55g disaster

[silverdodges]

I come home from work today and noticed 3 of my fish had died and one was dying. It was out of the blue they looked fine the other day. So I did a huge water change and cleaned everything out of my tank rocks plants and filters. I did a water change last week but didn't clean the filters could that be a reason they died? Any help would be appreciated thanks

[supadave]

Sorry for your loss of fish . In order to narrow things down a bit.....we are going to need a little more info .

1. Do you use a dechlorinator ? If so , did you use it last week when you performed a water change ?
2. Have you introduced any new fish to the tank within the last week ?
3. How long has this tank been setup ?
4. What does your filtration consist of ? (type and kind)
5. What are you feeding ?
6. What was the appearance of the dead fish ? (Were they bloated ? Was the mouth wide open ? Did they have any scale missing ? etc.)
7. Have you tested your water for any spikes in ammonia and/or nitrates ? (If you don't have a test kit....you can go to any Petsmart or Petco and they will test it for free)
8. How many fish are in the tank ?

These question are in no particular order ...but they will help the board narrow down possible causes of your sudden fish death . Again.. sorry for your fish loss .

[silverdodges]

1. i use prime I use it everytime I do water changes I do them weekly
2. I put a pleco in yesterday and noticed they were dead.
3. It's been set up for about a year
4. I have 2 dual hob filters withj carbon in the filters
5. I feed them flakes brine shrimp NLS blood worms and algae wafers
6. The fish were stiff and mouths were open and a lil bloated.
7. I don't have a test kit ill pick one up today
8. There's about 15 to 20 small

[supadave]

I've narrowed down my possible conclusion...........but I want to see what your test results yield first .

[silverdodges]

Will they still read accurate after the water changes?

[40GallonsOfDoom]

The suspense is killing me!

[silverdodges]

180gh
240kh
8.0ph
0no2
0no3

[nightster]

Bump, im curious too...

[nacra99]

180gh
240kh
8.0ph
0no2
0no3

It is very unusual that you have zero nitrAtes.
All tanks have a certain amount of nitrAtes unless it is heavily (HEAVILY) planted.
Is your tank cycled?
What is your ammonia reading?

[silverdodges]

Well I did a 120% water change and tested it the next day maby that has something to do with idk

[supadave]

What was your ammonia reading ?

[electricblue]

What was your ammonia reading ?

@ Supadave I'm pretty sure his ammonia was probably high, i'm sure the carbon he's using in those hob is loosing its effect quick if it's a high bio load.

I was also what others' tap water ammonia levels readings have been. I just tested my tap b4 a water change today and got around .5 ppm.

@ Silverdodges I never really tested my aquarium back when i used carbon but i've seen that loading the hob filters with an aqua clear sponge on the bottom and filling the rest on top with media in bag works best.

[supadave]

Well I did a 120% water change and tested it the next day maby that has something to do with idk

I'm starting to think that you may have had some sort of ammonia spike . Your tank may also have went through a mini cycle . Did you do anything to your filters in the last two weeks or so ? Did your filters accidentally get turned off for any period of time ? Did you clean the tank...vacuum the substrate..and clean and change cartridges in both filters all at the same time ?