These darned angels!

[troy tucker]

Good that you seen it early. it would have killed everything.

[sunkenmetal]

weird

[ScorpiosWife]

Well, this was a strange trip. Tank is ok today, nitrates were within range, but on the high side. I tested parameters twice this morning & added detoxifier. Did my own test & took a sample to PetCo to see Chad.

Think I got it figured out & think the Special Blend did it's initial job. Afterwards, I put the rainbow shark in the tank. It seemed to be the most dramatically impacted about this whole weird thing & there's only one left after last night so I figured it would be the most sensitive. The other leaped out of the bucket. I found him, barely alive, but not in time. What happened? Same thing. Belly up in less than a minute. Back to the bucket.

There was an 11 degree difference between the bucket and the tank. Tank 89, bucket 78. I decided to raise the temp in the bucket by putting about a quarter of the bucket water into the tank and vise versa. I also unplugged the heater thinking maybe that was too much for them. Waited about an hour and dumped out half the bucket water and added more tank water to the bucket. Raised it to 82. Tank was now at 86. Tested the shark again for about half an hour and she was fine so I put everyone back in.

Everyone has been back in the tank and swimming like nothing ever happened for about 2 hours now. Needless to say and against all instruction, I won't be raising the temp in their tank above 86 again. I can treat for Ich, can't treat for dead! Good thing is I don't see any Ich on anyone!

That was an exhausting adventure.

[Totenkampf]

i suspect it may have been the special blend. i dont know that product specifically, but it reads that it removes organic wastes. any time i have ever used a 'sludge remover' it has caused the saturated o2 levels to plummet. you have tons on extra air going in there but maybe it still wasnt enough between that and the high heat? sometimes these products have nitrates added as bug food, the fact that the temp is high and the presence of salt may have slowed down the bacteria enough for there to be a reaction? i am just guessing about all this but i can see what else it might be

[ScorpiosWife]

Whatever it was, it SUCKED! Just glad it's fixed. BTW, I didn't introduce the Special Blend till after the water went crazy, so it wasn't that. This happened after the water change & the addition of the salt. Good to know info tho, Toten. Thank you. Perhaps some strange reaction of an unknown existing condition triggered by the rise in temperature & salt, who knows. Then again, it didn't happen until we did a 50% water change & added the salt. I'm still confused, just glad it's over! *sigh*

[Totenkampf]

hmmm. pretty wild then. maybe h20aggie will see this, he is trained in the field of waterology

[ScorpiosWife]

Hope it doesn't happen to anyone else, that was brutal. That was definitely a combo of weirdness.

[sunkenmetal]

did you vacuum the gravel when you did the water change?

If you did the stuff in your gravel might have caused the spike..

[ScorpiosWife]

Yes, we did. We vacuumed the hell out of it because of the Ich. Hmmmm.

[aquabee]

I know that things like ammonia etc get more toxic at higher pH but haven't heard of anything becoming more problematic with a higher temp, except dissolved oxygen levels plummeting. Really not sure what happened there but I hope things stabilize soon. I know one of the boxers had an issue with a chemically contaminated filter, and he only saw problems when he jacked up the temp to promote breeding. Once he changed out the filter and then tested the tank again with one fish and a raised temp, things were fine.

[ScorpiosWife]

We ditched all the filter material last night out of worry, panic & process of elimination. Part of the reason I added the Special Blend was to introduce helpful bacteria because we tossed BOTH the filters media & replaced them with new ones. Tank is still at 82 and holding & everyone is still peachy, thank goodness. Hate that we lost 2 in this process, but they didn't die in the tank. I'm kickin myself for one & hubby is kickin himself for the other. Should covered the bucket & shoulda grabbed a net. Will do a 20% water change next week and test every day this week just to be safe.

[aquabee]

Yeah. Live n learn. I've learned the hard way (financially and otherwise) sooooo many times. Post pics when everyone settles!

[sunkenmetal]

I could have been the carbon in the filter cartridge releasing stuff or stuff from in the gravel or both that is what I am thinking anyway...

[Fishmaker]

wow that sounds like a full headache. im glad you got it fixed. did your vaccum happen to touch anything chemical related or you might have spray something around the tank and the chemicals go to it? not sure but i knew someone whose used a powerhead and he spray some RAID to get rid of ants infestation and he said the spray kinda got into the tank through the power head and killed most of his fish. Think maybe something similiar to that might have happen? Just throwing out some ideas. Either way glad things are fine now :] you guyus are awesome in being able to save all those fish woot!!!

[ScorpiosWife]

Yes, it was definitely a full headache & I'm still a little leery but everyone seems fine and dandy now. Nothing was sprayed at all, vacuum is kept in a bag in the garage, didn't come in contact with anything yucky, filters were just changed in May. Still not sure what happened, but we sure went through a lot of things & spent a pretty penny to save them. Good thing is I still don't see any more signs of Ich!