Fish dying!!! Very frustrated

[Dar]

I am have installed and cycle my 10 gallon tank (planted with dragon stones and drift wood)for about one month and half. I cycle my tank by "feeding the tank" everything went well then for about 3 weeks my readings for amonia, nitrates, nitrites was 0 ppm ph 7.4.
Added 3 chinese shrimps, 6 tetras and one cory. For about a 4 days everything was good and i kept doing constant water test to make sure everyone was safe as well as my regular water changes when needed. Then i got as a gift (new tank gift and bday gift) 4 guppies (two females one of them pregnant, one male and a two weeks old baby) also i got 2 honey gold gourami. So again everything was good except for an increase in ph and small increase in ammonia about 0.25 ppm my nitrates and nitrites tested 0ppm. I did a water change and everything was well until
Two days ago.
I woke up to find one of my tetras dead. Then by night time during feeding time everyone was well and eating only my
Gouramis are still a little shy. I checked everyone count them and left them for about 20 min, came back one of my tetras was swimming funny (frantically and in circles) then just like that it died.
So right away test the water and did a water change ammonia tested less than .25ppm everything else was 0ppm ph 7.4.
Next day my cory was swimming just fine then few hours later was dead. I did a quick water change (was late for work) when I came back from work my pregnant guppy is having a hard time swimming and looks very distress.
Checked everything: amonia 0ppm, nitrate 0ppm, nitrites 0 ppm, ph 7.4.
So far everyone else is ok (including the baby) i have read several articles, opinions and so on. Most just recommend water changes. I am very frustrated as i dont want to loose anyone else. Not sure if am getting false reading on my water tests. Everything is supposed to be fine according to the test, but according to my fish something is off. Anyone have an advise as to what else can i do? what am i missing? What am I doing wrong?
As a side note, all the fish were properly acclimatized to the new tank. I put them floating on the tank for about half an hour. then slowly started to add small amounts of the tank water then i took them out of the bag and add them to the tank and disposed of the pet store water.

For my tank i use
- API Freshwater Master Test Kit
-fluval aqua plus water conditioner
-fluval cycle biological boost


Any help will be appreciated!!

 

[DomH]

You added fish two fast because the beneficial bacteria could hold amounts for, the fish food or ammonia you poured in but not the 15 fish you added within a week. Also a side not if you mean Cory as in corydoras you will need 5 more but they do best in a 20 long.

Also how did you cycle?
If you cycled correctly the ammonia should have been broken down by the beneficial bacteria that was established in the tank.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ch4rlie]

I cycle my tank by "feeding the tank" everything went well then for about 3 weeks

Sorry, I do not quite understand this.

Do you mean you used fish food as a ammonia source or from a bottle of ammonia?

If just one dose of fish food and left for 3 weeks then unfortunately this would not have worked to be honest.

But if you can give more details on how you cycled the tank and filter, this may help in determine what is going on with your tank and why your fish are dying.

So that's the first step then we will take things from there.

 

[Dar]

I set up my tank and had no fish July 5th.
To cycle my tank i added fish food. I added the food as if there were fish in the tank. If i remember correctly the ammonia was slowly increasing for the first two weeks. By the end of the second week ammonia was about 2.0 ppm. After that I did small water changes (10% water change) as it was recommended not to let it be higher than 4.0ppm. I try to keep it between 2.0ppm and 4.0ppm. During this time i did water testing every other day, still adding fish food. After 10 days i started reading nitrites then after a week or so nitrates. The suddenly everything was 0ppm ph still read 7.4 it hasn't change much. This was at the beginning of September. I didn't add fish until the sep 23th. During this time i still added food, still tested the water, everything was 0ppm most times ammonia less than 0.25 now and then. While at the pet store i asked about this and the told me it was normal cycle, i also asked about what fish i wanted and asked if they will be ok in my tank. They said that once my cycle was stablish should not be a problem.
Before i added the fish i did a water change and vacuum the gravel.
As i am writing this i just realized i added the biological boost before i first added my fish. I was recommended the boost because of my questions and I was scare of adding live fish. He said it would help with the transition and cause less stress to the new tenants.
I read the reviews and they were all good. But i am wondering if that cause a problem and actually mess up my cycle. The whole process took me close to 3 months.
As for the overpopulation i know. I have a lot but the last 6 were a gift, I realized now it was selfish of me to accept them. I am paying the price.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Hmm, am afraid it still does not sound quite right, using the fish food as a source of ammonia is a poor subsitute for bottled ammonia.

Does not sounds as if you let the ammonia drop to zero whilst waiting for nitrite to peak and drop. The constant ammonia in the tank is not good for the bacterias, overwhelms them basically and stalls the cycle.

This is what I suspect happened, mainly to the clue of 0 ppm nitrate showing. Normally a reading of nitrate will show, especialy at the end of the fishless cycle. Nitrate is basically the by product of the ammonia and nitrite bacterias consuming ammonia.

While at the pet store i asked about this and the told me it was normal cycle

LFS are not the best source of reliable information. Seriously. Most staff at LFS know precous little of fishkeeping despite working in a fish store! Generally speaking, they only want to sell you what they can from their stores much to the detriment of your fish. THEY are the ones that suffer the consenquences. So it really does pay to research and ask on forums such as this if you are ever unsure of anything.

They said that once my cycle was stablish should not be a problem.

Thats the only true bit of information they have given but its woefully inadequate.

Do bear in mind not all LFS / staff are like this. There are precious few good knowledgeable staff but if you do find one thats pretty good, stick with them.

Right, as to your situation, can you tell us exactly what specie and how many you have in your tank currently?

Second, a water hardness test or numbers from your local water authority online will help us determine if there was any issues with the hardness for your stocking choices.

Then we'll see what options you have.

 

[Dar]

Yes, you are absolutely right! most LFS staff only confused me more and left me with more questions. I actually got most of my questions resolved by reading articles and other ppl opinions on forums. I was actually reading an article while i was searching what to do to save my fish and they recommend this forum.
Back to the aquarium so far am left with:
2 honey gold gourami
4 neon tetras
3 chinese shrimp
3 guppies maybe 2 left.
The two honey gold and the 3 shirmp seem just fine focus on they own business; however, guppies and tetras look distress.
As for the water hardness from LWA:
•20-110 mg/L CaCO3 average 29 mg/L
•1.1-6.3 grains/gallonCaCO3 Average 1.6
Is very soft.

 

[Dar]

Also, yes i did use fish food to start my cycle. I did add a good amount of food each time" as the food decompose started creating ammonia. I kept doing so until the ammonia read less than 3ppm. It took about plus/minus two weeks for the ammonia to reach that reading. Before i added the fish i did vacuum the gravel since the fish will be the ones now generating ammonia.

I use this method since it didn't seem right to just add ammonia directly to the tank. I wanted the slow process.

 

[StevenF]

The two honey gold and the 3 shirmp seem just fine focus on they own business; however, guppies and tetras look distress.
As for the water hardness from LWA:
•20-110 mg/L CaCO3 average 29 mg/L
•1.1-6.3 grains/gallonCaCO3 Average 1.6
Is very soft.

I would suggest you post a link to the LWA water report. There may be more usefull information in the full report.

Yes your tap water does look very soft. Typically very soft water is more acidic. However Your tank reading appears to be slightly basic. It is sometimes helpfull to test the tap water and tank water and compare the two. Sometimes the tank water does not match the tap water parameters. If that is the case your fish might be stressed every time you do a water change. I have been helping out someone else in another thread. she was loosing fish after water changes. The cause was very acidic well tap water.

In your case it might be advisable to do smaller water chages for a while. Also it would be helpful to monitor tap and tank water GH and KH (hardness and alkalinity) If the levels are very different you might have to do smaller water changes more often. to get the tank levels to gradually get the tank readings to match the tap levels. once that is done you should be able to do larger water changes once a week as is typically done by many people.

 

[NickAu]

3 guppies maybe 2 left.

If you have soft water your Guppies will suffer they need hard water.