40 Dead Fish!

[cuppycakes]

my fish kept dying so i took a sample of water to pet shop and they said it was nitrate poisoning and told me to buy this nitrate bag (£20!!) and put it in the filter for a week, do a water change then it would be safe. i did so then went and brought more fish, 8 guppys, 20 neon tetras and some other random fish i cant remember the name of, anyway within a week i had about 3 neons left and was getting annoyed so i did a 25% water change every 2 days (i have a 4 foot tank) but then the last neons popped off and so did my guppys!!!! i now have 3 tetras left (dunno wha tetras they are) so they must be really hardy!
The amount of money i have spent on this tank and fish is absolutely unbelievable!!!! Please help me! 3 4cm fish in a 4 foot tank looks ridiculous!!!! and i refuse to buy any more scams from the fish shop!!!!!!!

 

[cuppycakes]

Oh and also i have an underwater filter but have absolutely no idea how it works, how to clean it, what it does ect. Can someone explain it to me SIMPLY!!! i don't know much about fish.

 

[bricko]

Cuppycakes, Dont buy ANY more fish until you have sorted this tank out. Dont take crap advice from LFS who only want your money either.

I believe you did a fish-in -cycle in this tank originally, this is why your first batch of fish died. If I were you I would start from scratch and try to get this tank stable from the get go.

Are you dechlorinating your water that you use for water changes? In previous post you stated you had not being doing so. Chlorine WILL kill aLL your beneficial bacteria in your filter, hence rendering the cycle useless. This will mean you need to cycle your tank again (preferably without fish in)

I would lose the underggravel filter as they are not really suitable in the modern aquarium and are difficult to maintain. Save money on buying fish that will die and get an external filter of suitable size.

What are your usual mainenance schedule? Do you have a test kit? What are your wa\ter stats?

 

[Corleone]

All bricko's questions are important, but one should be stressed: Do you have a home test kit? Or at very least, did you get the fish store to write down water stats?

NitrAte is rarely toxic, except at very high levels (there are exceptions with certain sensitive fish). Water quality will go to pot in other ways before nitrate gets there. In a new tank, ammonia is the biggest killer, followed by nitrIte. Getting rid of these isn't a matter of adding stuff to the filter, but of cycling the tank.

 

[petertr]

If you have high nitrate, just change some water. No need to buy anything at all - except dechlor