New Tank = Dieing Fish?

[maffa_82]

i recently set up a tank for my girlfreinds mum. ive had the water tested about 4 times and they all turned out perfect but when i put in a few tetras they all did over the space of two days. I put this down to the temp of the water as it was i bit to cold for my liking so have turned the heater up a bit and am now happy with the temp. after the tetras died i got yet another water test and ther was nothing wrong with the water so have now got 6 more tetras and 2 cory's but 3 of the tetras have died yet again.

what is happaning to the fishies??? i havnt had a problem like this with my own fish so im clueless has to what is happaning.

 

[Angel_Queen]

after the tetras died i got yet another water test and ther was nothing wrong with the water

What exactly were your water levels? Ammonia, NitrIte, NitrAte?

 

[maffa_82]

not sure exactly what the levels were cuz i had the test done down pets at home but the assistant said that the water was fine and didnt have any trace of anything in the water. just to add that only 2 of the new tetras have died, the othr was hiding in an ornimant this morning.

 

[Esfa]

Did you cycle the tank?

 

[maffa_82]

yep tank cycled. could loud music have an effect cuz my girlfreinds mum turns the music channel up whenever a song she likes comes on and the fish are next to the surround sound speakers.

 

[Esfa]

I wouldn't think so. Are you getting your fish from Pets at Home?

 

[Angel_Queen]

You should get exact levels from your LFS. Get them to write it dwn for you. My LFS prints it out for me. Better yet, get yourself some testing liquid kits, like the API Master kit so you can know exactly what they are. It's hard for the guys on here to help without having the whole story. There's obviously something going on in your tank.

 

[Luketendo]

What type of tetra are they?

 

[maffa_82]

yep got the fish from pets at home. the first batch were neon tetras and these new ones are black neon tetras and have two pepperd cory's.

 

[littlest]

I don't know what your Pets at Home is like (I'm sure they vary a lot) but my local one is awful for diseased fish.
You really should get your own test kits though. It sounds like you only tested the water before adding fish and not when the fish were in the tank. It's always a good idea to monitor the levels of ammonia and nitrite when you add fish, especially in a newly cycled tank, just to check the filter is dealing with the bio-load.

 

[Esfa]

Most Pets at Homes are awful for fish, try finding another lfs, and then you should have more luck.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Cycled how? With no test kits that must have been quite a challenge...

 

[DarkEntity]

Can i ask how you cycled the tank and how you monitored the cycle since you dont have test kits of your own?

 

[Tolak]

If I hear about another lfs telling aquarists that their water test are "fine" I'm going to puke. Find another lfs, one that will write down the numbers for you. I really don't think their test charts say "fine" and "not fine".

 

[dwarfgourami]

When you say you set up the tank, what exactly did you do? If you just let it stand with water for a number of days, then no beneficial bacteria will have built up. Once you added the fish, their waste adds ammonia to the water. Unless there beneficial bacteria in the water, a build-up of this can easily prove fatal. The cycling other posters have referred to is this process of building up beneficial bacteria. This can be done in one of two ways: fishless cycling which involves feeding ammonia to the tank and monitoring the results until all the ammonia, and the nitrite it turns into, can be dealt with instantly by the colony of bacteria, OR, cycling with fish which means adding a very small number of fish, monitoring the water carefully and diluting it with water changes whenever ammonia or nitrites go above a certain level.