Aquarium Trouble

Today I found my Lawnmower Blenny dead. This evening my Banggai Cardinal was laying on his stomach on the bottom, I took him out and put him in a tupperware dish to take some stress off of him. I don't know whats going on. My Phosphates, Nitrites and Ammonia are all testing at zero today and the Nitrate is only at 10ppm. Salinity is at 1.023, temp is 80. (all tests were done today after finding the blenny) The only things I can think of is that yesterday I cleaned my canister filter, after cleaning it just two weeks ago and it was filthy. I thought that I had cleaned it really well then when turning it back on a bunch of brine shrimp that must have been lodged somewhere I didn't find them, emptied out into the tank, possibly the fish ate some? ( I saw that my clowns stayed away and didn't notice any other fish eating it) I shut the canister down and disconnected it. The other thing that changed is that yesterday I also installed two Koralia 1050's and installed them on opposing sides. Any ideas?

:death: RIP Schofield, the Cardinal has now breathed his last.

Sorry for your loss....it's hard to tell what may have caused the problems so fast. Someone will chime in, but not sure if the dislodged brine from the canister was the cause, or maybe there was an ammonia spike after you cleaned out the canister that killed off the fish.

This is why most of us avoid canister filters....even if they didn't cause the deaths, they're more trouble than their worth because of the added work.

It's possibly a combination of an ammonia spike and the added stress of new powerheads, too.

thanks, I wish that I had learned about this forum before I started my tank up. I have learned alot in these last couple of weeks and am trying to implement what I have learned. I have read about the "nitrate factories" and was waiting on my powerheads to arrive to rid myself of it and I have now permenantly ridded my tank of it. I also learned the importance of powerheads and that I needed more flow than my nitrate factory was providing. working on making it better. Maybe too much too quick. I don't know if the fish were/are too excited about the changes. Also, both fish seemed fine and healthy before the abovementioned changes were made.

Im sorry to hear about your fish :( But I think wonton is right in what happened, the loose brine causing some sort of a mini cycle plus the loss of whatever bacteria was growing in the filter. Clowns are a much tougher type of fish, so they would survive when others may not.

Although you might not have any ammonia right now, you could have had a spike right after cleaning the filter that you were unable to test for.

My canister is a pain also I would love to get rid of it

austingunkel said:

My canister is a pain also I would love to get rid of it

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In an established tank, you'd have to remove the caister media gradually. Because you're essentially removing nitrifying bacteria from the tank. Removing it too fast could possibly cause another cycle.

Again, this is why most of avoid it. Those who use it successfully clean it regularly...but again, it's just extra work that could be avoided IMO. They are, however, good to have if you need to run carbon in emergencies. So if you have it, keep it for that.

Had a few cardinals die on me as well. Not sure what got them but i also had gotten a new powerhead. Tests were fine, but fish were dead.

Never did figure out what got them, but everything i put in the tank since has been fine. I figure i might have bashed them on the rocks because my turnover is a little high.