# All Fish are Dying



## BabyNemo (Jul 22, 2014)

Hi, I've had my 55 gallon tank up and running since late May, and have had no problems at all.

Recently, I added an air pump, and connected it to my ornament of a small cabin with a water wheel. The air pump is set on low.

About two hours after starting up the air pump, one goldfish died.

That night, two Giant Danio's had died.

The next morning, I had lost my final Danio, and a albino cory catfish was looking sick.

Now, I'm down to one goldfish, one Pleco, a RES hatchling turtle, and two Albino Cory Catfish's.

The water is VERY cloudy. I also cleaned my filter when I added the air pump.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I ordered a new test kit and it'll be here Friday.

Any kind of advice or help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you!


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If you cleaned your filter improperly then you may have killed the biological bacteria necesary to convert ammonia and nitrite to nitrates.
I would do waterchanges until you can know for sure (when test kit arrives) what your water quality/parameters are.25-50% a day may help.
It sounds like your tank is stocked pretty heavy.What is your normal water change schedule?How much /how often?
I have no explanation for why this started around the addition of air pump,besides cleaning your filter.The cloudy water is an indication of a bacterial inbalance,often called a bacterial bloom,but not always a good thing.I would feed less until test kit arrives also just help out with improving water quality.I can't say if you feed too much but will say to eliminate the bacterial bloom less food and no lights is best way to go.Your fish will be fine for the rest of the week without food.


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## BabyNemo (Jul 22, 2014)

I don't think it was stocked too heavily. And I will do another water change tomorrow when I get home from band camp. Also, I can shut off my LED for the plants, but I can't shut off the turtles lights unless it's night time. ANd as for the filter, when I cleaned it I rinsed the gunk off the.... I'm not even sure what to call it, filter media? I have a Exo-Terra Turtle Filter. I didn't rinse the inside of the filter and it still had a ton of 'growth' on it. I did get the gunk out of the tubing so could that have been it? The gunk was restricting the in-take/out-put power on my filter.

Every week I do a 25%-40% water change, or as needed a 15% change. Usually it's on the same day I clean the hamsters' cages,which is every Sunday evening. 

I'm also thinking about upgrading to a bigger filter, since turtle's are insanely messy.

Won't the tank settle itself out once the bacteria gets back in check? Like a 'mini cycle'? The cloudy water happened once before, and within 5 days it had gone back to normal, just the fish didn't die the first time. Is there such thing as 'too much aeration?'.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

If you didn't change out the filter media OR rinse it under chlorinated water then the bacteria should have survived fine.If you rinsed it in tap water(with chlorine) it may have been damaged and now needs to grow new bacteria to handle the bio load again.
I would think this is a water quality issue.
How often do you change water and how much?
Without enough bacteria to handle waste water changes need to done frequently to keep water quality safe for fish.The turtle,goldfish and pleco are all Large waste producers demanding very regular and decent size waterchanges even with a cycled filter.
Did you clean the ornament(cabin with water wheel) before placing it in tank?Was it in a box or just out on the store shelf(could have gotten something on it if not in box,like cleaner)?


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## BabyNemo (Jul 22, 2014)

I do water changes once a week, sometimes more often. It really depends on how available I am to do a water change. Carrying five gallon buckets to and from the bathroom gets annoying. The only filter media I added new was an oder reducing pad, since it can't be washed out. And I'm not sure about our water, but we use well water and it's heavily filtered.


The cabin ornament I got when the tank was first set up, So I'm not sure if it could just suddenly now be affecting it? I'm trying to think if anything else could have happened during this.. The only other thing I did when I added the air pump was trim and re-plant my Wisteria. The scissors I use are only for my tank plants, and the plants stayed on the bracing of the tank while waiting to be re-planted.


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## BabyNemo (Jul 22, 2014)

My test kit arrived last night, and I found out my Nitrite was fine, my Nitrate was high, my PH was 7.6, and my ammonia was extremely high. 
I'm going to do water changes every day this week now that band camp is over.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

NitrAtes can be as high as 40 ppm on the regular.Most shoot for 10-20,but when my tank was overstocked 40 was my weekly reading.
The ammonia needs to kept a 1 ppm or lower(not alot).You do need some ammonia to cycle properly.Hard to say if your tank/filter is cycled completely.The fact you have niitrAtes is good,but the amonia is suspect.
Possibly you are over feeding,there is something dead/decaying in the tank or you just need to increase your waterchanges.
I hope you get this worked out.
if you have prime(seachem water conditioner) it can be used to convert the ammonia to a safer form.It will still show on test but will be better for the fish.


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## BabyNemo (Jul 22, 2014)

I think there was something decaying and I know it was a goldfish. My tank now holds 2 albino Cory catfish, and one 1.5 inch RES hatchling turtle. 
I'll look into the prime stuff.
Thank you for replying!


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