Suspected OTS - Dead fish

[raecarrow]

I had a BN pleco, 5 sids, and 2 rosey danios in a 10 gallon which is a river set up. My BN and one of the sids died (that is to say I went away for a few days and I returned to find no trace of the BN and only 1/3rd of the sid's body. The odd thing was, when I checked my levels. I got,
Nitrates - 80
Nitrites - 0 (I had a crap load of hornwort in the tank)
PH - about 6.8
KH - can't remember but it was VERY low
GH - off the charts high

I throughly vacumed the gravel, did a 50% water change, added a 10 gallon HOB filter with a clean carbon cartridge to help filter out the waste in the water.

What else can I do? I know I need to give these fish at least a 20 gallon long, but I know I need to get that set up and settled, but what should I do in the mean time. Should I just do water changes as needed, dump everything from my 10 gallon into a 20 long and hope for the best, or should I move them to my overcrowded 30 gallon (that has 5 yoyos, 1 striata, 1 kub, 3 black kuhlies, 3 bn plecos, and a large number of guppies) while I set up the 20 long.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rae

[Diana]

To raise KH add a little bit of baking soda. Not much. 1 teaspoon in 30 gallons will raise the KH by 2 degrees, and your tank is only a 10 gallon. Try 1/4 teaspoon.

What is the KH of the tap water? If it is at least 3 degrees then you may not need to add baking soda. Just do some water changes.

Do enough water changes to get the nitrate under 20 ppm. If the tap and tank are similar, you can do some large water changes.
Similar:
Tap water GH and KH not more than 1 degree lower or 2 degrees higher than tank.

If there is any ammonia showing then be very careful with water changes. You want to keep the pH on the acidic side of neutral if possible. Use an ammonia locking product, if needed.

As for moving fish around:
Even if they are not in the right size tank(s) I would try to keep them in more tanks rather than try to add them all together and make that one tank (the 30) over crowded. Even if there are currently problems with the 10, at least there is more water to dilute their waste.

If you are ready to move them into a 20 long, then go for it. Move everything with them that might have any nitrifying bacteria, and add some more bacteria for example Dr. Tim's One and Only or Tetra Safe Start. This would be good, becuase there would be twice as much room for the fish, and twice as much water to dilute the wastes.

If you are not quite ready to move them you could get the filter for the 20 long cycled by running it on a bucket and doing the fishless cycle.