Fish Dying

[lildavpot]

hi ive had my tank set up for 7 months now, but in the last 3 weeks have lost 4 fish, with no signs of illness other than the fact that they go down to the bottom and hide in the plants. my levels are as follows, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 100 ph 7.2, i only keep mollies plattys and tetras, i did have a loach however that has one that died. i origionally thought they were dying of old age as they were pretty big fish, however i find it hard to believe thats the case with 4 going in the space of 3 weeks. any help, suggestions, advice will be greatfully received, as i dont like killing them.. makes me feel guilty!

 

[*Fishkies*]

Firstly I would do a water change. Your nitrate is beyond high. How often do you perform water changes?
Have you cycled your tank?

 

[WILDER]

Your nitrate are very high, do use use a gravel vac, and how often do you maintain your tank.
Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.

 

[lildavpot]

hi yeah i use a gravel cleaner, just done a 50% water change as somebody suggested to me, its 7months old so im pretty sure its been cycled? erm the tank says 21.5 us gallons on it, not sure what that is in english, but its a pretty small tank, got 3 platty 5 tetra and 3 mollies but i think one of them is on its way out aswell now . lost another one last night aswell. i try to do a 30% wter change every 7 days but sometimes it ends up being about 10 days.

 

[-germ-]

When was your PH reading taken? Did you take the reading from tap, replacement water, after a water change or from old tank water?
Do you use dechlorinator?

 

[lildavpot]

When was your PH reading taken? Did you take the reading from tap, replacement water, after a water change or from old tank water?
Do you use dechlorinator?

lol from the tank water, last night, 3 days after i did my previous water change, just checkd on them now and (gimpy, he loves his name!) is looking a little better and ive got seachem prime, but dont use it much coz i got told not to keep adding things to the water? ooo just read the label, and your right! , ill go try it now, if i can work out the right dosage

 

[Lynda B]

Hi and welcome. We would agree that you don't want to add unnecessary chemicals to your water, however, a dechlorinator is quite necessary and will most likely save the lives of your fish.

We do a minimum of 50% water changes every weekend with a gravel vac. Just a suggestion.

How often do you change your filter?

 

[ArauraDiscus]

Sometimes Nitrates are difficult to remove. I had a tank with 300 ppms of nitrates, I had to do a 50 percent water change every day for 2 weeks to bring it down to 40 ppms. My tap is 20 ppms. Nitrates IMHO aren't as deadly as some people may believe, but are still very stressful and your fish don't deserve that stress. Lot's of water changes are the single best thing to remove Nitrates.

 

[-germ-]

Let me know if the prime makes an impact....
Cheers

 

[lildavpot]

Let me know if the prime makes an impact....
Cheers

woohoo!! my nitrate levels are dropping... then agian i have changed half my water..... still pretty high though!

 

[-germ-]

Oh....
How about the fish, have they improved, prime makes for weird readings, if you have any ammonia at all in your tank ATM then you'll get dark brown as a reading

 

[lildavpot]

Oh....
How about the fish, have they improved, prime makes for weird readings, if you have any ammonia at all in your tank ATM then you'll get dark brown as a reading

lol how does that work.. my test solution goes from green to yellow? and yeah my fish are doing ok... gimpys back to being his usuall self hes good at cheating death!

 

[-germ-]

Read the links FAQ, they happily admit they don't know how most of it works, but also more than happily (ker-ching) admit that it does.
Stumped, but i personally think its a necessity for any fish keeper, extremely cheap as a dechlor too....