# Water Treatment Killed My Cichlids.. Please Advise



## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

This may be a fairly long post, so I apologise before I write it!

As the weather has got better outside, and it has got warmer etc, the ocean rocks in our Mbuna cichlid tank have decided to go green- inevitable really. My boyfriend and I take the rocks out, and scrub and scrub, but because of how porous they are, can never quite get them perfectly white again. 

I am Manager of a pet shop, and on many occasions I have sold a water treatment for aquariums, to get rid of green water- Interpet Green Away Treatment, so a few months ago, I decided to bring some home. Now it has sat in the cupboard for this time, but a few nights ago, I decided that ‘it couldn’t do any harm’ and decided to measure out the appropriate amount of treatment, dissolve it in warm water, and put it into our tank.

Our tank holds 300 litres, but I decided to only treat for 200 litres- as I didn’t want to put the full dose in... So I poured the treatment in, over the surface of the tank, as described in the instructions, and straight away the tank went a funny orange colour, and then went quite cloudy... but I thought nothing of it. Within FIVE minutes of me putting the treatment in, ALL of my cichlids were at the top/ or bottom, gasping for air. The fish at the bottom were rocking from side to side, unbalanced and rapid gill movements. The ones at the top were gasping for their lives, and two fish were spiralling uncoordinated all around the tank. I knew this was not the desired affect it should be having on my fish, so I put on my air pumps to add more oxygen to the usually well oxygenated tank. But to no avail... some of the fish started lying on their sides in the bottom of the tank... so the only thing I thought I could do was 1/3rd to 1/2 water change of the 300litre tank. 

I did this at 1am, hoping that I could save my fish... but despite my best efforts, 3 out of my 20 fish died that night/before morning.

The other fish- well two are hiding in the rocks, not even coming out to eat, and the others, although they look ok, they are acting differently, and are still spending allot of time at the top of the tank. One of my yellow labs had its mouth stuck open for two days- couldn’t close it at all... and all these odd occurrences have happened since putting the treatment in.

To be honest, I am absolutely devastated... and appalled. ALL of my fish were absolutely fine... until the Green Away treatment went in... 

The pH of the tank is fine to use with the treatment- as I am very meticulous about reading all instructions of treatments... a case of having to be when at work we have hundreds of fish using different treatments.

I emailed the customer care department of Interpet, as it was out of hours... and they emailed basically saying sorry for the experience i have had.. They will send out a customer form to fill in, and I have to send a water sample back, with the product... Which of course I will do, but nothing they can say will make up for losing some of my fish, and the stress it has caused... 

Has anyone ever had any similar experience with using a water treatment, and what the company did/said to excuse themselves?

I have a good mind to take all products we supply to customers from Interpet off the shelf at work... as i certainly cannot stand and sell a water treatment knowing it has killed my fish and caused so much devastation. Had I walked away after putting the treatment in, I could have awoken to a tank with no fish that were alive.

Any thoughts, advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my post. :sad:


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## rum&coke (Apr 19, 2009)

That sucks, That green away stuff is ment to just clump the free floating alge together so that it gets collected by the filter so I doubt it would have got the green off your rocks anyway, I can only think it must have been a bad bottle or that there was some thing else in the water it reacted with.
What ever the reason it wont bring your fish back. I have had fish die before from using treatments, I used some of that cycle stuff and that had the same effect you describe, I think some times the bottled treatments can go bad for one reason or another.


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## Mynki (Mar 24, 2010)

slimeysnail said:


> This may be a fairly long post, so I apologise before I write it!
> 
> As the weather has got better outside, and it has got warmer etc, the ocean rocks in our Mbuna cichlid tank have decided to go green- inevitable really. My boyfriend and I take the rocks out, and scrub and scrub, but because of how porous they are, can never quite get them perfectly white again.
> 
> ...


 
Three times. On two occasions the problem was found to be OK. The third (Which I won't name publically) admitted that it was from a batch that contained an unusually high amount of copper. All where sent by me on behalf of other people. The faulty product manufactuer compensated the fishkeeper for the loss of their livestock.

I will say though that Interpet customer service is generally very good.


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## Viva (Apr 19, 2010)

Have no experiences like that but I am really sorry you have lost your fish, I would have been devastated too.


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## Gizmo24 (Jul 26, 2009)

Sorry never hear if this killing fish either.

But the way to clean ocean rock is to remove it first, soak on boiling hot water with a little *THIN* (*not thick*) bleach for 20-30 mins then wash off in clean water with a large dollip of aquasafe (at least 50-60ml) as this will remove the bleach. Or allow it to air for 48 hours before returning to the aquaria


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## SlinkiSnake (Jun 5, 2008)

*algae*

I'm sorry 4 the loss of your fish. I know how traumatic this can b.

I really don't know why people worry so much about algae. It can b beneficial. The algae fixes trace elements, such as nitrates. Making them safe for your fish.
Suspended algae can be removed by adding carbon, and fine filter medium 2 your filter. Fixed algae will happily eaten by a grazing fish, such as ancistrus.

I'm never in a hurry 2 add chemicals 2 my water. There's already enough stuff 2 b dealing with when it comes out the tap!


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## riverdeep (Sep 25, 2009)

We had the same thing happemn in our malawi tank last night, but I put filter aid as i thought it would clear the water as you said did everything correct and next thing all fish on the bottom of tank, I was a bit more lucky to syphon water out and at the same time fill with fresh and this helped we only lost 2 fish, but i will not be useing filter aid again,sorry for your loss and i will make sure i dont use green away in my tank just incase






slimeysnail said:


> This may be a fairly long post, so I apologise before I write it!
> 
> As the weather has got better outside, and it has got warmer etc, the ocean rocks in our Mbuna cichlid tank have decided to go green- inevitable really. My boyfriend and I take the rocks out, and scrub and scrub, but because of how porous they are, can never quite get them perfectly white again.
> 
> ...


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

Thankyou to everyone whom has replied to this thread. 

I know it was stupid of me to even think about putting any treatment in, but I have well and truly learnt my lesson. 

Our blue cobalts, infact most of the fish like to graze on the algae if they can pick it off the rocks, which makes my actions of putting the treatment in, even harder to understand I guess. 

I just thought.. I would try it to see if it would help reduce the amount.. 

Anway, what is done is done I guess 

We have since lost two more fish.. and there is one, whom has been hiding ever since in the rocks, and he is now being picked on by everyone.. what a nightmare 

It is so upsetting, because the tank is the main feature in our living room, and as sad as it sounds, my partner and I spend hours watching the fish.. and to see the whole tank pretty much to be turned upside down to the norm, is heart breaking. The tank was pretty peaceful to start with, and all the fish had their own place in the tank, and there was hardly any aggression between the fish.. but now, everyone is competing and chasing each other round..

Never again will I use any treatment.. but the question in my mind is.. WHY. What on earth was wrong with the treatment in the first place to cause this.. 

I am still awaiting a reply from the company.. are there any tests I can do/get done on the product itself to get answers... I doubt it.. 

:sad:


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

riverdeep said:


> We had the same thing happemn in our malawi tank last night, but I put filter aid as i thought it would clear the water as you said did everything correct and next thing all fish on the bottom of tank, I was a bit more lucky to syphon water out and at the same time fill with fresh and this helped we only lost 2 fish, but i will not be useing filter aid again,sorry for your loss and i will make sure i dont use green away in my tank just incase


Have you been in touch with the company that made the treatment?

I dont understand how such companies can get away with selling treatments if they have such terrible results.

Maybe I am being over the top? But our fish are worth £100s, but never mind the cost.. its the principle of the whole issue.. why would anyone in their right mind pay £6 for a bottle of treatment that is ''suitable for all types of tropical fish'' and no warnings on the bottles, for it to kill their stock within a matter of minutes/hours/days..

Yes, foods go off.. medicines go off, and maybe the blame cannot be put on the company.. but is it a faulty batch.. would they really admit to that if it were... 

Arrrgh I am sorry, I am rambling...


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

SlinkiSnake said:


> I'm sorry 4 the loss of your fish. I know how traumatic this can b.
> 
> I really don't know why people worry so much about algae. It can b beneficial. The algae fixes trace elements, such as nitrates. Making them safe for your fish.
> Suspended algae can be removed by adding carbon, and fine filter medium 2 your filter. Fixed algae will happily eaten by a grazing fish, such as ancistrus.
> ...


The worst of it really, is the fact I knew the treatment I was putting in was not aimed at fixed algae, and I knew how it worked- clumping particles together to be removed by the filters etc.. 

Grrrrrr I am devastated..


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## y2dom (Jul 2, 2010)

Just found your thread via google and it made me sign up.

I bought some of this Greenaway product, worked out the amount needed for my pond and since putting it on Wednesday, have had 6 gold fish die. 

I link it to the product, as they had the same process as the original posters fish.

Struggling to breath (though i thought they were just hungry and near the top),
floating on there side, then few hours later just dead.

Bit of a shame really, though as they were goldfish and didnt cost too much money it's not too much too loose.

Just a shame as i was recommended this product by someone who said it worked.


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## SlinkiSnake (Jun 5, 2008)

*batch number*

The product should hav a batch number on it. Could u post it up on this thead? We might b able 2 see how wide-spread the problem is.


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

y2dom said:


> Just found your thread via google and it made me sign up.
> 
> I bought some of this Greenaway product, worked out the amount needed for my pond and since putting it on Wednesday, have had 6 gold fish die.
> 
> ...



I am so sorry to hear of your loss of fish too.. It is total madness that this product has been ''allowed'' to kill peoples fish.. why has the company not put up a warning, or circulated to suppliers that there is obviously a ''bad batch'' going about. My question to you though y2dom, was it the aquarium green away you used, or was it the pond variation? 

I myself am Manager of a petshop- and will certainly be taking all treatments off the shelf until I know exactly what is wrong with the treatments.. I have since sent water samples back to Interpet after they asked me to do so, and have sent the product back too, which I damn well didnt write down the batch number of (I know this wont help at all, but I had the product delivered into my shop about three months ago).


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

1E0878 <<< This is the batch number of the product I used...


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## y2dom (Jul 2, 2010)

Hi, it was the pond version i used.

and the batch number i believe is 1F2468

Found two more fish today, thats 8 fish since wednesday.


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## slimeysnail (Jan 29, 2009)

y2dom said:


> Hi, it was the pond version i used.
> 
> and the batch number i believe is 1F2468
> 
> Found two more fish today, thats 8 fish since wednesday.


Phone or email the company who made the product. Tell them what has happened, and they will probably send you a prepaid evelope to send back the treatment..which is what I have done, and I am waiting on hearing back from them now.

There surely must be something in these products that are causing the fish to be poisoned within a few mins/hours/days.. why is there no warning on the labels of these products..


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## tonymoore (Aug 26, 2012)

Hi & help 

i have just used green away this morning, and right away noticed my fish having problems, i have already lost 3 mollys and one silver shark and one off my guppys, i also have 3 clowns who aren't doing so great, like you i followed what was on the bottle step by step, i have moved the fish into my hospital tank with the pump going ten to dozzon put air in, i don't like the of any of them, is there anything esle i can do.


tony


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## Sutters (Oct 31, 2009)

Best thing to clean tuffa rock/oceon rock is take it out the tank...DO NOT scrub or clean it.....Sit it in the sun or even a dry area for a few days...Cleans it pefectly...

Sorry to hear so many people losing fish due to a product there using


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