QT tank killed all new fish

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Maybe I can give my 2 cents. When fish are in a bag the oxygen in the bag drops which also drops the ph in the water. Lower ph will make ammonia in the bag less lethal. When you open the bag and oxygen hits that water the ph will rise again and the high ammonia in that bag will rapidly become more lethal. For this reason I feel that drip acclimation can cause more harm than good. I always float the bag of water to get the temp right then the fish get strained in a net then in the tank they go. The high spike in lethality of the ammonia when you opened that bag can easily burn the gills hence the gasping and quick death. Lots of good info on the topic

 

[Rick Krejci]

I think your QT practices seem OK, and agree with others that ammonia shouldn't have been an issue that quickly. And, assmuning proper handling, I've found the seachem badge a godsend for keeping track of things. I also have some Prime on hand to deal with short-term ammonia issues. So, besides disease, I'm not sure what would have killed all 4 other than a chemical (from cleaning the 55?). Temperature was fine. Salinity was good, acclimation practice sound (for getting a fish from a LFS), mixed salt ahead of time. Definitely keep some filter media in the main tank sump at all times to use for last minute QT.

As far as cycling, wou will need some kind of media since, if you're using your QT as a treatment tank, you should NOT have LR or sand in it. If you have the media and water from the DT to start out, then it should be able to handle a bit of a load, although 4 fish is quite a load.

I'd say either disease, an unknown chemical and maybe ammonia got them. Were they temperature controlled on their ride home?

 

[kp1991]

Ok i didnt cycle my qt at all i got 3 fish in a 10g yes i had ammonia and nitrite issues i was on top of my water changes and used some awesome products you guys might consider while cycling one is seachem stability prevents new tank syndrome which is what i belive happened in your case thats too quick of o death in that large of a tank for it to be ammonia.... also stability creates a bio filter startup with beneficial bacteria ofcourse put some clean rock or old beach coral in there for it to seed the bacteria as well as your filter media also seachem prime it detoxifies ammonia, nitrite.... not saying this is the only way but it worked for me and i had a huge bio load for a 10 gallon and all my fish are alive and well and my ammonia is now at zero nitrites are slowly declining and converting into nitrates almost done cycling my qt its worth a try for whoever is starting up good luck to all

 

[scott11106]

so in theory i can use turbostart 900 also and that will auto cycle the qt tank, also i think i will do it that way and add some filter media in sump to collect some bacteria and add that prior to new fish, still have not decided if i am going to keep the qt tank up and running 100% of the time..

 

[kp1991]

Yessir for uncycled tanks i feel that is the only way to insure fish survival what i did was use some old beached coral i had used that to host the bacterias growth had some bio pellets in my old aquatop canister that i put in my hob filter and used seachem stability got results of growth in under 2 weeks

 

[kp1991]

Yessir for uncycled tanks i feel that is the only way to insure fish survival what i did was use some old beached coral i had used that to host the bacterias growth had some bio pellets in my old aquatop canister that i put in my hob filter and used seachem stability got results of growth in under 2 weeks

Low lighting is key too i found that high lighting wigs them out so i keep the lights dimmed so they dont stress

 

[BigAsh]

My theory is a salinity acclimation issue as a couple others have opined. My LFS keeps their water at a SG of 1.018. I recently received fish from Live Aquaria and the bag measured 1.018 as well. When I started doing QT, I lost a couple of fish from the LFS on two separate occasions. The QT was at 1.026 and I drip acclimated for about an hour both times. I think many fish have trouble adjusting to large SG changes and I've read somewhere on this forum that it can take several days for fish to acclimate. I now lower my QT SG to around 1.022 and still drip acclimate fish from the LFS and have had no problems since. If the fish are shipped in a bag, I don't drip acclimate for the reason mentioned above but I still try to adjust the SG so its within a few points of the bag water. I let the SG rise as I do water changes on the QT. BTW, I keep my QT populated (and cycled) on a permanent basis. As such, I also lower the SG over a few days before adding new fish.

 

[kp1991]

My theory is a salinity acclimation issue as a couple others have opined. My LFS keeps their water at a SG of 1.018. I recently received fish from Live Aquaria and the bag measured 1.018 as well. When I started doing QT, I lost a couple of fish from the LFS on two separate occasions. The QT was at 1.026 and I drip acclimated for about an hour both times. I think many fish have trouble adjusting to large SG changes and I've read somewhere on this forum that it can take several days for fish to acclimate. I now lower my QT SG to around 1.022 and still drip acclimate fish from the LFS and have had no problems since. If the fish are shipped in a bag, I don't drip acclimate for the reason mentioned above but I still try to adjust the SG so its within a few points of the bag water. I let the SG rise as I do water changes on the QT. BTW, I keep my QT populated (and cycled) on a permanent basis. As such, I also lower the SG over a few days before adding new fish.

Could be a salinty difference but if he drip acclimated to the salinity in his tank i kinda doubt its a swing in salinity im thinking shock or chloramines mabe some metals in the water that werent elliminated by the water conditioner something had to have poisoined them because i feel its too fast of them to create enough ammonia and nitrites to kill em and to fast for it to be salinity that killed them it was fresh within 24hrs so that tells me something in that water was toxic soaps detergents used to clean the tank prior to setup um if its county supplied water whatever they use to sanitize that wasnt able to be detoxified by the conditioner so many variables but i lean towards something toxic was still in the water because he said they looked good and healthy from the lfs and they ate a bit overnight velvet? Not unless it was some super strain of velvet... to kill in 24hrs gotta be poison imo

 

[Mag]

ok, i may be dumb but i just got 4 new fish, drip acclimated them for the proper amount of time yesterday and today they all died, i noticed this afternoon all were breathing rapidly. The QT tank has all new water at the proper level and tested 1.025, not sure what i did wrong...

i did notice the heater i have showed 78 degrees but i threw a separate digital thermostat in and it showed 76 degrees so i bumped it up, not sure if this would cause the death sentence but i am very sad about this. i am pretty sure it is my lack of intelligence but not sure what i am doing wrong.

the couple fish i have in the main display are doing fine and all looks well there

Where did you get your water from. If it was new fresh water that has not be in A cycle then that can be your cause of death. You should always use the water from your main display or the water from the tank that will house the fish. Sorry about your loss

 

[scott11106]

I think your QT practices seem OK, and agree with others that ammonia shouldn't have been an issue that quickly. And, assmuning proper handling, I've found the seachem badge a godsend for keeping track of things. I also have some Prime on hand to deal with short-term ammonia issues. So, besides disease, I'm not sure what would have killed all 4 other than a chemical (from cleaning the 55?). Temperature was fine. Salinity was good, acclimation practice sound (for getting a fish from a LFS), mixed salt ahead of time. Definitely keep some filter media in the main tank sump at all times to use for last minute QT.

As far as cycling, wou will need some kind of media since, if you're using your QT as a treatment tank, you should NOT have LR or sand in it. If you have the media and water from the DT to start out, then it should be able to handle a bit of a load, although 4 fish is quite a load.

I'd say either disease, an unknown chemical and maybe ammonia got them. Were they temperature controlled on their ride home?

the temp should have been good, i am pretty sure that it w

Where did you get your water from. If it was new fresh water that has not be in A cycle then that can be your cause of death. You should always use the water from your main display or the water from the tank that will house the fish. Sorry about your loss

it was new mixed salt water that was not cycled. yea i am now cycling the qt tank and going to add turbo 900 before i add any fish. i have put a small piece of live rock from MD sump a week or so ago and did a small water change and added carbon to clean the water. then adding the turbo should cycle it and then after fish go in i will do water changes often, im thinking of adding a DOS to the QT and doing daily water changes for 6 hrs or so, what are thoughts on that?

 

[kp1991]

the temp should have been good, i am pretty sure that it w

it was new mixed salt water that was not cycled. yea i am now cycling the qt tank and going to add turbo 900 before i add any fish. i have put a small piece of live rock from MD sump a week or so ago and did a small water change and added carbon to clean the water. then adding the turbo should cycle it and then after fish go in i will do water changes often, im thinking of adding a DOS to the QT and doing daily water changes for 6 hrs or so, what are thoughts on that?

@ rick i believe your spot on with chemical being the likely cause for that sudden of a loss in all the fish at once i have to go with that to me thats the most logical reasoning

 

[kp1991]

the temp should have been good, i am pretty sure that it w

it was new mixed salt water that was not cycled. yea i am now cycling the qt tank and going to add turbo 900 before i add any fish. i have put a small piece of live rock from MD sump a week or so ago and did a small water change and added carbon to clean the water. then adding the turbo should cycle it and then after fish go in i will do water changes often, im thinking of adding a DOS to the QT and doing daily water changes for 6 hrs or so, what are thoughts on that?

@ scotty brah you did everything right im positive it had something to do with water.... also quick question did you rinse out you carbon filter thoroughly with saltwater from your tank? If not might have been something on those filters from factory that got exsposed to your water source..

 

[saltyhog]

I would recommend finding out the salinity the fish are in and setting up your QT to match. I think this works much better than drip acclimation especially on shipped fish. Going down in salinity is much easier on the fish than up.

Once they are in QT, you have weeks to slowly increase the salinity to what's in your DT.

Don't let it get you down. Learn from it and go forward. You are going about it the right way!

 

[John kennington]

ok, wait a minute i did not cycle the qt tank, i did not know i had to cycle it as it gets new water and complete setup for every load of fish?? crap would that be it ? and do i have to cycle that tank every time? i thought if all perameters were in line it was fine and with new water freshly mixed everything was perfect...am i dumb?

That's definitely it.

 

[scott11106]

@ scotty brah you did everything right im positive it had something to do with water.... also quick question did you rinse out you carbon filter thoroughly with saltwater from your tank? If not might have been something on those filters from factory that got exsposed to your water source..

thanks... i did not rinse the filters prior to using, i will most definitely do that from now on, cant hurt i presume

 

[scott11106]

I would recommend finding out the salinity the fish are in and setting up your QT to match. I think this works much better than drip acclimation especially on shipped fish. Going down in salinity is much easier on the fish than up.

Once they are in QT, you have weeks to slowly increase the salinity to what's in your DT.

Don't let it get you down. Learn from it and go forward. You are going about it the right way!

thanks, so do i test the bag of water for salinity and then try to match that?

 

[Rick Krejci]

thanks, so do i test the bag of water for salinity and then try to match that?

You can ask your LFS what their salinity is and start there. Then make minor adjustments when you get the fish home to match closer. Makes acclimation so much less stressful.

 

[saltyhog]

What Rick said. I've dealt with the same on line vendors enough that I can pretty well tell you what salinity they will ship at....I still ask though.

 

[Smprc]

thanks, so do i test the bag of water for salinity and then try to match that?

How shall I say this diplomatically...I don't care what the vendor says...I test their water. It takes 10 seconds, 2 drips on the refractometer done. Sorry had to say that. Please, just test it. I mean you can ask and then have the tank set up for that, but I would still test the bag water to make absolutely sure IF you are not going to do traditional drip acclimation. If you are going to drip, then it doesn't matter.
If I have to buy more time because my salinity is several points off, I place the new arrival in a specimen container (https://www.amazon.com/Lees-Convale...527734398&sr=1-1&keywords=specimen+containers) and put a small airstone in there as I wait for the water to reach the desired salinity. You can even begin to do a mini water exchange in the container half a cup at a time if you like. Keep in mind that you don't want to mix the waters, but because as I said earlier, I tank transfer this isn't a major concern to me.

 

[cmcoker]

I may have missed it, but wanted to mention with all the talk of using Prime, it can NOT be used with copper in the water.

Some LFS run low levels in their tanks, so dont assume the bag water is copper free.

It's fine to use Prime in a pinch, but if you have Copper in the tank it will make it toxic.

Good luck with your next QT, I stayed with 1 fish at a time till I felt more comfortable. Now I do 2 haha. You have a larger quarantine though.

I also match qt salinity to the bag water, makes life easier really..