Tank wipe out

emmabrown · Aug 6, 2022

Hi guys
This morning I woke up to my almost all my fish dead
I did have a question s a cut on ny butterfly fish yesterday. The only thing new in tank is I re did rock work and took out about 30% of the old rock to replace with new dry rock as I wanted to open up bigger swim holes for larger fish.
I did this on thersday every one was looking good untill this morning
I also added more to water to tank last night that I got from the store I go too
I cleaned my filter bags using some
Hand soap but I have done this before with no probs
does anyone have any clue what could be going on

I removed 2 fish that survived to my gt tank
I removed all dead fish that I could find still missing some

I am lost to what could be going on as everything was fine yesterday except the 1 butterfly fish

Jay Hemdal · Aug 6, 2022

Sorry to hear!

Were there any invertebrates in the tank? How did they fare? Once removed, did the two surviving fish do better?

I'm focused on the soap. You may have done that before and got away with it, but if it isn't rinsed well, or if you used a different soap (like a sanitizing soap) it could have been more toxic.

Jay

Sharkbait19 · Aug 6, 2022

How did the fish act/look before dying?
Any pics of the fish?

vetteguy53081 · Aug 6, 2022

Very sorry to hear and I still high;y suspect leaching from rocks and not toxins but elevated nitrate and ammonia spikes. From this point, my suggestions is to:
- Dont Give Up
- Know what youre placing within tank
- Do a major water change and run tank fishless for 2-3 weeks along with use of high grade carbon or chemipure blue
- Prior to re-stock, test your water , then take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours so you know how well your kits are tesing water/
** When making purchase of fish, observe fish carefully for any skin issues or dots, its breathing rate which should be relaxed and ask to see the fish eat and wfind out what they fed it Then acclimate fish well matching temperature and salinity of the display tank Prior to release

Rick's Reviews · Aug 6, 2022

Seems like you have had a problem with your aquarium since February of this year, maybe go back to basics.
Different soaps can leave matter on the skin which is great for you but toxic for fish