Always had problems with plastic tanks?

[Sena Hansler]

You should meet Spartan. He just won't die. He's been poisoned twice now - both in plastic tanks. Wasn't the air flow, ammonia, any of that o.o always seems to be plastic tanks... Both has perfect levels, tap water conditioner, cleaned, by himself...
And he is alive still lol... (thank God)
Has anyone else have had any problems with plastic vs. Glass?

[MMAsac]

nope, everyone of my fish is in a plastic tank other than my spawning tank is glass.

[Kytkattin]

I only use glass. I don't like the look or feel of plastic tanks. However, for most people, they have no problems with them.

[Sena Hansler]

Hmmm weird. Maybe I just have bad luck with those tanks. Even cycled the plastic ones like to kill fish I've had...

[Littlebittyfish]

I bought a used plastic tank once...I cleaned it well with fish safe items...but I believe it was stored wrong or used for something other than fish...It poisoned the first fish I put in it...I took him out and he recovered slowly...(RIP, hes passed away) He was a new guy so I wasn't completely sold on it being the tanks fault..so I cleaned it again...Got a new betta a few weeks later and I ended up poisoning my other fish with that darn tank too. I took him out..he recovered.I threw that tank away.haha
All of my glass tanks are used, and I have never had any issues with them. I have a 2.5 gallon minibow now..and I have no troubles with it, but I bought it brand new.If you buy it new there shouldn't be any problems with plastic/acrylic tanks...I don't think I will buy a used acrylic tank again though.

[dragonflie]

With all due respect; how do you really know it's the tank?

While I won't say it's impossible (because almost nothing is), it is extremely unlikely, especially if you are using a tank designed for fish; and even if it's not, it's still highly unlikely.

Because certain symptoms can mirror so many other things, sometimes it is hard to say what just ends up going wrong. And without some sort of test to find some of these chemicals in your tank water, there's no way to either rule that out or confirm it.

If many seemingly healthy fish tend to start dying one by one close in time frames, it could indeed be disease; as I would hazard a guess that most of us aren't sterilizing all items in between tank maintenances, and even if you are using dedicated paraphernalia, if you're not hand washing in between maintenances diseases can be transferred that way too (some of them).

There's also water quality; SOURCE water quality. For tap water; as long as it remains within EPA guidelines, you might not necessarily be informed of any changes in it. But this doesn't mean the chemistry can't change overnight, as sometimes water companies might need to adjust the chemicals they add to it to make it safe for us to drink. There are many environmental factors that can occur to change our pH, chloramine content; and ammonia and nitrate might be in our taps too (I have nitrate in mine), and these levels can change.

There are quite a few different types of plastic. An interesting read: http://www.qualitymarine.com/News/Fe...%2810/11/10%29

As littlebitty has mentioned, if a container has been "used" before you got it, there is no way to know what chemicals were in it, and in that case, the tank might very well be poisoning fish, because leftover chemical residues can very easily kill our fish. But the plastic itself? I don't think this is what is happening here.

When I lost my 5 bettas in succession a year ago, they all had the same symptoms, and degraded exponentially overnight. There were no physical symptoms at all; they were all behavior. They were all in plastic tanks, but they were different types of plastic; some were acrylic minibows and some were plastic critter keepers, both of which contain very different chemicals in the plastic. But I have gone on to use one of the very same minibow tanks with no issues.

So to sum up, I'd suggest to start looking for other reasons you might end up seeing the behavior you do, starting with contacting your local water company and ask for recent and past reports on quality, or if you have a well; get someone to test your water. If disease can be ruled out (and sometimes it can't), water chemistry is the place I would look next.

[Laki]

I prefer plastic. I have spina bifida and as a result had to rehome my 2 beautiful turtles a year or so ago. They had a giant glass aquarium which killed me to maintain. With a little betta and a plastic tank I can keep it as clean as it should be and also, once money comes through, maybe have more than 1!!!

[vaygirl]

Three of my tanks are plastic and I've had no problems. I mean, I've lost fish but they've also been in glass tanks. I agree with Dragonflie on the water issue. I've seen my ph fluctuate from 7.2 to 6.3 between water changes. That's a huge change. Make sure you're ruling stuff like that out first. What kind of plastic tank do you have?

[Bresn]

Just wash the tanks everytime you do a water change.

[Sena Hansler]

Okay, here was the first tank... 5 gallon with filter and heater. Cycled, and I only use tap water conditioner and tested water for all levels. and had 2 guppies (temporary) in it, who were no more than a half inch long (just wee lil' gals :) ) and in 15 minutes they were in shock, less than a minute after, died. I cleaned the ENTIRE tank with hot water. Cycled again. Killed another fish... This time around I emptied absolutely everything.... got rid of the heater, cartidge was new, all that jazz. No rocks, no plants, new heater. It killed my test fish (I know, so mean, it was a store bought minnow) And she died. I introduced right, tested, kept it at the needed temperature, filtered, conditioned.

Now, I thought, maybe the filter? Weird. Before this never had a problem (it had been used for a betta before until I moved him then proceeded to use it for other fish for quarintine IF they were okay for that tank size). It nearly killed a betta I put in there, so it WASN'T the filter.

I had no choice but to scoop him out (the net was not my concern as it was elsewhere in the room, so had to cup my hands with him and water) and placed him in the community tank where he then made a full recovery after an hour of shock and hyperventilating >< It probably was the plastic. Something not right. My betta never had a problem in any other tank until I had him in THIS plastic one, which he was 1. less active 2. acted extremely weird. But he is my healthiest lil' guy.

All well :) he is alive and that's what matters!!!