I can 100% vouch for bottled bacteria. I've cycled all my tanks in under 1 week with tetra safe start and seachem stability. that includes a 310 gallon. if OP didn't use enough and overloaded the biofilter then the bottled BB isn't going to work at all.
Sad Day in the 125 grow out tank.
- Thread starter Twonvito
- Start date
Sorry for the loss of all your fish, while reading thru this I didn't see any mention of you adding de-chlorinator when you did your water change.
accu-clear is just water clarifier, when you did the water change and removed the seeded filters you removed all the bacteria and caused the tank to have to recycle. this cause an ammonia spike and nitrate spike, killing the fish.
I'm thinking it was a problem removing chlorine. Assuming you did use chlorine remover, there could be a couple issues:
1) It has a shelf life and I have had a store send me a bottle and I just happened to randomly check the expiration date, which had passed - I always check now.
2) There are YouTube videos of water companies messing up and spiking the chlorine amount in their water. For this reason, I always put in double the recommended amount and smell the water first. Very high amounts will spell of chlorine.
It could be that neither of these are correct, but just throwing ideas out. Again, sorry - that really, really sucks
1) It has a shelf life and I have had a store send me a bottle and I just happened to randomly check the expiration date, which had passed - I always check now.
2) There are YouTube videos of water companies messing up and spiking the chlorine amount in their water. For this reason, I always put in double the recommended amount and smell the water first. Very high amounts will spell of chlorine.
It could be that neither of these are correct, but just throwing ideas out. Again, sorry - that really, really sucks
+1 to
NW Cichlid Keith
reference about water companies not always having the same water parameters out of the faucet. Everything else considered that could just as easily have been a factor. They look like small fish, so even if you killed all bacteria in your filters I would think if you have any substrate or decorations in the tank there would have been trace amounts in the tank that should have been sufficient for a quicker cycling than having started from scratch. I'd for sure test your tap water before you make any more water changes.
NW Cichlid Keith
reference about water companies not always having the same water parameters out of the faucet. Everything else considered that could just as easily have been a factor. They look like small fish, so even if you killed all bacteria in your filters I would think if you have any substrate or decorations in the tank there would have been trace amounts in the tank that should have been sufficient for a quicker cycling than having started from scratch. I'd for sure test your tap water before you make any more water changes.
I'm going through this right now. When I turn on my shower it smells like pool water. Almost like the water company in my area put extra chlorine in the water. I always shut off my filters but leave my powerhead running for 15 minutes after I fill and add dechlorinator. I have a hard time believing you can add x amounts of dechlorinator and the chlorine just vanishes instantly. I always give it time to mix.
This is most likely what killed your fish, in addition to not using any dechlorinator when doing such a massive water change. When you destroy the majority of the bacteria that's keeping your fish alive, your tank will start cycling all over again.
On top of that, and as some one else stated, Accu-Clear is a water-clarifier, not a bacterial supplement. Personally, I'm not a fan of any water-clarifying products. If your water is cloudy, there's a reason for it.
In the future, I would advise against replacing or rinsing your bio-media. If it's all gunked-up, then use some tank water to clean it off in.
So have you replaced your fish? What are you growing out now?
Yes, I'm glad you ask.. I still have one Freddie still alive and well divided in one of my trimac tanks. I got wild festae, red tiger Motas, Myrnae, I just had salvini both killed yesterday, Two variety of barred midas
