pls help my moms "phantom" tank! cant figure it out!!!!

[kilofey]

my dad refuses to remove the big decoration from the tank for a week, which is ruffling my feathers a bit cause im really trying to help he said he would blast it out with water, ugh... i guess thats better than nothing... but it still didnt help. i literally dont know what to do... and her fish are beginning to feel the effects of the poisoning now. one has died (it was promptly removed tho) but since the majority are tetras, which are pretty hardy, they are okay for now... but no matter how big the water change is, the nitrite is still abnormally high! they will do a water change, and by the next day, the nitrite is way up again. wut gives?

the ammonia and nitrate are okay though... i just cant figure out why just the nitrite is crazy, it seems like if it were not cycled, all the paramaters would go nuts, but its just one of the 3.... oi, this is giving me a headache

[J-P]

it almost sounds like the strain of bacteria used to convert nitrite to nitrates are being killed off by something. Aerosols used in the house?

[kilofey]

i dont think there are aersols are being used, but she has one of those scented plug ins in just about every outlet of the house... she does have a hood on the tank tho to inhibit most of whats in the house hold air from getting into the tank... other than that... theres nothing i can think of.

and her tank is not overstocked, it is comfortably understocked with only maybe 12 small tropical fish

i am going over there for easter dinner tonight, i will test the tap water to see if there are any toxins in the water... however, in the beginning, there was no nitrite problem, but ill test it anyway just to make sure. it seems like it happened overnight, or at least within 2 days. one day it was fine, the next it went bananas and havent been able to get it under control yet.

[JoseDepacos]

Is it city water? If so, is it being properly dechlorinated before being added to the tank? Is there a water softener? Also not a huge fan of adding bottled bacteria and immediately adding fish. Tank really should thoroughly cycle. As far as the disappearing fish goes, is it a snug fitting canopy? Small fish can jump out of small openings. Do you have access to the back of the tank? See any dried up fishies back there? And then theres the catfish. Is he unusually fat? Lol. Sorry, thats not funny.

[kilofey]

it has a water softener. thats all i know. it is also being drained with a garden hose... i know its prolly a dumb question, but could the garden hose have anything to do with it? i kno you arent really supposed to drink from garden hoses.... but my dad says, well its just being drained with the hose, we arent putting water in the tank so its prolly okay... try convincing him of anything, hes hard headed lol. the hood is snug, i wouldnt think any fish could get out cause the only gap is where the waterfall from the HOB filter comes out, small space. it is being dechlorinated with prime every water change

[J-P]

it has a water softener. thats all i know. it is also being drained with a garden hose... i know its prolly a dumb question, but could the garden hose have anything to do with it? i kno you arent really supposed to drink from garden hoses.... but my dad says, well its just being drained with the hose, we arent putting water in the tank so its prolly okay... try convincing him of anything, hes hard headed lol. the hood is snug, i wouldnt think any fish could get out cause the only gap is where the waterfall from the HOB filter comes out, small space. it is being dechlorinated with prime every water change

I use a garden hose to fill mine and it is fine (for the most part).

The water softener should be ok for the most part as long as it is not a planted tank. I used my tap water for over a year before I moved to a planted tank (and I have a softener) ... still a mystery

[dasboot1]

what sg level is the taank water?

[Brandon8521]

Not sure about the missing fish (havnt seen any recent post about that are they still comeing up missing?) but i would have to go with J-P about the nitrite. IDK but it sounds like there was a killoff of that strain of bacteria. Are your nitrates still riseing? If not maybe its time to start thinking about trying to get some bacteria reintroduced. This really seems like a Sherlock Holmes kinda thing. I hope you get everything running smoothely soon.

Ohh just thought about it but if it is some sort of chemical introduction do you have any carbon in the filter just in case?

[kilofey]

what sg level is the taank water?

the tank is fw... i just said ocean in the post, i really dont know why actually lol... i honestly dont even remember typing ocean, i must have been thinking of something else when i was posting, i meant to say tank lol... she just has tetras and barbs and angel fish and a cat fish

Not sure about the missing fish (havnt seen any recent post about that are they still comeing up missing?) but i would have to go with J-P about the nitrite. IDK but it sounds like there was a killoff of that strain of bacteria. Are your nitrates still riseing? If not maybe its time to start thinking about trying to get some bacteria reintroduced. This really seems like a Sherlock Holmes kinda thing. I hope you get everything running smoothely soon.

Ohh just thought about it but if it is some sort of chemical introduction do you have any carbon in the filter just in case?

thanks, im hopeful for my moms tank too, we are so baffled... yes, there is carbon in the tank, and i am growing some bacteria in my tank right now for them on some filter fiber, so hopefully that will work, but who knows! and i dont think she has had any missing fish in the last few days... but im honestly suspecting the cat fish though some of the fish are too big to fit in his mouth... maybe he isnt hungry ATM and thats why the dissapearances have slowed, who knows!!!!! *sigh*

[Brandon8521]

The Ocean thing was a April fools thing that PP did. It was pretty funny tank was ocean, water was flowing wet stuff, and puffer was poodle.

[MrsPuffAZ]

I had the same issue in my freshwater tank. I had a small 3" Pictus Catfish in with 5; 1" neons, and 3; 1.5" larger tetras. Fish would mysteriously disappear!

IF most of the fish body is not wider than the catfish they are goners. Catfish mouths open into almost a perfect circle (as wide as their body) when they eat. They don't eat fish sideways (like a dog would hold a bone). They vacuum them!

My catfish never looked too fat but most of the time they go out to feed as soon as the tank light goes off so they get the best food and then have all night to digest. If you have ever turned your tank light on in the middle of the night you will know that the other sleeping fish just zombie float around while they are sleeping. Easy prey.

I lost all five neons and a tetra before I figured out what was going on. When I moved him to a new tank he got stressed out and he ate a neon right in front of me in daylight! There is no doubt in my mind it's that catfish.

[jmiller]

...but no matter how big the water change is, the nitrite is still abnormally high! they will do a water change, and by the next day, the nitrite is way up again. wut gives?

the ammonia and nitrate are okay though... i just cant figure out why just the nitrite is crazy, it seems like if it were not cycled, all the paramaters would go nuts, but its just one of the 3.... oi, this is giving me a headache

The tank is not cycled.

What you are describing is exactly the way it should happen. Ammonia to Nitrite then to Nitrate. So with a zero ammonia and high nitrite it means that the cycle is just into the first phase, coverting ammonia to nitrite. Which unfortunately for you is the fastest part of the cycle. The bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate grows at a much slower rate. Your Mom is in for a lot of big water changes for quite a while.

My guesss on the fish is that as they are dying off from ammonia/nitrite poisoning the catfish is eating them.

[Marcink125]

put some biomax in your moms tank filter. nitrates are eaten by anerobic bacteria, which won't grow on sponges, basically the bateria needs tight spaces to grow like the biomax.

[kilofey]

The Ocean thing was a April fools thing that PP did. It was pretty funny tank was ocean, water was flowing wet stuff, and puffer was poodle.

lol i found one that said flowing wet stuff in a post i wrote a looong time ago that someone recently responded to.... hahahaha i thought i was going out of my mind good one PP, u got me

[eieio]

put some biomax in your moms tank filter. nitrates are eaten by anerobic bacteria, which won't grow on sponges, basically the bateria needs tight spaces to grow like the biomax.

nitrates? do you mean nitrites?