Is it possible for chemical drops to expire???

[Polo]

Had a slight problem today. In my 55 gallon aquarium I did about a 75% water change. Usually I do about 50%. But I havent done a water change in about 3 weeks so decided to take a little more out. Anyways for some reason I was out of of AmQuel. You know the stuff that removes Ammonia, Chloramines, Chlorine, and makes the water safe. So I asked my friend next door, who also is into cichlids if I could borrow some of his. He gives me a bottle of AquaSafe (Wal-Mart brand) After treating the water with the Aquasafe I notice that half of my fish are floating on their sides and gasping for air. I had no clue how this happened. I did the water change the same as always. I called up my friend next door and he said the AquaSafe he let me use is from about 3-4 years ago. So made a emergency run to my other friend next door....Broke into his house, since he was working....Grabbed his good drops and treated my tank. Right now all my fish seem fine, except my Pimedela Catfish which is probably dead somewhere underneath the hundreds of pounds of rocks, and my Four Line Cat Fish is missing as well. The other 37 fish in my tank are all fine, but at first they were'nt doing so good.

So my question is did those old drops become expired and useless???

[peacockbass]

at least you changed you tank. i havent cleaned my for a month. johnny, my convict male, keeps trying to bite me. and i heard that cons can make you bleed really bad. as soo as i can i will clean it.

[Cichlidgirl]

Dont know. Did you do another water change after the bad drops were added ? I would recommend doing that, at least run some fresh carbon in the filter incase the old drops were expired and are now toxic ? I would do a big water change and make sure that i put some good water condioner in it this time if it were my tank.

[Polo]

I just added in the other chemicals fish seem fine now.

[Mike]

I would say after 2 years the chemicals might go bad and you probably should throw it out and replace it with a new $5.00 bottle. I like to use Start Right from Jungle its safe affordable and has been working for me many years along with other jungle products.

Mike

[shooter50014]

I would try to stay or regular water changes and if you happen to wait an extra week I would still do the same % of water change. The reason is that if you wait 1 month you will have really dirty water if you are feeding regular. The water will really change the enviorment for your fish. I would guess this had more of an affect on your fish trying to adjust to the change in water. In my experiences I have dont smaller water changes the longer I wait to change water. If only once a month I would do 20-30%. I am trying to breed many different things. I want really clean water so I do 50% 2 times a week and on some of the tanks I do up to 75%. I dont buffer the ph accept for my pleco tank and that one only gets a 10-15% water change at the same time as I dont want to shock the black water filtration. My water is 7.2-7.8 out of the tap. I breed mbunda, peacocks, haps, victorians, and tangs in that water. My main water treatments are declorifier and salt. KISS keep it simple stupid. I know some people buffer their water but my side of the argument is that unless you have a good PH tester and know how to add the stuff to your water in a water tub, you will be changing their enviorment every time you change water. I sell fish and set up tanks for many people that probally wont do all the buffering and my fish dont require all of it or any aclimation for similar water. My main indegredient for breeding is water changes and conditioning the females.

I know some towns/cities flush their water systems. BEWARE of this cause you will get some funky water about 2 times a year.