Death Tank - everything dies

[JoshM]

Hello all,

I cannot work out what is wrong with a tank i got. I got it free from my boss and everything we put in it dies. tried cleaning it out with bleach, salt paste as well as bicarb and vinegar and still the fish we put in there die (goldfish lasted a week so we put in our electric yellows and they died in 8 hours) the water has been tested and it is fine.

We are getting a brand new tank now (dont want to risk killing more beautiful fish) but i was just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what it could be.

After the bleach it was cleaned out with neutaliser for a few day and rinsed so many times its not funny. everything in the tank was new and replaced after the first deaths (calcium carb, lava rocks, filter media the lot)

What a start to keeping cichlids  :cry:

[CQ_Pete]

try leaving it out in the sun for a couple of weeks, with water in it and without water in it.

could be something in the silicon??

8 hours is a bit quick for a ammonia spike, but was the tank cycled properly?

[neilm]

As soon as i saw the word 'bleach' i cringed  8O

Is there a possibility that the bleach could have got into, or around, the silicon.

[gasnitro]

you need to give all details if you want help anyway go through this and see what you find.
How are you treating your water, how is the ph, GH , KH ammonia, nitrite, nitrate water temp. what filtration what substrate and how old is it how much food are you feeding them and is it suited how was the fish health to start with. where is the tank situated. has to be something other than the tank if you have rinsed well. Personally i think it is not the bleach and for getting in around the silicone tank would be about to leak.

[JoshM]

thankyou for the responses,

Ok the water temp was at 26c, all the water tests were conducted by myself and a very reputable LFS on sunday before be brought the fish home. The levels were good between 0 and 0.1 ammonia, nitrite was low.

We started the tank weeks ago and put some local rocks in both this tank and our crayfish tank. we cycled the tank and put the rocks in the crayfish tank the same day we put the first lot of yellows in the big tank. Both the cray and the yellows died that day. We cleaned out the tanks, filters, lavarocks with bleach and soaked the driftwood creation in salty water and replaced the filter media, calcuim carb.

Then treated the tanks filters, rocks ect with a hefty dose of neutraliser and numerous water rinses for a number of days.

We resetup the tanks with new filter media, new calcium carb for the cichlid tank. Have 7 crays from the river in the cray tank and they are still living after a week. the cichlid tank we put 4 goldfish in after cycling it for about 1 week (we add cycle, malawi buffer and chlorine neutraliser to the water and ph is at 8.4, temp 26 0 ammonia and nitrite at the start). After the next week one goldfish had died but 3 were still living. got our water tested and showed ammonia and nitrite were up a bit. did a 1/3 water change and added another double does of cycle (packet said to for first 2 weeks) and waited another 4 days. Tested our water and everything looked ok so we put the cichlids in and they died in 8 hours. (we put our BNs in after the water change and they are still alive put vibrate more than swim around the tank) the bns are still alive in another tank atm and seem to be looking heathier today.

we are using an aqua one at-881 internal filter with sponge, ceramic noodles, carbon and filter wool. 3 lava rocks, one anubis on driftwood calcuim carb all new expect the rocks and driftwood (brought new when started the tank weeks ago)

We fed the goldfish flakes (only enoigh to eat in a couple of min) once a day, the yellow we only fed once about 6 hours after getting them spectrum cichlid pellets (small amount)

The tankis situated near the living room, gets some direct sunlight in the afternoon for about an hour or 2.

Sorry if this is long winded guys and i hope this helps gasnitro.

[Cory Fan]

hi,

have you try fish from other sources?? I meant from other place than the place you bought those from??

Leave the tank under the sun might crack it, it happened to me, so just becareful.

[JoshM]

yes we have tried fish from different sources and had the same results.
the first fish died i think becuase of the rocks as our cray in another tank died with rocks from the same batch in it. first yellows from one place died... got more form the same place but they were looked after else where while we tried the goldfish (from different shop), one died so we claned the tank. tried the golds again one died but 3 lived so we throught the tank was ok as they lasted over a week. picked up the yellows and they died.

Has me totally puzzled so we are going to get a new 3ft tank and try that. just dont understand why it has happened

[here fishie fishie]

For fish to die that quickly it would have to be poisioning.

If there are no external problems, eg; fly spray.....I would say that the silicone has absorbed a poision of some type & is leaching out into the water.

Frenchy :D

[Chris]

Sounds like the fish were poisoned, but I would look at you water parameters a little more closely you say
 
"Got our water tested and showed ammonia and nitrite were up a bit."

Any ammonia or nitrite in the water is trouble. Also you cant really cycle a tank by just leaving it for 1 week. Go out and buy yourself some pure ammonia and fishless cycle the tank. At least this way you won't have any trouble straight up with "ammonia and nitrite being a bit up"

Just one other thing I noticed you said your ph was 8.4. Have you considered that the cichlids may have been kept in tap water (like most shops seem to) prior to you placing them in the tank and the ph could be vastly different and led to ph shock. Also at such a high ph any ammonia is more toxic. The balance of free ammonia (toxic) to ammonium (virtually non toxic) is affected by ph and temperature. The higher the ph and temp the more free ammonia in the water

Cheers Chris

[Cory Fan]

He mentioned that he used "cycle", which is a chemical to cycle the tank...

[gasnitro]

gold fish in 8.4 i would expect them to die. then buy the sounds of it they would of been stressing then to put Africans in there as well and not many LFS have there ph up to 8.4. this is where all your problems eventuated. also how did you up the ph to 8.4

[Chris]

I have used "cycle" before too and found it to be of little help in cycling a tank. This is only from my personal experience, But obviously the tank hasn't cycled if the "ammonia and nitrite were a bit up". Since using fishless cycling I have never had a problems.

Cheers Chris

[JoshM]

we use a lake malawi buffer for the ph and hardness (i think it is made by seachem though cant remember and the tank stuff is at my partners house).  also with the tests being 'up a bit' they were still within safe ranges but we waited to make sure they werent on the up

the buffer can be seen here

http://fishsupplies.com.au/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=33

[TaShiE]

iv used cycle in my tank.. put fish in it right away never had any probs of fish dyein...


Thanx tash :P

[Chris]

Its ok to use a buffer just make sure you adjust your fish slowly from the current (who ever you bought the fish from) water parameters. There isn't really such a thing as a safe level of ammonia (especially at a ph of 8.4) or nitrite to have in a tank. Any fish will be stressed by levels over zero just some handle it better then other i.e. goldfish over cichlids.

Cheers Chris