Problems With Fish Dying!

[Ledmunds]

Hiya, I have been cycling my fish tank for almost 6 weeks now and have had about 10 fish die during the process so we added safe start to the tank. but gave done a water test today and ammonia and nitrite are at 0, PH around 7.4 but nitrate is around 40/50 ppm. I have read that the production of nitrate indicates the near end of the cycle. However, we bought a parrot fish and a red spotted Sterenum today but they are just lying at the bottom of the tank within shaded areas, so we did a 20% water change and added safe start again. But there is still no change in the fish behaviour. Also a few days ago we bought 2 green Sterenum but these both died over night. I'm really confused as to why this is happening if the ammonia and nitrite are at 0. I would appreciate any advice anyone would be able to provide.

 

[duplosion]

Are you dechlorinating the water before you add it to the tank?

 

[Ledmunds]

I have been adding some tap safe which it says does that? Can I do this by boiling the water and allowing it to cool down before hand too? , or do you have any other suggestions? Thanks for the response!

 

[AshleyNZ]

I would stop using the safe start, buy a water conditioner like Prime, remove the fish, and start a safe, fishless cycle. When the cycle is complete, I would slowly add stocking to the tank to avoid over whelming the filter.

 

[nic1]

Hi.
Boiling the water and letting it cool will not remove the chloramine, adding a water conditioner will.
How did you cycle the tank?
How are you introducing the new fish?
How often do you do a water change?
If that 20% water change was your first one you will need to do a much larger water change with conditioner to remove anything the fish cannot tolerate.
A tank will take longer than 6 weeks to be established enough to add anything. I know it's frustrating looking at an empty tank but having the fish die because the water is even more frustrating, unnecessary and expensive.

 

[Ledmunds]

Thankyou everyone for your advice . I have just been to buy some water treatment so will do a slightly larger water change later and add this. I don't really want to start the cycle again as the tank now has no nitrite or ammonia . We have been doing water changes about every other day of the same amount. We cycled the tank for 2 weeks without any fish then introduced 2 into the aquarium originally, but we realised this was wrong when we tested the water and had high nitrite and ammonia but now this has been resolved and we now have the production of nitrate in the tank, but we will try the water treatment and see how this goes. How often would you suggest to do water changes, and how much to take?

 

[nic1]

In the beginning the I would do 25% every other day or 10% daily.
Then you can go to 25% weekly.