# tank disaster ....fyi



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

how do i start this without being cruel or trying to ostersize someone this is not the point of this post .i just want to let the forum know that any mistakes can prove to be drastic, as i had a disaster ,i have a 75 gal planted tank that's been up and running basically with very little upkeep so yes with my salt build i have lacked the proper maint .but my tank has been thriving with no probs for at least two years all fish happy and no major upsets in this tank .
heres the scenario i ended up with some food from a fellow forum member i don't know what possessed me but i started to feed them with the food .what happened in the next few days have been so upsetting and it was like a rollercoaster and not being able to stop the ride .
75 percent of my fish have died .not sure if it was 100 percent the food or my lack of maint .but in my best diag it has to be the fish cause with in three days of starting to feed them the food i started having deaths .i have been doing massive water changes and cleanings trying to stop it to no avail.
anyways my point is once u start your tank be careful of switching foods /products that u have not researched or tried in small traces .i believe me in trying this food did my tank in .it was really dishearting to watch.
so please be mindful of stuff u purchase or are given 
sometimes its just not worth it .
this is not the fault of the person who i got the food from by no means but my laxadayzee "ahh its food what can it hurt"
my reg food of choice that i have and am feeding my fish are big als staple food no probs for several years and do mix up some NLS products ,along with brine shrimp and blood worms .
just my rant as i am removing corpses from my tank 
thanks 
tom


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## Mlevi (Jan 28, 2012)

WOW!

I am so sorry that you're going through a crash like that. Usually we don't think of food choices as affecting the tank so badly and within such a short period. Thank you for sharing this. I'm sure the next time any of us pick up a pack o' fish food, we'll keep your experience in mind.

I hope that your tank can recover. I don't know what kind of fish you have in the tank currently, but I can give you guppies to get the tank stocked again, if you wish. I wish I could offer you a variety, but that's all that I keep.

Al.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

what brand of food?
how old?

If you were using some homemade food or something, that could be it.

Or if the food wasn't stored well, got wet or something

Or too old and going bad

MOPS has a sale on a new food that is made in Canada that I will probably try out.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*thank u*

no worries man it was more of a freebie of food that he/she was not using anymore ,and was clearing out ....lost my spawing pair of kribs /german rams /
corycats/sae/cardinals/plecos..........

like i said it is what it is and maybe some of this is happening cause of the massive deaths .hopefully my water changes can help ....
anyways thank u for the offer i will msg u if i decide to restock with guppies 
thanks again 
tom


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## Car2n (Jun 7, 2011)

I find it hard to believe that within a few days that multiple fish died because of food. Unless the food acted as a poison or something. Fish can go for quite some time without any food and to have several die all within the same time period would lead me to think something else is out of place.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*food*

same here but can not put anything else to it .... as nothing else was done to tank to start this , only thing i can think of is food source..or cause of deaths raised tank perameters up so high , but card to understand in a 75 gal tank ...


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## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

Car2n said:


> I find it hard to believe that within a few days that multiple fish died because of food. Unless the food acted as a poison or something. Fish can go for quite some time without any food and to have several die all within the same time period would lead me to think something else is out of place.


The food may in fact have gone bad, or contained some sort of baceria which harmed the fish. This is entirely possible. If lots of people get sick after a big meal they shared, we often assume it was the food. I can't see any reason not to surmise the same possibility with fish 

Mind, it could have been something else, and there is no way to know for sure.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Fwiw, I had a somewhat similar experience, though with a commercial food that was new to me. The morning after I fed it for the first time, I had a number of dead fish, a group of lovely little Cory Hastatus, some kuhli loaches and I can't recall all of them now. Nothing else was out of whack, parameters all the same as before I fed the food.. I posted about it at the time.

Don't know what happened, but since the only thing different in the tank at that time was a new food, that was what I thought caused the deaths. Perhaps it was contaminated in some way that was not readily apparent.. I don't think I'll ever know, but if food is the only change, and you get deaths, I think it's logical to suspect the food was the cause. 

My sympathies on your losses. It is hard when you suddenly lose many fish like that.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

Sucks to hear,

I've switched foods multiple times on my tanks with no adverse side effects. Perhaps the food was very old, or maybe during a water test, some tester chemical happened to spill into the foot vessel. At any rate, this is terrible news.

I have my suspicions that the food was not fully to blame, only partially, I hate to say it but likely the lack of maintenance, combined with a foreign substance on the food caused the out breaks of death.

Or it could be something as simple as one fish in the tank died, you couldn't see it and the ammonia plague began. At any rate, this is sad news. But on the greener side of the grass.... now you can focus more on the salty...


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*tank*

Yah I agree with u guys may have been a reaction to food.and most 
Prob the ammonia plague since tank is heavily planted.
I dont know the answer for sure but it surely sucks
Thanks for the input


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

tom g said:


> Yah I agree with u guys may have been a reaction to food.and most
> Prob the ammonia plague since tank is heavily planted.
> I dont know the answer for sure but it surely sucks
> Thanks for the input


A heavily planted tank should not have any ammonia problems. In fact, a heavily planted tank requires little to no maintenance. All I ever do is feed the fish and top off the water.


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