(lengthy story)
I'm not sure if I have ever seen this addressed here so let me share a story. And not a good one..
I moved from one location to another in December. The move for myself was great. Things were going well. I lost one (older) fish during the move but that was it. Even with a tank not getting set up for a week due to no assistance and it being a large glass heavy tank. Fast forward 4 months. In April I started having problems with my fish tank, parameter spikes, fish sickness, recent GWA outbreak in one tank, death even. I thought maybe my filters were the issue and not the best solution to my tanks anymore. I started upgrading doing more frequent water changes, talked with a few seasoned fish keepers/breeders and started removing carbon from my tanks, added pot scrubbers for more BB, started doing cold water changes and using Prime when I had been using a basic dechlorinator. Still my tanks were not doing well.
I ended up losing 5 of my 9 angel fish, coutless angel fry, then my remaining pair of adults stopped spawning all together about a month ago. I got my first case of HITH and lost tetra too. All in different tanks with no nets shared between tanks either. Finally I lost my beloved puffer. I was heart broken. I still am. He was one of my favorite fish and I had already lost a few of the others favorites. I was mad. I went to the city and wanted a water report. They easily supplied it and I remembered they had done random tap water samples from homes in my city and I just happened, ironically, to be one of 10 that were done. I requested the report to that as well.
According to the report for city water, nothing stood out. I had to wait a couple days (for schedules to align) to get my tap water readings for lead and copper results. I picked them up today and I was SHOCKED! I have almost THREE times the healthy levels for copper in my tap water for fish! Since moving here I had been unknowingly poisoning my fish! I now am looking for an RO/DI system to set up in the garage so I can safely do water changes on my tanks.
It also got me thinking. If it's killing my fish what could it be doing to me and the other pets? I realized our great dane has skin allergies that the vet can't pin point and are worse only during summer and winter. He doesn't believe it's dry skin. Now that I think of water. In the summer it's hotter and she drinks more water and in the winter she lays in front of the pellet stove making her more thirsty and drinking more water! I wonder if her allergy is to too much copper as well. Which then also got me thinking. I wonder if my eye sight which has slowly gotten worse lately has anything to do with it. I looked up the symptoms of heavy metal toxicity and I have multiple moderate symptoms of it. I have a doctor appointment on tuesday and will be discussing this with my doctor.
So long story. However, sometimes when nothing seems to be working when you feel like you're trying everything. It's not always our faults. I had no idea that there was that much copper in our water and I think I will be doing Spring Water changes by the gallon from the store until I can get the RO/DI system here and set up. As well as I will no longer be drinking the tap water that I have been for multiple times a day. Hopefully I will get my tanks back to a good health and can kind of start over.
I wish I hadn't lost as many fish as I did. But lesson learned. And learn from me! Do COLD water changes and even then test your water for heavy metals. Here are my results from the tap water test and a quote from a website for what the safe levels are.
"Dangerous level of copper for shrimps is 0.03 mg per litre.
Dangerous level of copper for algae and bacteria is 0.08 mg per litre.
Dangerous level of copper for some fish, snails and plants is 0.10 mg per litre."
Source: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Copper
I'm not sure if I have ever seen this addressed here so let me share a story. And not a good one..
I moved from one location to another in December. The move for myself was great. Things were going well. I lost one (older) fish during the move but that was it. Even with a tank not getting set up for a week due to no assistance and it being a large glass heavy tank. Fast forward 4 months. In April I started having problems with my fish tank, parameter spikes, fish sickness, recent GWA outbreak in one tank, death even. I thought maybe my filters were the issue and not the best solution to my tanks anymore. I started upgrading doing more frequent water changes, talked with a few seasoned fish keepers/breeders and started removing carbon from my tanks, added pot scrubbers for more BB, started doing cold water changes and using Prime when I had been using a basic dechlorinator. Still my tanks were not doing well.
I ended up losing 5 of my 9 angel fish, coutless angel fry, then my remaining pair of adults stopped spawning all together about a month ago. I got my first case of HITH and lost tetra too. All in different tanks with no nets shared between tanks either. Finally I lost my beloved puffer. I was heart broken. I still am. He was one of my favorite fish and I had already lost a few of the others favorites. I was mad. I went to the city and wanted a water report. They easily supplied it and I remembered they had done random tap water samples from homes in my city and I just happened, ironically, to be one of 10 that were done. I requested the report to that as well.
According to the report for city water, nothing stood out. I had to wait a couple days (for schedules to align) to get my tap water readings for lead and copper results. I picked them up today and I was SHOCKED! I have almost THREE times the healthy levels for copper in my tap water for fish! Since moving here I had been unknowingly poisoning my fish! I now am looking for an RO/DI system to set up in the garage so I can safely do water changes on my tanks.
It also got me thinking. If it's killing my fish what could it be doing to me and the other pets? I realized our great dane has skin allergies that the vet can't pin point and are worse only during summer and winter. He doesn't believe it's dry skin. Now that I think of water. In the summer it's hotter and she drinks more water and in the winter she lays in front of the pellet stove making her more thirsty and drinking more water! I wonder if her allergy is to too much copper as well. Which then also got me thinking. I wonder if my eye sight which has slowly gotten worse lately has anything to do with it. I looked up the symptoms of heavy metal toxicity and I have multiple moderate symptoms of it. I have a doctor appointment on tuesday and will be discussing this with my doctor.
So long story. However, sometimes when nothing seems to be working when you feel like you're trying everything. It's not always our faults. I had no idea that there was that much copper in our water and I think I will be doing Spring Water changes by the gallon from the store until I can get the RO/DI system here and set up. As well as I will no longer be drinking the tap water that I have been for multiple times a day. Hopefully I will get my tanks back to a good health and can kind of start over.
I wish I hadn't lost as many fish as I did. But lesson learned. And learn from me! Do COLD water changes and even then test your water for heavy metals. Here are my results from the tap water test and a quote from a website for what the safe levels are.
"Dangerous level of copper for shrimps is 0.03 mg per litre.
Dangerous level of copper for algae and bacteria is 0.08 mg per litre.
Dangerous level of copper for some fish, snails and plants is 0.10 mg per litre."
Source: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Copper
- I am speechless.... That is so messed up. Perhaps I should do the same. I mean, I've lost more than a few Apistogramma, Angles, and a few other ' sinsitive ' fish such as EB rams , and the list goes on. Ive always contributed it to sucking at fish keeping but perhaps there is a deeper explaination...
