Help Please

[jeanackford]

Request Help
I have 4 tanks 2x 165ltrs 1x 95litres & 1x 65 litres

in 1 x 165 litre there are 2 mollies, 12 platys and 9 sword tails - in this tank i have had 5 die in 5 days
in 1 x 165 litres there are 9 pregnant guppies, 5 platys pregnant and 3 mollys pregnant (ive just found cotton wool growth on her
in 1 x 95 litres there was 24 male guppies 4 neons and 4 bumble bee goby's i have 11 guppies left...
pH: -0
ammonia0
nitrite0
nitrate0
kH:
gH:
tank temp:78

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):
no real symptoms in the 2 big tanks
as i have said 1 guppy is now showing white cotton wool

Volume and Frequency of water changes:
20% water change every week

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:
dechlorinator / media is white wadding
Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
none

Exposure to chemicals:
we have used a medicine for white spot/fin rot and lots of fungal infections

 

[ZoddyZod]

your readings appear to be incorrect - you have stated 0 for pH and that can't possibly be true.

What test kit are you using?

How long have these tanks been running?

 

[HayzH]

your readings appear to be incorrect - you have stated 0 for pH and that can't possibly be true.

What test kit are you using?

How long have these tanks been running?

+1 and no Nitrates in any tanks? (Have they been cycled?) What tests are you using?

 

[the_lock_man]

You stated "Dechlorinator / media is white wadding"

Does that mean that you do not use a separate dechlorinator solution when changing water? I don't believe that a white wadding filter media would dechlorinate the water.

Therefore, if you aren't using a dechlorinating product, then chlorine will have killed whatever filter bacteria you had, and would be severely affecting the fish.

 

[jeanackford]

hi sorry for not replying sooner my laptop went crazy, ok my ph was the lowest reading as was the nitrates. my tank has been running for 1 yr . im using dechlorinater. ive got 7 male guppies left out of 25 . i was advised to add aquarium salt to my tanks so i did that but they are still dying in this tank my bristlenose died yesterday and ive found 3 guppys this morn

 

[Louiseness]

hi sorry for not replying sooner my laptop went crazy, ok my ph was the lowest reading as was the nitrates. my tank has been running for 1 yr . im using dechlorinater. ive got 7 male guppies left out of 25 . i was advised to add aquarium salt to my tanks so i did that but they are still dying in this tank my bristlenose died yesterday and ive found 3 guppys this morn

What are the actual readings though? I don't know what the lowest PH your test measures is. The presence of no nitrates really does suggest you're not cycled - how did you cycle these tanks please?

What dechlorinator are you using? I can't think of any offhand that are media/wadding, only liquids. I don;t think salt will help and it can be quite harmful for fish like plecs so it may well have harmed your bristlenose.

I'd be doing plenty of BIG waterchanges (temp matched and declorinated of course) and taking readings regularly. Have you tested your water since your original post or changed any water at all?

 

[jeanackford]

i use nutrafin dechlorinator and nutrafin test kit.
i have done 3 water changes since i posted of 30%
i havent tested it since but will do in a mo
then i will post my findings

the wadding i wrote about was what i use in my filter .

 

[the_lock_man]

i use nutrafin dechlorinator and nutrafin test kit.
i have done 3 water changes since i posted of 30%
i havent tested it since but will do in a mo
then i will post my findings

the wadding i wrote about was what i use in my filter .

Fair enough, glad that my interpretation was wrong!

Cotton wool fungus outbreaks are often due to water quality issues. I'm just truly amazed that one way or the other, you have no NH3, NO2 or NO3. And as previously said, pH cannot be 0. Look forward to seeing those results.

 

[jeanackford]

PH 7.0
AMONIA 0
NITRITE 0.1
NITRATE 5

 

[the_lock_man]

That's definitely a feasible set of readings.

The fact that you've got a small amount of nitrite showing means that you must have had some ammonia in there at some point. You've done 3 x 30% changes in a week, which will have brought levels down nicely, but it does also mask what's been going on with the filter. A sensible thing to do would be to test again in a few hours time, without changing the water in the meantime. That will tell us how well the filter is working at the moment.

My first instinct is that you've suffered something of an ammonia spike - how I don't know, it could be that the water company put too much chlorine in, such that your dechlorinator product couldn't cope, and consequently both the fish and the bacteria colony suffered.

It could be that your filter was switched off for a few days without you noticing (happened to me a while back).

It could be that you forgot to use the dechlor.

Given that you've got no physical symptoms on the dead fish, it seems that diseases are less likely.

 

[jeanackford]

ok thank you i will test again in 5 hrs, its so sad but also very annoying

 

[jeanackford]

the test results are exactly the same

 

[the_lock_man]

That's good, in that there is no extra ammonia or nitrite in there, so the filter is doing its job, although I'd have liked to see nitrite at 0. I suggest you keep testing daily, and if you see those levels start to rise, do a 50% water change.

That's no new deaths for 48 hours, is that right?

How did you originally cycle your tank?

 

[jeanackford]

ive had 6 deaths in the last 48hrs
i cycled my tank with filters from my other tank and also had guppies in there 1
what im finding weird is that it is only effecting the guppies, not the neons or the gobys

 

[Blubble37]

perhaps the other fish are more resistant to what is going around in the water