Multiple spontaneous deaths daily

[Essjay]

I think the tests are with Tetra strips.

Look on your water company's website - do a search for water quality report. That includes nitrate and will tells you what the very expensive equipment at the water testing company says your nitrate level is.

 

[chattylloyd]

This was there results. Me thinks that's not right

 

[Essjay]

If that's the nitrate levels from your water company, they are more likely to be right than your strips.
My son used to work as an analyst for Severn Trent water testing company and he thought our liquid reagent testers were hilarious - and liquid testers are more accurate than strips.
Your water quality report shows that your tap water nitrate is below the legal limit though still higher than we should keep our tanks.


Just to check - are you using the strips correctly? The instructions say to dip the strip in tank water, shake off the excess water then read it after 60 seconds.

 

[chattylloyd]

Hi,

Yes using correctly. They are the tetra strips and I'm using the app to do it so I take a picture of strip and it gives me the levels. I also do it manually.

The deaths are so random they all look fine one minute and you go back and their dead with no prior warning.

It's getting really frustrating it's an expensive hobby which we love but I can't keep loosing at this rate.

The tank is well planted all plants are thriving and the fish seem to until you turn your back and there dead. It's so odd.

I've kept fish for 15 years I've never had a single issue!

 

[Colin_T]

It's either high nitrates or poisoning from something in or getting into the tank.
Try the big water changes and if no change, add carbon to the filter.

If that doesn't work then remove the substrate and ornaments and just have a bare tank for a month and see if it helps. If it fixes the problem then one of the items you removed is causing the problem.

-----------
We had a customer in the shop a while back and they had this problem. It turned out to be the blue gravel in their tank. They swapped it over and everything was fine after that.

----------
There might be something else in the tap water that is killing them. I had similar problems years ago with my fish just dying randomly (similar to what is happening here). We had the water tested by the water company and it was allegedly fine although it had 3.5 times the maximum safe level of chlorine in. We had it tested by a private company who said it had way too much chlorine and fluoride in but there was not much else. When we left the water to evaporate it left a white residue that set hard like rock and we never managed to identify it. It wasn't calcium because I tested it for that.

The only way I was able to keep fish in that water was to increase the GH to over 200ppm and then my fish lived. There was something in the water that was extremely toxic in soft water but not as toxic in hard water. Presumably the minerals countered or neutralised whatever it was.

 

[chattylloyd]

Thank you for all the info.

Please see attached pictures which is a few pics across the bottom of the tank.