Help, Fish Dying....

[New fish fan]

Hi there, Sorry for any ignorance on my part, my wife and I are new to fish keeping, but we have encountered a problem over the past couple of days.....
I have only just stumbled across this forum, im hoping some of the experts on here can help me.

We have had our 180 litre tank for two weeks now, this is the order we have done things (advised by our local LFS)....
Add water (untreated) to tank and switch on heater (25 Degrees),
2 days later we added 10 neon tetras, then 7 Platies 24 Hours later.
Everything was fine for a week, so we added another 6 Guppies, 1 Siamese fighter fish and a 1.5 inch Plec.

These were fine for 3 days, my wife then came home from work to find one of our platies dead.
We were due to give the tank a water change and the gravel was looking grubby, so we gave the gravel a vacuum and changed approx 25% water. This is where the problems started.....

We then rinsed the filter with clean tap water (I have read on this forum this morning that this is a big no-no)
We then added back 25% new water (tap water mixed with tap safe and some warm water from the kettle)
As soon as we put the water back in, one of our guppies died, and yesterday we lost a platie and another guppie.
The other guppies and the tetras seem to be fine, but the rest of the platies and the fighter fish seem a bit subdued.

Can anyone shed any light on what the problems could be or has anyone encountered this problem before....?
I dont have a water testing kit, and cant get to the LFS until tomorrow unfortunately.
Any help would be great as my wife is geting upset about our fish dying.

Thanks in advance for any help....

 

[Spishkey]

sorry am just on my way out but in brief

1. your tank is not cycled
2. you added too many fish too quickly
3. there is probably very high ammonia/nitrite levels in your tank right now, you need to do a large water change to dilute these
4. there are some pinned topics in the new to the hobby section on cycling your aquarium, go have a peek!!!


sorry this sounds rushed but i gotta go, someone else is bound to give you a more detailed version shortly...........



ps you really need to get your water tested, either with a home kit or ask at the lfs if they will test, but dont let them fob you off with 'its fine' get them to write down the results for ph, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates

 

[minxfishy]

Hi there, unfortunately you have been given the usual bad advice from the LFS.

Leaving the tank with water in does nothing to cycle the tank to get it ready for fish.

Basically what you are encountering is called new tank syndrome. Your fish produce waste, ammonia which is then processed eventually by bacteria that build up in your filter to nitrIte when is then converted to nitrAte.

Both ammonia and nitrIte are extremely poisonous to fish, so this would be the cause of them dying.

Have a read thru this article here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099

Then have a read thru this article here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=175355 - which will guide you thru the cycling with fish in the tank that you are now going thru.

You will need to buy a kit called a liquid master test kit, alot of people here use the API Freshwater master test kit, this will help you find out what the levels of ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte as well as the ph of your tank to help you get thru the cycling process.

There are also plenty of other topics that are very very helpful to the beginner fishkeeper in the Beginner resource centre: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=88643

You have found a good site where there are plenty of people happy and willing to give you as much advice as you need and help you enjoy your fish.

 

[New fish fan]

Thank you for the help so far, much appreciated.
I have just got in from work and im glad to say that ive not lost any fish today.
They look a lot more like they were previously.

I have just done a test on the water and these are the results....
GH - 60
kH - 40
pH - 6
No2 - 1
No3 - 40

Any more info would be valued...

 

[minxfishy]

Your ph is a little low, however the concern is the no2 (nitrIte) I would suggest an immediate 50% water change to bring it down to as close to 0 as you can get it.

 

[SharonCC]

There are Nitrates present, so maybe the tank is nearly cycled...