I put up a new 20 gallon tank Sunday for my nl. brichardi. Everything was new except for the tank which had been stored in the basement for several years. I used the cichlid sand that comes wet in a bag, rocks that had been in my other tank, a new power head, filter & heater (with an established filter floss pack from my other tank to help w/ the cycle). I'd installed a 3 jet UGJ system. The tank was rinsed well with hot water & wiped out well. The water was dechlorinated. My tap water has no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates, a pH of 7.6 and KH of 8.2.
Got everything settled down and running and put the 4 brichardi in. They looked fine so I turned the light off, watched a movie with my wife and went to bed.
On the way home from work yesterday, assuming everything was OK I stopped by the lfs and picked up 4 more brichardi to bring the total up to 8 (had 4 originally) to help guarantee I had sufficient m/f ratios.
But when I got home two of the brichardi were dead and the other two are on the bottom gasping. I couldn't figure out what it was so I grabbed a quick sample of the water and started changing the water. I checked pH and ammonia, 7.6 and 0 respectively. I wound up taking the survivors out and into my other tank but they died later.
So now the tank is all set up and running but it kills fish. I'm stumped.
Until this morning that is. The tank had been in the basement and had been exposed to a couple of flea bombs last summer when we became infested. Like I mentioned above, I had rinsed the tank well with hot water and wiped it out thoroughly but apparently that wasn't sufficient and enough residual poison killed my fish. The worst part is I siphoned off about 5lb of sand out of the new tank and added it to my established tank (which got an 85% water change last night just to be safe). This morning the fish looked ok for the most part, they weren't gasping though some were around the bottom of the tank. That could be explained by the stress of moving into a new tank then having most of the water taken out. They did look alert though so I think they'll be OK.
So my question is what to do with the 20 gallon fiasco? I was thinking a series of water changes and mixing the sand up might be sufficient, but I'm also thinking I should trash the substrate, take everything down and clean it somehow. Can I use soap? Is flea bomb poison water soluble? I've never used soap to clean fish gear for fear of contamination, but in this case?
Anyone? Thanks for reading.
Got everything settled down and running and put the 4 brichardi in. They looked fine so I turned the light off, watched a movie with my wife and went to bed.
On the way home from work yesterday, assuming everything was OK I stopped by the lfs and picked up 4 more brichardi to bring the total up to 8 (had 4 originally) to help guarantee I had sufficient m/f ratios.
But when I got home two of the brichardi were dead and the other two are on the bottom gasping. I couldn't figure out what it was so I grabbed a quick sample of the water and started changing the water. I checked pH and ammonia, 7.6 and 0 respectively. I wound up taking the survivors out and into my other tank but they died later.
So now the tank is all set up and running but it kills fish. I'm stumped.
Until this morning that is. The tank had been in the basement and had been exposed to a couple of flea bombs last summer when we became infested. Like I mentioned above, I had rinsed the tank well with hot water and wiped it out thoroughly but apparently that wasn't sufficient and enough residual poison killed my fish. The worst part is I siphoned off about 5lb of sand out of the new tank and added it to my established tank (which got an 85% water change last night just to be safe). This morning the fish looked ok for the most part, they weren't gasping though some were around the bottom of the tank. That could be explained by the stress of moving into a new tank then having most of the water taken out. They did look alert though so I think they'll be OK.
So my question is what to do with the 20 gallon fiasco? I was thinking a series of water changes and mixing the sand up might be sufficient, but I'm also thinking I should trash the substrate, take everything down and clean it somehow. Can I use soap? Is flea bomb poison water soluble? I've never used soap to clean fish gear for fear of contamination, but in this case?
Anyone? Thanks for reading.