# New Rocks Dead Fish.. :(



## NPMIKOLE (Mar 17, 2011)

So the other day i went to petsmart and bough a 25 pound bag of dark blue rocks and a 5 pound bag of glow in the dark rocks. i also bought a glass theromometer . the next day when i was getting ready to do the rock change i was taking the new glass thermometer out of the tank and the bottom of it hit the tank and all the little metal balls in the bottom of the thermometer fell into the tank and i freaked out and took all my fish out real quick and kept them in a tupperware container. i took all of the water out ane all of the rocks and got all the little metal balls up with a magnet and then rinsed the tank 5 or 6 times to make sure there was nothing in it. then i started rinsing my rocks... i rinsed them very well and got alot of stuff off. after about 30 minutes of rinsing i put them in the tank and filled the tank back up and put the filter back on. it looked really clear for about a hour or 2 then it started gettin cloudy, the next day saturday, it was worse and the fish wouldnt eat.. then easter sunday i had to go out of town till 5. when i got back i couldnt find the bloodfin tetra.. he died  so i put all my fish in my 10 gallon tank that i set up real quick with no rocks or anything just a filter and a heater and the only one still alive is the dragon goby. i changed everything in the tank out again and washed the rocks for another 45 min in super hot water and cleaned everything in the tank with hot water and refilled it and is gettin cloudy again. im adding the right amout of conditioner and salt. i dont know what went wrong.. HELP!!


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

That kind of washing sent your tank through a cycle, ammonia probably spiked stressig the fish.  I'm so sorry for your accident.

You will need to let your tank cycle again or due daily water changes until it settles out.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

What type of rocks did you buy? How many fish?


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Ben, I believe he was working to add new rocks when he broke the thermomater in the tank. 5LB of dark blue rocks and 1lb of glow in the dark rocks.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It says 25lb of rock. I just don't think it was cycling issues that killed the fish. Rocks that shouldn't be in a fw tank could, however. Or ones that could have an ill-effect on the ph.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Oh yeah my pounds were off but I just took it as the standard subsrate at a pet store.


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## ReStart (Jan 3, 2011)

Cycle or rock chemistry? It's a shame we can't test for the specific bacteria we are looking for and as yet, that seems to be an unverified type. A google search reports various opinions. At the same time, it seems any good microbiologist could sample them, grow in a petri dish and we would know. Funny that is seems to not have happened, even with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on this hobby.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

I think it was a new cycle in the tank that started it. You rinsed off everything? if so, that's my assumption as to what happened. reasoning: rinsing everything, cloudy water after a few days, fish wont eat, fish dying... the cloudiness is the bacterial bloom more than likely.
The thermometer has nothing in it to harm your fish. The metal balls are there to help weigh it down. probably made of steel. The red stuff in the thermometer isnt toxic. 
sorry about your fish


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

To me ... the cycle was killed when the major cleaning occured. Fish re-entered a "new" tank thus resulting in a cycle (cloudiness). Spike occured and the rest is history. ( Sry

Without any other water parms of before or after, hard to conclude anything otherwise.


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## rtbob (Jul 18, 2010)

First off I'm sorry for the loss of your fish.

Besides triggering a cycle the stress to the fish of being moved around so much did not help anything. Were the temps matched as close as possible during each move?

You mention placing the fish in a Tupperware container. If this container has been washed with detergents it may have had residual contaminants. 

Use this as a valuable learning experience. If something like this happens again remember to stop and think it through before acting. Panicking seems to have caused what was trying to be avoided.


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## NPMIKOLE (Mar 17, 2011)

I appriciate all the feedback!!! first off in the tank i had 1 blood fin tetra, 1 orange platty, 1 albino pleco, 1 chinese alge eater, and a dragon goby.. the only one that survived was the goby and he is doin good now. my tank cleared up after changin a little less than half the water. and yes i did make sure the temps were as close as possible before movin them. i put in roughly 20 lbs of top fin premium quality aquarium gravel, and about 3 lbs of glow in the dark top fin premium quality aquarium gravel. and yes i rinsed everything very well. i was just worried that the thermometer would hurt them. but the red stuff in the thermometer didnt break or get in the water it was just the bottom of it that broke and the metal balls fell out. thank you all again for all the feedback! this sucks i had the tank set up for like 2 months and everything was goin great i just got tired of the crappy lookin rocks that came with the tank and wanted to replace them with cooler ones.  i wont be making a mistake like that again. now i know what not to do. it just sucks that i had to loose my fish to learn it.


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Yeah, sorry you lost the fish. But hey your Goby lived wich is an awesome fish!


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## 8878 (Apr 15, 2011)

Next time you switch out the substrate I would recommend replacing 1/4 of it at a time over the course of 2 weeks.


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## NPMIKOLE (Mar 17, 2011)

so after cleaning my tank out completly again and lettin it sit for a day then did a half water change and let sit for another day and it all cleared up. my goby is doin really good and my tank is lookin really good and im gonna be puttin them in my new 55 gallon in a couple days. ive had the 55 sittin for about 3 days now with water and filters gettin it ready. just thought id update. i will be posting pics of my 20 gallon and my 55 here soon


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