Help Help Help

[DeadlyAlliance]

Guys i need help. On friday i purchase a pair of guppys and a female black mollie and 2 ghost shrimp. In the tank i already had a pair of swordtails and a pair of black mollies and 2 ghost shrimp. Those fishes where in there for about 3 weeks before i added the new ones. The day after i bought them the male guppy died and my female swordtail died yesterday and my female guppy died today. I dont want the other fishes to died to. The fishes that died had no sigh of any illness what so ever. My water conditions stayed about the same but 2 things went up.

Ph=7.6 that stayed the same
Ammonia=0.25 that went up it was 0 before
Nitrite= 0 that stayed the same
Nitrate=40-80

Im worried about my nitrate i can never get it come down and my aquarium has been running for over 2 moths i need help. I tried to do a 25% water chage ever week and i chaged the water today. I dont want my fish to die i always have this problem my fishes always die. Anything that i can do or something that i should be doing different. I hear some people say to do a 10% water change every day but wont that stress this stress the fish out. Any help is great thanx.

 

[black angel]

i think doing a 20% water change each day is prefferable to the stress of the nitrates. you could get some live plants which would help out a little. have you tested your water from the tap to see how high the nitrates are from there?
you will have to keep doing these water changes frequently until it gets as low as your tap water.

 

[DeadlyAlliance]

How do i test tap on the water i only use distill water or however you spell it. I did get some plants today i sent my friend to get some micro sword but i think hey gave him dwarf sagittaria. How often should i check my water conditions. The fishes seem to like the plants.

 

[SnowyzMom]

Um, last I heard, nitrites are baaad but nitrates are way good. You are saying you put the fish into distilled water? I use tap water but I always treat it first with about a half capful of Aqua Plus, it removes chlorine, heavy metals etc and protects their fins and coats. Even distilled water I would treat. There are several solutions on the market. I am thinking it could be the water. I could be wrong. I know my fish are doing extremely well on tap water that's been treated with Aqua Plus. Heck even I don't drink our tap water! It makes me nauseous. I filter it. So I'm thinking a small bottle of water treatment. Add some to the distilled before you add it. Or just use treated tap water. It's worth a try. It must be heartbreaking to have the fish dying like that. I just lost one to old age and that depressed me, I really miss her! Hope things turn around for you soon. Let us know!

p.s. my fish LOVE the live plants in my tank and they add good stuff to the water, like oxygen, while processing some of the wastes.

Just curious...what size tank and how many fish? If you overcrowd the ammonia will go up. I do a 25% water change every 7-10 days but I have snails in there and they are little poopers! But I love snails and they keep my tank wayyyy clean.

 

[DeadlyAlliance]

yeah i do treat the water first and let it sit for a couple of hours before i put it in the tank. Its a 10 gallon tank and right now i have 4 fishes before it was 7 but since 3 died now its only 4. My black mollies seem to be doing good. The ones that died where guppys and a swordtail. I did buy some live plants today i think it is a Dwarf Sagittaria. The fish seem to like them.