All Fish Dead

[Trouser Cough]

Today the water temp in my 800g dropped to 71*f and at about 65*f the peacock bass in it would start having long term survival rate problems. It's good to set limits that are comfortable for you and to quote someone else on this site (I think Victor maybe?), your fish are on life support 24/7/365. It's a delicate balance and one we've all botched at one time or another.

Good luck sorting whatever the issue may have been.

 

[Trouser Cough]

 

[Fishman Dave]

Sorry for your loss.
when I have had this in the past it has been the water company doing running repairs and then flushing the system with chloromine and flouromine as well as chlorine and fluorine. Things that don’t affect humans but are deadly to fish and some dechlorinators do not remove them. Also check for a huge ph swing.

 

[jjohnwm]

I think that Trouser Cough has proposed by far the most likely solution to this puzzle, i.e. temperature shock. When I lived in Ontario, hot water tanks were sold with a government-installed limiter which prevented them from being raised above a specific temperature. Thanks to this lovely bit of Big Brotherism, even the largest residential heaters were quickly drained by a large water change on a decent-sized tank, because a larger volume of the legally-mandated cooler water was required to achieve the overall temperature required. In my current province of Manitoba, I turned my water heater to the maximum temperature setting, which gave me a lot more mileage in terms of total water change volumes. I eventually went to a storage tank system, with multiple large PVC vats and barrels in the crawlspace of my house, all heated either by aquarium heaters or simply by ambient air to the temperature required for my tanks. Finally, I installed a small on-demand water heater to supply my fishroom with essentially limitless water at the correct temperature; as perfect as that may sound, it was very challenging due to the nature of my water supply system. I am on a private well, use a pressure system to supply the water to the various outlets in the house, including the tanks...and the constant up/down/up/down cycling of the pressure system makes it tricky to get a pressure-balancing valve to supply a constant temp output.

All of us who responded should have thought of this idea! The unfortunate combination of high volume requirements and limited availability of hot water seems obvious now, far more likely and logical than an overdose of dechlorinator or toxic residue in a garden hose IMHO. The simplest answer is usually the correct one.

 

[RD.]

ANeat gadget, but not sure it'd work on 3/4" acrylic. Even if it did, I won't be sticking any ghastly stickers on the sides of my aquarium. O

It will, and one doesn’t have to leave it attached long term. They also sell, or at least used to, a stand alone kit, but I suspect most hobbyists would be too lazy to read the instructions. Good luck.

 

[Fishman Dave]

One of the things we used to have to watch out for, less so in modern systems, was lead piping. When mixing cold water with hot straight out of a home boiler you could have hot water that had been stood or run through old lead piping, but not seen this effect for some years.

 

[RD.]

Over the years I have seen every potential scenario discussed in this thread, cause a massive fish kill in someone's tank. From a new garden hose from China that was clearly labeled not for potable use, to a broken water main repair, and even a local who had a massive dose of Prime from an auto dose pump failure kill most of his fish. Sh!+ happens. If one is lucky, they can narrow the likely cause down to one single (later obvious) cause or event, other times it becomes a guessing game, with no real certain conclusion.

One thing that has always served me well over the years - is that each & every hobbyist needs to understand their limitations, with their set ups, and their fish, and then live by those limitations. Which always starts with understanding your local water supply, whether you are changing out 10 gallons, or 500. It all becomes relative. Disinfectant residuals (what form, and amount @ the tap), removal products for same, water temps, pH values, alkalinity, etc-etc. Then apply that, to the species of fish one keeps. What works for a goldfish, may not work with a stingray. This is not a one size fits all hobby.

 

[ken31cay]

...each & every hobbyist needs to understand their limitations, with their set ups, and their fish, and then live by those limitations. Which always starts with understanding your local water supply, whether you are changing out 10 gallons, or 500. It all becomes relative. Disinfectant residuals (what form, and amount @ the tap), removal products for same, water temps, pH values, alkalinity, etc-etc. Then apply that, to the species of fish one keeps. What works for a goldfish, may not work with a stingray. This is not a one size fits all hobby.

This is good info.
Jon M, sorry for your loss. I'm sure all or most of us have gone through the same or similar, including myself. I know the devastating feeling. Good luck with the new restock.