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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / April 2005TOXIC TANK DISASTER
For the first time in many years, I've had a tank crash. Short version: Established a USED tank in which I believed only water turtles were kept, but turned out that rodents had been using it for more than 5 years. Set up tank, cycled beautifully, added 3 nice oranda, and within two weeks cycling went bizarre - ammonia up, then down, nitrites up, then down -- within hours, reading all over the place. Fish began showing all kinds of disease signs and stress, so stupidly began treating symptoms with Maracyn, Maracyn 2 and Coppersafe over the course of 3 weeks. On Friday, entire system came to crashing halt. Removed fish to pristine water too late, and also made second huge mistake of switching sponge filters with my pristine aquarium thinking the larger filter would help clean up the tank. By the time I realized that the tank was contaminated with microbes that would not respond to any traditional treatments, I lost all three orandas and have now contaminated my "pristine" tank with an outbreak of velvet (or some horrible gold dust disease.) So far, remaining fish are alive and eating - medicated food for now. Using Aquarisol and salt, and need to know if it is safe to switch to coppersafe without compromising fish. Hesitate to remove carbon from filters - tank readings are excellent otherwise. What would you do? n > For the first time in many years, I've had a tank crash. > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > n This might be wrong, but I'd probably take everything out, bleach the tanks and start from scratch. :-( Either that or maybe salt treat? I don't know of very many microbes that are resistant to salt, but many MANY are resistant to antibiotics. Good luck! And condolences on the loss of the Orandas......  SignatureK. Sprout the MungBean to reply "I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell--you see, I have friends in both places." --Mark Twain Katra Yep, I'm ditching the big tank, rocks, plants. The sponge filter is (too late) in my other tank which is currently being treated with Aquarisol. Fish in there have velvet, but are eating and swimming, so I hope we make it through all this. (White cloud minnows did not get anything though....) I guess I should replace the sponge and media in power filter as well, just as a precaution. Can I use Coppersafe tomorrow instead of the Aquarisol? They are better, but nothing to get excited about. I can still see the gold spots. What a bummer this has been..... n > Katra > Yep, I'm ditching the big tank, rocks, plants. The sponge filter is [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Can I use Coppersafe tomorrow instead of the Aquarisol? They are better, > but nothing to get excited about. I can still see the gold spots. Not sure... I've not had to treat a tank in years. I used to use salt and Malachite green...... > What a bummer this has been..... > > n Yeah. You have my empathy!!! SignatureK. Sprout the MungBean to reply "I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell--you see, I have friends in both places." --Mark Twain Rather then using Bleach, See if you can find someone with a Steam cleaner, and use that, No toxins to worry about. Or better still find someone with a big sterilizer, and get them to stick the tank in, Filter in bits, Rocks, If there is bacteria, it will have spread everywhere. Go down to the local Hospital, find where they sterilize the instruments, etc. The bloke might do your tank for a carton of Beer But life's a bitch, when things like this happen, bassett >> Katra >> Yep, I'm ditching the big tank, rocks, plants. The sponge filter is [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Yeah. > You have my empathy!!! > Rather then using Bleach, See if you can find someone with a Steam >cleaner, and use that, No toxins to worry about. Isn't subjecting glass to that kind of sudden heat rather dangerous? >Or better still find someone with a big sterilizer, and get them to stick >the tank in, Filter in bits, Rocks, If there is bacteria, it will have >spread everywhere. Go down to the local Hospital, find where they sterilize >the instruments, etc. The bloke might do your tank for a carton of Beer you think perhaps they might use the hospital autoclave for a fish tank?! For non-plant stuff, sterilising tablets (like for baby feeding stuff) make a good solution for washing evrtything down; there are no added extras (like those weird scented bleaches you can get) and if you then soak everything in water with double strength dechlorinator you should be fine. I sterilised a second hand tank like that, left it for a few days afterwards and the fish and plants were fine. Signaturesophie www.freewebs.com/fishstuff (under construction. ish.) bassett Well, your post gave me the idea to boil everything that I could, so I took apart filters, sponges, rocks and put what items I could in a pot of boiling water on the range including the sponges in the power filter. However, I only rinsed out my sponge filters in aquarium water, and did a 10% water change. In the meantime, I found a GREAT website that gave more complicated information on diseases and treatments that helped me to understand what happened to my fish and what to do. Apparently treating parasites without treating for bacterial infections is useless. I learned that the parasites cling to the fishes' gills which then swell and close off the oxygen supply (which is why they hang from the surface or find a spot in a water flow from a filter.) This in turn weakens the fish and creates an environment where bacteria grow unimpeded. I needed to have treated all my fish for SEPTICEMIA at the same time I was treating for parasites. So this morning I added Maracyn and Maracyn TWO to the tanks, and topped off the Coppersafe in the new water. My established tank is beginning to heal. The fish have begun to eat again. I can't claim victory yet, but I am a bit relieved. I need the Maracy 2 in the other tank, but it may already be too late. n |
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