Not sure what is happening

So i have a fully cylcled 40 gallon breeder tank in which i have been houseing 38 babies ranging from when they were tanken from mother to currently about 2 and half inches some smaller some larger and were doing perfect. All were born in another tank and transferred to this grow out tank and lost mabye 2 or three in a 6 month span from fry to current size. I recently bought 11 new chiclids from tampabay cichlids lil over two months ago all dif species that were going to be grown and put into my show 90 gallon all male tank and moved those 38 to my 120 and put the 11 new ones all 1 inch to 2 inch size in this cycled 40 gallon. First 2 weeks all were eating perfect and had no issues then lost my first fish. Over the last 3 weeks have been losing one a week in one week lost two. Ammonia is 0 or close to it nitrate are 40 to 80. Cant do much about it as my tap water comes out at 80. All my other tanks 6 in total a 120 housing 2 to 3 inch 38 deep water haps one german red, ob peackock, 90 gallon show tank all 5 to 8 inch mature males, another 120 with marble cat and 3 gars, 29 gallon bow with 10 glow barbs... all the same tap water is used and rarely do i ever have any deaths this frequent.
Only dif i have on this 40 breeder i have a diy setup with pathos plant set up above the tank to try to reduce nitrates helps a lil but not much but that was on there before with the 38 it housed before.
Any ideas on why these random deaths.

Tank i was speaking about and diy set up.

Can you sum up what you wrote but put it into a couple of simply sentences?

If you have sick fish, post pictures of them.

You can get filters to remove nitrates from tap water. Look up Pozzani filter on here or online. A Reverse Osmosis unit might help too but they waste a lot of water. Putting the tap water into a large plastic holding container and filling it with plants will help get rid of the nitrates. When the nitrates are 0 you can use the water to do water changes on the fish tanks.

You should contact your local health department and inform them of the high nitrates in the tap water. Nitrates cause cancer and your water supply is poisonous to you and the fish and any animals or birds that drink it.

You should drink bottled water until your tap water is safe to drink.

Colin_T said:

Can you sum up what you wrote but put it into a couple of simply sentences?

If you have sick fish, post pictures of them.

You can get filters to remove nitrates from tap water. Look up Pozzani filter on here or online. A Reverse Osmosis unit might help too but they waste a lot of water. Putting the tap water into a large plastic holding container and filling it with plants will help get rid of the nitrates. When the nitrates are 0 you can use the water to do water changes on the fish tanks.

You should contact your local health department and inform them of the high nitrates in the tap water. Nitrates cause cancer and your water supply is poisonous to you and the fish and any animals or birds that drink it.

You should drink bottled water until your tap water is safe to drink.

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Ty for the quick response..to sum it up i have new fish recent bought randomly dieing for no reason. Curious if anyone has ever heard of diy aquaponics setups ever leach anything causing random deaths...
As far the nirates from the tap i have contacted my local water supply as well as my mayor to have them investigate it and after test were done was told those level are not toxic are in the legal limits....i don't drink the water only bottled anyway just side note

In the UK and most other countries, they have a much lower maximum limit for nitrates. Just because the mayor says it's safe, doesn't mean it is

What is the growing medium in the hydroponic set up?
If it's grow wool or ceramic beads it should be fine. If it's potting mix it can cause problems when stuff leaches out of the mix into the tank water.

My guess it is probably high nitrates that is killing them. However, it could be a disease.

What symptoms are the fish showing before they die?
What do they look like when they die?
Can you post some pictures of the fish so we can check them for diseases?

Colin_T said:

In the UK and most other countries, they have a much lower maximum limit for nitrates. Just because the mayor says it's safe, doesn't mean it is

What is the growing medium in the hydroponic set up?
If it's grow wool or ceramic beads it should be fine. If it's potting mix it can cause problems when stuff leaches out of the mix into the tank water.

My guess it is probably high nitrates that is killing them. However, it could be a disease.

What symptoms are the fish showing before they die?
What do they look like when they die?
Can you post some pictures of the fish so we can check them for diseases?

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I agree nitrate levels are very high from tap but they have stated wehn doing conversion of no3 and nitrate x 4.27 or so.ething like that they are within leagl limits..
posted a picture of the set up as a reply after my first thread the media is clay balls in a pot above the fish tank as i saw most large scale aquaponics systems were set up with the same clay balls and that is were i was put onto the idea. nothing else is used besides that.

As far as the fish they show zero sign of stress or disease. In fact are eating the day before
I go to bed wake up next morning and one will be dead and so on.
But what i dont understand is all my other tanks have had zero issues with this tap water..granted all are much older or have been born in this water
Can fish grow a tolerance of high nitrates and these recently bought fish just cant take it?

An American member said a few years ago that the legal limit in the USA was 10 ppm nitrate-N. Nitrate-N converts to nitrate-NO3 by multiplying by 4.4268, so that 10 ppm nitrate-N converts to 44.268 ppm nitrate-NO3.

The upper legal limit in the UK is 50 ppm nitrate-NO3. This is almost the same as the 10 ppm nitrate-N that I was told is the upper USA limit.

Our test kits measure nitrate-NO3, so your readings of 80 ppm in tap water is double what I was told is the upper legal USA limit.



I have just looked at the US EPA website and that does give the upper limit in the USA as 10 ppm nitrate-N (or 44,268 ppm nitrate-NO3)

essjay said:

An American member said a few years ago that the legal limit in the USA was 10 ppm nitrate-N. Nitrate-N converts to nitrate-NO3 by multiplying by 4.4268, so that 10 ppm nitrate-N converts to 44.268 ppm nitrate-NO3.

The upper legal limit in the UK is 50 ppm nitrate-NO3. This is almost the same as the 10 ppm nitrate-N that I was told is the upper USA limit.

Our test kits measure nitrate-NO3, so your readings of 80 ppm in tap water is double what I was told is the upper legal USA limit.



I have just looked at the US EPA website and that does give the upper limit in the USA as 10 ppm nitrate-N (or 44,268 ppm nitrate-NO3)

National Primary Drinking Water Regulations | US EPA

Table of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs or primary standards) that are legally enforceable standards that apply to public water systems.

www.epa.gov

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So i called my water company again today and assured me ther are all with in the legal limits. Asked if they could come and test my tap water as my reading did a total of 6 today with to dif kits just to make sure i was not the one at fault and all came in a shade between 40 and 80ppm. They replied with that the kits we use are not a mean s of measuring they would be held accountable to and need to send my water to send a sample of my water to the lab in which they send it as well for them to beleive my figures are accurate at my own expense.
I then called the lab they referred me to and was told the test starts at $599 and goes up from there. So in a a bind at the moment..
Side note i also called the health dept and was transferred to a vm that states i would receive a phone call back, 6 hours later no phone call as of yet unfortunately.

Rj aquatics said:

Asked if they could come and test my tap water as my reading did a total of 6 today with to dif kits just to make sure i was not the one at fault and all came in a shade between 40 and 80ppm.

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They are probably within the legal limit. My own water supplier keeps it at exactly 50ppm . Our ater is ground water and I assume higher than 50ppm. They obviously do just enough to stay legal.