sister had and she said all of her fish had died in there also. PH is 7.6. There has been 2 fish in there for a month though with no problems.. ANy ideas?

 

[SANND]

I wonder if there's something in the tank that was around when your sister had it? How did you clean before putting your own fish in?

 

[NJmom2002]

I just used plain water and rinsed it out real good. Scrubbed it a bit had alot of dust in it. The gravel was pretty dirty too. The hood I used a little bit of soap but thats it. The gravel is black and pink. I wanted to changed it though. When I was rinsing the gravel the water kept running black. Took a long time to get it clear but even then there was a tiny hint of black.. You think maybe that could be a problem?

 

[Fuzz16]

i beleive the soap is your problem. never use soap or any type of chemicals with a fish tank or any part of it. you can always use a razor to get any crud off.

and the gravel probably just had dust and debris in it, but did you run your gravel clean until it was clear?

 

[SANND]

It's just a guess as your fish didn't seem to show any symptoms of disease. If it were my tank, I'd put the lone tetra somewhere else temporarily (not in your tank with the healthy fish tho) and clean that tank and everything in it with bleach, rinse, rinse, and rinse again and then let everything dry completely before setting up again. If the substrate is leaching black, that can't be good. :s I'd get new gravel or just go without until you can get some.

 

[NJmom2002]

None of the fish showed problems at all. The one neon tetra I had and the cae were fine in the tank for awhile... I have a little fish bowl I can put it in for now. Im gonna try putting in new gravel and see if that helps. Should I keep some of the water since it was a cycled tank? I was planning on changing everything in that tank but keep the plants .

 

[SANND]

I'd be weary of the water in the tank. Probably just being overly cautious but you'd hate to go thru all the trouble of cleaning it out just to put the same problem back in. Can you run another filter on the five to help seed the 10 when you're ready to get it up and running again?

 

[Purple]

chances are the surviving neon is the original - and the one used to salt

neons hate salt - so the ones from the fish store probably got quite a shock ....

strangely tho - mollies and platties are fine with salt - so don't know what happened there - but soap and fishtanks don't mix - not even on the lighting

all i can suggest is - rinse well - and leave the salt alone ......

 

[NJmom2002]

I went and vaccumed out the tank, I think it was the gravel because as I was vaccumming there was a lot of black stuff coming up and all the water in the bucket was black. Really gross. I have the tetra in a bowl right now and I will be going to get new gravel today. I threw out the gravel that was in there. Im going to get the light gravel but I want plants should I also get sand too? Or what kind of gravel stuff would be good for a planted tank?

 

[JWright]

Saving your water wouldn't do any good anyway. It isn't the water that cycles, it's the filter.

 

[SANND]

Just wondering, how often did you vacumme the gravel? Could it be that it was just accumilation of crud?

I wouldn't mix sand and gravel, go with one or the other. You can get natural river stones in different sizes that look very nice and not very expensive compared to some of the specialty substrate. Check out the plant forum, i think we even have a profile section as well, for plants that will do well with your lighting. If you have a stock bulb, you prolly have low wpg and will want to stay with low light plants. Java moss, java fern, amazon swords are pretty hardy, even I can't seem to kill those and I can kill a plastic plant


edit: Sorry for hijacking your thread NJMom! I do hope we've all given you enough information so you can correct what's wrong with your tank.

 

[NJmom2002]

No problem Sannd the info was helpful. I was able to get a credit for the fish because when they tested it there was nothing wrong with it. So I have no idea what killed them. I have moved the tetra out and it is in the 5 gallon tank. It seems happy with the white clouds and has seemed to be hanging out with them.. All 3 of them seem to be having fun in there. I cleaned out the 10 gallon, bought some new gravel and some driftwood and while I was filling the tank back up the thing cracked.. ggrrr.. Luckily I bought a 30 gallon I believe it is on craigslist. I pick that up today.. Hopefully this tank will be better once it gets set up..