Well, the inevitable has set in and my fish have begun to die.... My fish over the past week have been dying off pretty rapidly. The count as of tonight is at 5 now. Here is where it gets interesting...my tank is a 36 gallon freshwater bowfront with fake plants and a wet dry sump. NEVER has my water been bad. I have an API freshwater master test kit. When testing my water I follow the instructions to a "T" and make sure my measurements/dosages are spot on. My water parameters as of yesterday when I did a test was pH 7.2, ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20 ppm. My water with my awesome wet/dry filter couldn't be clearer. Whenever I add water or do a water change of 20% monthly I always add powder neutral regulator to keep my pH around 7. I also add Prime to dechlorinate and whatnot the water. I also have been adding API Stress Zyme+ for beneficial bacteria. I always measure correctly.
My tank is a community tank composed primarily of tetras, 3 angels, 1 dwarf pleco, and 4 cories. Altogether I had 28 fish in my tank and everyone was happy. I check my little friends daily and since I have purchased them from my local fish store (not petco, petsmart or any chain store) they have grown, become more active, and to my surprise developed colors I have never seen or expected. They look completely healthy. Upon close examination there is no damage to indicate bacteria, parasites or nipping. I am at a complaete loss as to what is going on.
I talked to my fish guy and the only thing he could come up with and I think is the culprit is ammonia spikes and here is why I think it could be this. Since my aquarium utilizes a wet/dry system I am forced to use an overflow box. This box has slits in it (for those who dont know, the slits allow water and debris to pass through and filter through the system). The downside is the slits in the overflow box are big enough to allow fish to slip through if they get too close and decide to see what's on "the dark side". When I first got my system set up during the transition from my hang on back emperor 280 filter to my new wet/dry system I would always monitor the overflow box as I would always find a tetra who "got too curious" and got sucked into the box where he/she would be swimming for their life. I would check this daily and have gotten quite quick at shutting they system down, saving the little guys/gals and returning them unharmed to the main tank. After weeks had passed occurences of "fish in box" decreased to the point where I assumed they learned their lesson. So I stopped checking so often...bad idea! lRecently, my wife noticed an Angel dead in my tank getting "tasted" by my dwarf pleco ( I thought these guys only ate algae?). I removed him and noticed my population looked smaller so I checked my overflow box. NOOOOOOO!!!! I noticed two dead bodies stuck to my prefilter and another tetra swimming for his life again. The only thing I can think is a fish died, an ammonia spike occured, killed another fish, causing a chain reaction that has begun to kill my little guys. What do I do????? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be as thorough as possible while making this an interesting read. What do you all think? Oh boy.....:shock::frustrated::shock2::sad:
My tank is a community tank composed primarily of tetras, 3 angels, 1 dwarf pleco, and 4 cories. Altogether I had 28 fish in my tank and everyone was happy. I check my little friends daily and since I have purchased them from my local fish store (not petco, petsmart or any chain store) they have grown, become more active, and to my surprise developed colors I have never seen or expected. They look completely healthy. Upon close examination there is no damage to indicate bacteria, parasites or nipping. I am at a complaete loss as to what is going on.
I talked to my fish guy and the only thing he could come up with and I think is the culprit is ammonia spikes and here is why I think it could be this. Since my aquarium utilizes a wet/dry system I am forced to use an overflow box. This box has slits in it (for those who dont know, the slits allow water and debris to pass through and filter through the system). The downside is the slits in the overflow box are big enough to allow fish to slip through if they get too close and decide to see what's on "the dark side". When I first got my system set up during the transition from my hang on back emperor 280 filter to my new wet/dry system I would always monitor the overflow box as I would always find a tetra who "got too curious" and got sucked into the box where he/she would be swimming for their life. I would check this daily and have gotten quite quick at shutting they system down, saving the little guys/gals and returning them unharmed to the main tank. After weeks had passed occurences of "fish in box" decreased to the point where I assumed they learned their lesson. So I stopped checking so often...bad idea! lRecently, my wife noticed an Angel dead in my tank getting "tasted" by my dwarf pleco ( I thought these guys only ate algae?). I removed him and noticed my population looked smaller so I checked my overflow box. NOOOOOOO!!!! I noticed two dead bodies stuck to my prefilter and another tetra swimming for his life again. The only thing I can think is a fish died, an ammonia spike occured, killed another fish, causing a chain reaction that has begun to kill my little guys. What do I do????? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be as thorough as possible while making this an interesting read. What do you all think? Oh boy.....:shock::frustrated::shock2::sad: