changed my tanks water and now my fish are busy dying

Hi i am Willy from Bloemfontein.
my fiance and me have started our tropical tank about a month a go , so ya we are still new to this hobby of ours.
yesterday we change all the water in our tank, and washed it out nicely. we also got some ammonia stones to put in the filter like we were told to do. the water was very milkish, we stared putting put fish back in the big tank from the smaller tank. not a pretty site we started losing allot of our fish. about 10 died. the PH is fine so we dont know whats wrong now.??

 

Hi,

Still fairly new to this, but you should never do a complete water change?

Also, did you heater the water before adding it, and added dechlorinator?

 

Hi willy,

Like dilberza said, you shouldn't change all the water at once etc...

If you could tell us what size tank you have, filters, heaters, etc...

We can give you more advice on how to maintain your tank!

 

Hey man like dilbertza said never take all the water out the tank. The reason for this is i dont know if you know but at the beginning of our tanks they go through something called the nitrogen cycle. This is basically when harmful bacteria builds up and is "eaten" by bacteria harmless to fish. When you take all the water out of your tank the bacteria die, the bacteria also live in your filter which i am assuming dried when you took out all the water.

There are bacteria called nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia. The P.H will affect your fish but im sure this isnt the most part of why your fish are dying. Your tank is going to go through the cycle process. Do not buy anymore fish unless you want to cycle your tank wit a fish inside. If you do choose to cycle your tank with a fish in choose something hardy like a guppy and something you will stick with. Your tank is going to take around 4 weeks to cycle. I would also invest in getting an ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite tester from your lfs. Just a warning they can be quite pricy. If you decide to get one tell us your readings. I would just wait for your tank to finish cycling before you add anymore fish. Once again never do full water changes. Depending on what fish you have a 20%-30% water change once a week should be fine.

Kind regards
Matt.

P.S hope some of your fish survive.

 

Big mistake never change all the water. Only replace 10-20% of water at a time every 2-3weeks. If you do change all the water make sure that the temperature, pH and dH are the same as the stanby tanks. Also let the nitrogen cycle restart.

 

Hi Willy

1st you should do weekly water changes of 20-30% with a gravel vac, never the complete tank at once.
2nd that milky white could have been Chlorine or chlormine and that will kill your fish so you should add a dechlorinator.
3rd temp should be the same and also the ph.
4th by desturbing the gravel after what I would guess was a while you have ammonia and nitrate spikes that will also kill your fish.
5th Moving the fish in and out the tank while cleaning is not a good idea. To much stress.

Hopefully you will still save some fish.

 

Hi Willy

Click on the "forum" button at the top.
Scroll down to the article section. Click on it
Read the top 6 articles.

They will give you all the basic information as to what to do, and why you are currently going through huge losses.

 

@willy, is it possible to give use more info on your tank:

Tank dimension &, Filtration

 

@Rickus , i am very new to this new hobby. i have a 125lt tank. with a dolphin filter ( internal ) and a light under water and a 300w heater.

 

I'll second the notion to read the articles Zoom has recommended. The background to fishkeeping is actually quite simple once you have some understanding of how it all fits together. Hopefully some of your fish do survive and you can stabilise your tank, good luck!