Fish Keep Dying, Water Seems Fine - Please Help!

[duphregne]

Hello All,

I'm new here and have tried and tried and tried to figure this thing out. I've had a tank for about a month now. I'll give as much detail as possible. It's 29 Gallons, I have a penquin filter, thermometer, aerator and heater. I've got the right amount of gravel and 4 plastic plants in there. I began the tank by filling it up, letting it go for 48 hrs and I bought 5 Danios which all seemed to do just fine. They were doing well for about a week or so, and I figured I'd by more fish, which I did (which in hindsight was probably a mistake) and I also did a water change (about 25%). I got 3 Tiger Barbs and 2 Starfires. Very shortly after this, ALL the fish died. I realized later that the ammonia was pretty high so I figured this had to have been the problem. I then bought another 5 tiger barbs which then promptly died within hours. I did the whole leaving them in for 30 min etc etc. Again I realized it must have been the ammonia because it was at 1.5. SO, finally after all of this death I decided to start over.

About 5 days ago I did an 80% water change. Then I did partial changes after that for another 2 days. I tested the water yesterday afternoon and everything seemed to check out fine. NO Ammonia, NO Nitrites or Nitrates. Seemed to be just fine. I was ready to put in new fish and get it going again.

I bought 7 Neon Tetra. Left them in for 30 min before netting them out. Water was dechlorinated. Added a little salt to reduce stress. They seemed fine for a while. This morning I awake to see that only 2 remain. And there's zero doubt in my mind that these guys are gonna die as well.

I tested the water AGAIN. Ammonia still at zero, nitrates and nitrites are fine. The ONLY thing that looked odd was the PH. The level read 5. Could that have killed these fish? I find it very hard to believe that they'd expire within 24 hours.

Honestly I have no clue of what is going on in this tank. It's like the death tank. Whatever I put in there dies.

I feel like after that Danio screw up (and they were on their way) I'm destined for failure here. What is going on? Help me out!

 

[lilfishie]

your tank isn't cycled so doesn't have any good bacteria to support the fish, read and follow the instructions HERE, it tells you 2 methods of fishless cycling and the benifits and disadvantages of each.

Welcome

 

[typhoon]

yeah deffinatley not cycled correctly by the sounds of it? i leave my 60 gal tank a minimum of a month b4 introducing and kind of fish at all

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Cycling a tank actually takes about 6 weeks, so you really have to be patient and not add more fish until the cycle is complete. Having an empty tank may seem really boring, but cycling fishless is worth it because when you cycle with fish you may have to change water twice a day to keep it within safe levels! If you cannot resist purchasing fish, only go with 3 danios and feed extremely lightly...test daily, do water changes whenever ammonia/ nitrites go over .25 ppm. Once Ammonia, Nitrites consistently stay at 0, and Nitrates rise you can Slowly add more fish... recommendation would be two more danios to finish the school.

Neon Tetras are very delicate little fish, and are not hardy enough to cycle with.

Double check your pH. pH of 5 is below the functional threshold of normal nitrifying bacteria (i.e. the bacteria goes dormant and can't work). Check the pH of your tap (you may need to let the water set out over night to get a true reading), and if the difference is big do a large water change to remove the excess acids and replace the buffers.