Deaths due to water source?

[Anonymous]

How much of the water did you change?  Do you use prime?

First 2 water changes were 50% with tank temperature water, and yes, Prime was the weapon of choice. After that I performed probably 2-3 10% water changes with cold water. So far I havent had any more deaths in the past 24 hours.

Oh geez,
We posted at the same time. So please disregard my question about how much water changed. But yeah, I have noticed big water changes- changes water parameters way to much for my systems. no matter how much we try to match the new water to the old water it can not be matched 100%. Especially when the parameters in the tank are manipulated already (like high/low P.H. High/low mineral contents, high/low KH, GH, Ect...).

I am sure many ppl have different experiences, everyone has a "method" that works for them. In my method, with little water changes I add NOTHING to the new water. Its not enough water to change parameters to a lethal dose to the filter system, or fish & the filters are able to maintain parameters.

 

[Anonymous]

Smaller water changes with cold only are the best bet for sure, but larger changes are often desirable, especially for small and/or planted tanks with regular fertilizer regimens.

This doesn't work for me even with planted tanks (large and small). I have noticed fish adapt to the parameters & water conditions fo CO2 injection, liquid and solid ferts. When I would do a 20-50% water change it shocks the inhabitants. In the biggest of tanks, and smallest of tanks I stick to about a 10% change at a time attempting to change water conditions very little...

Like I said before.... This is what works for me & the overall health of the fish I keep.

 

[pbmax]

In the end it's about how much time you want to spend on tank maintenance and what works best for you.  

To change up 50% of the water in my tanks every 2 weeks 10% at a time would probably add 3-4 more hours of maintenance every 2 week period (lots of overhead associated with water changes; the amount doesn't really matter).  I used to change only 20% at a time, but I noticed no difference between that and 50% changes as far as how my aquaria reacted.

Of course all of this was when I was on un-chlorinated well water... it may all come crashing down on me now that I'm on city water, but so far so good. :suspect: 

 

[bronzefighter]

Yeah, I think that I'll stick with smaller water changes from now often. I have enough filtration that I can do smaller changes once a week instead of larger ones. It's just such a hassle to setup everything for a water change anymore more than once or twice a week.

As much as I enjoy cichlids, I'm really missing the whole "not care about nitrate buildup" that a planted tank affords you. Oh well!

Thank's everyone for their suggestions and help.

 

[Chiisai]

In the end it's about how much time you want to spend on tank maintenance and what works best for you.  

To change up 50% of the water in my tanks every 2 weeks 10% at a time would probably add 3-4 more hours of maintenance every 2 week period (lots of overhead associated with water changes; the amount doesn't really matter).  I used to change only 20% at a time, but I noticed no difference between that and 50% changes as far as how my aquaria reacted.  

Of course all of this was when I was on un-chlorinated well water... it may all come crashing down on me now that I'm on city water, but so far so good. :suspect: 

I do 10-30% water changes on all my tanks every weekend and once every 5 weeks I make sure I do 40-60% on all of them. I personally have tried to just do the 10% thing but find with my slob cichlids it is just not sufficient. This seems to work best for me, though if your tanks are vetted, then I suspect its just whatever works for ya. Cheers!

 

[Anonymous]

In the end it's about how much time you want to spend on tank maintenance and what works best for you.  

To change up 50% of the water in my tanks every 2 weeks 10% at a time would probably add 3-4 more hours of maintenance every 2 week period (lots of overhead associated with water changes; the amount doesn't really matter).  I used to change only 20% at a time, but I noticed no difference between that and 50% changes as far as how my aquaria reacted.  

Of course all of this was when I was on un-chlorinated well water... it may all come crashing down on me now that I'm on city water, but so far so good. :suspect: 

I do 10-30% water changes on all my tanks every weekend and once every 5 weeks I make sure I do 40-60% on all of them. I personally have tried to just do the 10% thing but find with my slob cichlids it is just not sufficient.  This seems to work best for me, though if your tanks are vetted, then I suspect its just whatever works for ya. Cheers!

Oh yeah, now this is a different type of monster. I too raised large predatory, territorial cichlids. This takes a different type of care, and having meat eating bottom dwelling catfish is a plus in keeping these tanks clean from rotting protein based foods.

 

[Livebearer]

Bronzefighter,
We should be asking this key question,
What did you do different in "this" tank set-up compared to other tanks you've been running for sometime?
Did it cycle for 45 days minimum before adding any livestock? Did you add any rocks/logs that weren't tested/presoaked first?
Are you cleaning substrait and filters at the same time?
As you stated earlier this is a newer setup that sounds like it's still having fits and can revert back to the start.
Is your fish to water ratio equal? How often do you feed and how much?  Too much water removed in a new setup WILL upset the whole balance of what you were originally trying to acheive in the first place.
Like others said I have given up on testing for Nitrates too often and if I do I panic and get out the buckets!!!
All is good in my seven tanks for 4 years now and have had VERY little loses and Yes I keep several C.A.R.E.S. fishes as well. Give us an update as this is helping us all here!

 

[pbmax]

Did it cycle for 45 days minimum before adding any livestock?

I think this is most likely huge overkill. During a cycle one should be taking periodic measurements of ammonia and nitrite, not rely on any particular time period. The vast majority of my tanks had either no cycle or cycled under a week thanks to pre-seeding with plants and filter media from established tanks.

 

[bronzefighter]

I honestly don't think tank maintenance or cycling were to blame. I have 3 tanks running at the moment. On 2 of them, literally the day I performed a water change I started having deaths. The third tank never had a water change and has been just fine.

The tank was fully cycled in less then a week, due to using a preseeded filter, and to be honest I've never actually 'cycled' a tank. I'm much too impatient for that : I've always used preseeded filters and just kept an eye on water quality. I alternate between rinsing out one filter, and rinsing out one of the trays in the canister.

The first month or so I tested water quality using my API kit, and slowly dwindled down to checking every other week, and now I only check...whenever. I keep a log of results and have never had any unusual spikes or deviations.

I believe that if the tank had started to cycle again then I would have seen a spike in ammonia readings, as well as NO2. Instead, all reading were consistent with previous records, and this was checked with 2 separate lots of reagents.

I only started to see rising NH3 levels a few days later, as fish continued to die off and sit while I was working.

Anyways, while I greatly appreciate your input and ideas, I wholeheartedly think that this occurrence was a freak accident of sorts. While I've only been fishkeeping for about a year or so now, I've never experienced any deaths like this or had issues with water quality.

At this time, all (surviving) fish are healthy and active, and water quality is back up to optimal parameters.

In fact, one of the Lwandas managed to hold on to a batch of eggs throughout the whole Aqua-pocolypse, and just yesterday I think I saw some lil wrigglers in her mouth!

 

[Livebearer]

Glad to hear that all is back to normal. I myself have learned through trial and error and have been keeping fish off and on for 15+ years now. What I know now that I wish I knew back then???<<<<!!!! I myself pbmax, have cycled tanks with this preseasoned filter trick as well but it never fails, once you add a few fish like say guppies the nitrite's spike up and down as the bio-filter is loaded up before it really balances out and takes hold. I have a few great books written by famous ichyoligist Dr. Axelrod that are a wealth of info on this topic.

 

[Chiisai]

Aqua-pocolypse

lol I ♥ it!!!! Can I use that?

 

[bronzefighter]

Aqua-pocolypse

lol I ♥ it!!!! Can I use that?

Hopefully not!

 

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear that all is back to normal .

 lus1: