I know its long, but it has the whole story...
I have been using a galvanized stock tank for the past year and a half for holding fish and it hasn't been a problem until now. I know some of you guys on here warned me about the zinc leaching that could occur with these tanks, and I was aware that it could happen. I did not until now realize that it was a definite problem until i saw a sign of something wrong. Last night I came home and found one of my 19 inch clown knifes dead on the bottom of the tank. I pulled it out and was baffled as to why it died. It didn't have any fight wounds, torn fins, or anything like that so I had no idea as to why it just decided to die. This morning i woke up and check on the tanks and I found my 18 inch rtc dead and stuck against the filter. My two rtc x tsn hybrids were sucking air and my tsn was kinda laying on his side. I immediately went into doing a water change as I thought something in the water may be wrong.
As I was filling it back up, I don't know what would really cause this chemically. But the combination of either the water softener in the water, or the water itself had some kind of reaction against the water that was in the tank, I assume it was the zinc. The water became very brown and cloudy and spread very fast throughout the tank. Within 15 min I couldn't even see 6 inches into the tank. I thought at first it may just be something coming out of the faucet because we live in the country. I tried putting water into my 300 gallon and the water came out crystal clear with no sign of what i saw in the 700.
I spent the next 3 hours moving the water and the fish to a 1,000 gallon above ground pool and put a liner into the stock tank. I put everybody back and didn't use any of the previous water that was in the 700. I pulled 50% of the water out of my 125, 190 and 300 gallon and filled the tank up the rest if the way with new water.
Everybody seems to be fine now and nobody is sucking for air. I hope everybody continues the positive progress and I don't lose any more of my children.
Sorry for the long story, but now we have documentation that these stock tanks need to be lined before they are used. I miss my rtc
I have been using a galvanized stock tank for the past year and a half for holding fish and it hasn't been a problem until now. I know some of you guys on here warned me about the zinc leaching that could occur with these tanks, and I was aware that it could happen. I did not until now realize that it was a definite problem until i saw a sign of something wrong. Last night I came home and found one of my 19 inch clown knifes dead on the bottom of the tank. I pulled it out and was baffled as to why it died. It didn't have any fight wounds, torn fins, or anything like that so I had no idea as to why it just decided to die. This morning i woke up and check on the tanks and I found my 18 inch rtc dead and stuck against the filter. My two rtc x tsn hybrids were sucking air and my tsn was kinda laying on his side. I immediately went into doing a water change as I thought something in the water may be wrong.
As I was filling it back up, I don't know what would really cause this chemically. But the combination of either the water softener in the water, or the water itself had some kind of reaction against the water that was in the tank, I assume it was the zinc. The water became very brown and cloudy and spread very fast throughout the tank. Within 15 min I couldn't even see 6 inches into the tank. I thought at first it may just be something coming out of the faucet because we live in the country. I tried putting water into my 300 gallon and the water came out crystal clear with no sign of what i saw in the 700.
I spent the next 3 hours moving the water and the fish to a 1,000 gallon above ground pool and put a liner into the stock tank. I put everybody back and didn't use any of the previous water that was in the 700. I pulled 50% of the water out of my 125, 190 and 300 gallon and filled the tank up the rest if the way with new water.
Everybody seems to be fine now and nobody is sucking for air. I hope everybody continues the positive progress and I don't lose any more of my children.
Sorry for the long story, but now we have documentation that these stock tanks need to be lined before they are used. I miss my rtc
