Why NOT to do water changes after a storm...

by **jnelson1983** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 5:43 pm

Thursday, the farmers in the area spread fertilizer on their fields...

On Friday, we had a major rainfall.

I did a water change last night (saturday) of only 25-30%. Used tap water like always (with a filter on the faucet) Added AmQuel Plus to take out the chlorine and other miscellaneous stuff out of the water..

2 hours later, I had to empty the cup and there was a brownish color to the waste in the cup...smelled like fertilizer.

Busted out the test kit...
The amonia in the water (which for the last 2 years has been undetectable) was at 2ppm (the darkest color on the scale)..

I began to panic.

4 hours after the water change, my 3 lionfish were all breathing VERY heavily.
**Emptied cup another 2 times by this point**

2 hours after that, my 2 large Lionfish were dead.

The smaller one is still breathing very heavy...

None of my fish will eat.

Hope noone else has this happen. I've used the water from my faucet for years with no issues ever. So has my uncle, my mom and 4 other friends with fish tanks. All with no issues whatsoever.

by **fihsboy** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:18 pm

Ro unit is the only way to go, sounds like your in the country. Certainly a must then. Im sorry for your losses.

by **jnelson1983** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:03 pm

Nope... Live in the city. Guessing there was enough runoff to royally mess things up. No other explaination makes sense.

by **fihsboy** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:45 am

dang thats not good.........did you report it to your supplier? Thats searious. if it kills fish.........think what it could do to you.

by **lionlord3502** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:39 am

dude i second that id call the water treatment plant and posibly the epa if the cemicals are that nasty to git in to the tap water something has to be done save water sampols for evidence.

by **kelbri** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:04 pm

I agree. Sorry for your loss, but here's to hoping it doesn't get any worse. You might as well be drinking a bottle of windex.

by **Snowboss4492** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:27 am

yeah man..........................i lived out in KS for quit a few years and the farms out there have destroyed the natural aquifers with anhydrous amonia and other forms of fertilizers that very few places are even allowed to drill water wells, pretty sad just to get that bigger ear of corn or another bushel of wheat and then let the government pay you not to grow next year............we humans are our own worse enemies ..............

Boss

by **kelbri** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:30 pm

The best part is, up here in Saskatchewan, we have a huge operation that mines the stuff that goes into fertilizer. It's not a renewable resource (like diamonds, coal and oil, millions of years to create it), so we're eventually gonna run out of it (last estimates I heard were within the next 20-30 years), and now that we have been using the stuff so much, there aren't many areas that can actually grow crops (decent crops) without it. We become so enthralled with the "easy road", we forget that it can be done with a little sweat. You said it Boss, own worst enemies....

Why NOT to do water changes after a storm...

8 posts