# All fish died and don't know what to do



## GraceO (Dec 14, 2008)

Hi everyone,
I moved my 35 gall hex tank a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Two weeks ago I bought 2 red beautiful fish (I forget what they where called) and one of those black suckie cat/algie eater fish. Everything was great until late last week. The fish started dying off and now my tankl is empty. Fish I had for about 4-5 yrs are gone. I'm not sure now what to do with my tank. SHould I empty it and scrub it down (I really don't want to do that), chemicals, just llet it run empty for a while. WHen is it safe to get some new fish. WHere is a safe place to get fish? I have a lot of questions. Thanks for any help you can give me.:Fish_orange:


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

Grace when ypu moved you tank did you use the same water or all new water. I going to assume that you cleaned the filter. naybe even replaced the gravel. If this is the case most likely you sent you tank into a new cycle. which would mean the tank wo8uld need to be recycled agian before adding the fish.


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## GraceO (Dec 14, 2008)

djrichie said:


> Grace when ypu moved you tank did you use the same water or all new water. I going to assume that you cleaned the filter. naybe even replaced the gravel. If this is the case most likely you sent you tank into a new cycle. which would mean the tank wo8uld need to be recycled agian before adding the fish.


I used the same gravel, plants etc. I used new water which I treated with stuff I bought from the store. I've used it in the past with no problem on the same fish (except for the new ones). I cleaned out the filter and parts and put a new mesh thingy in. I did put in a new air pump that is adding tons of bubbles. My old one had been broken for a long time.
I'm not sure what it means - the tank would need to be recycled before adding fish?


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

The term "cycling a tank" is when you have an enough bio-colony to convert ammonia, which is deadly to a fish, into nitrates and nitrites, these are less harmful to fish. the bio colony is something that builds up over time and is generally balanced with the bio-load, give enough area to live undisturb, Most is found in the gravel it that brown slime that you vacume out. Alot that brown stuff on the filter floss. By breaking downthe tank and removing most of bio-colony out of the tank, when you removed everything and vacume the tank and replacing the filter. I'm not sure if you vacume and washed the old gravel but if you did you removed or killed most of it. In other words you removed you bio-colony and then added a bio-load to the tank. Most likely you fish died becuase the ammonia levels got to high, you didn't know and never checked the levels.

Anyway, you have to start over. If you want to scrub the tank you can use bleach and water to wash everything down. after make up 5 gals of water and double the de-chorination to that water and rinse everything in it, after that add it to the tank and rinse the tank out with it and emipty and start to rebuild the tank. 

Research fish tank cycling and start to recycle the tank... in 8 weeks you can start to add fish in small amounts. a couple of fish each week.

In the future if you need to move a tank, just remove everything do not wash or change anything. Just move it the way it is.... You will still lose some of the bio-colony but it will only take a week or 2 to complete a mini cycle and you can generally add the exsisting fish to the tank and just keep an eye on the levels.


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Richie is pretty much spot on with those suggestions. 

Sorry about your losses though Grace, that's kinda upsetting to hear. 
Research about the nitrogen cycle that happens in a tank and you will learn about the good bacteria that break down the fish waste into less toxic substances. When you scrub the tank and change the filter pads, you remove those good bacteria. They live on all the surfaces - the glass, the gravel, the plants, the decorations, the walls of the filter, the filter pads themselves, etc. Everywhere. So when you scrub things down, you remove them. When you move a tank you want to make sure you keep as many alive as possible. Also cut back on feeding, skip every other day of feeding that you would be normally feeding on, this way you aren't adding so much more to the load that will need to be broken down. And the bacteria colony will regrow and catch up to the regular waste load the tank can handle. 
Also its possible the water change you did introduced something toxic or stressful. The main things to consider are chlorine, chloramine, temperature, pH. Some of the dechlorinating chemicals from the store arent good to neutralize ammonia, so when they break apart chloramines the now free ammonia becomes toxic. So it might not have just been that you wiped out the good bacteria, but you could have not prepared the new water properly as well. Probably a combination of these things occured if I had to guess. Live and learn though so you will get better at it in the future! 
Any questions, just ask!


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## GraceO (Dec 14, 2008)

Thank you so much for your explanations and your time. Do you have any suggestions where to purchase for when I am ready to restock? I saw some online stores? Are they safe or should I stay local? Thanks again


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

Online stores from my experience are great. You can shop around and find really cheap prices Compared to the chain stores, on just about everything you are looking for. If you see a produt, maybe a light or filter, that you are not sure about quaity and maker ect., you can always ask here or go to store and look at it and see if you like it. Then come home and order it. Just one thing about online shiping is the shipping. you got to watch the cost of shipping and also realize that it will be a few days before the product arrives. So keep that in mind, anad don't order your chems. when you are out but when you have about a 1/4 of the bottle left.
Also you can find a wider selection of things and makers. Just like everything, sometimes you pay for a name, when there are lesser know makers that have great products but at a fraction of the cost. Bulbs are alot cheaper online, just watch the store you get them from smaller store have a less of chance of rotating the inventory and you may get an old bulb that works but is out of date and all the actual life is gone.... this is important when if you have plants or corals. so watch the bulb dates when they arrive.


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## djrichie (May 15, 2008)

The reason most of the time I don't give a complete break down on info, is so that the person asking the question but will hopfully do some research for themselves. I find that you learn more if you read it yourself. I find the researching and learning new things about the hobby is at least 50% of the enjoyment. The internet has just made it so much easier than in the 80's when you had to buy info in books and mags for the most part.

So that may reasoning in answering a question, to solve a problem but I try to wet ones mind to learn more about it on there own.


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