Newbie Question!

[pittsburgh56]

View attachment Untitled.bmpHello:
My wife bought me a 55 gal aquarium for a christmas present last year. My father had fish when i was young and i thought i would enjoy a tank in my home. I am having a problem with my tank though. My fish seem happy but they die off and the tank doesnt seem to thrive.( my dads tank had plants that grew like weeds and his fish bred like crazy)
my plants grow very slowly and my fish hardly ever breed. I have 4 guppies(2 of which are original fish) 8 platties, 2 swordtails, 6 guppy fry from a fish i recently got at a pet store and 2 sailfin mollies. The guppies are happy as can be. I have the most problems with mollies. i think they all die of swim bladder. one minute they are swimming normal, the next their tails point to the bottom of the tank and their nose points to the lights. then they die a few days later. it happens to every molly i get.
here are my tank specs.

ph 8.4 (also 8.4 from the tap)
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
my wife had the hardness tested and the guy said we had 15 grains hardness???
water is crystal clear
temp is 78 f

I change the water once a week. 5 gallons each week. Someone told me to mix distilled water with my tap to lower the ph so i mix 2 gal. with 3 gal of tap water each week(this water tests at 7.4 ph) but my tank ph doesnt seem to go down. i have been doing this for about 5 weeks. I read somewhere that the tank has built a buffer and the ph will stay at 8.4.

I test the water myself. i test it at least once a week. My levels have been 0 since i started the tank. i thought i must be doing something wrong so i had my water tested 3 times at 3 different fish stores and they all say my water is fine. is the hardness and the ph doing me in?

I do notice my fish flashing from time to time. not all the fish maybe 3 or 4 of them. i also see planaria when i do water changes. I feed my fish once a day and try not to overfeed. can i have a bacteria that is making my fish not thrive and die?
any advice would be appreciated. I feel bad killing all these fish.
Rick

 

[england]

Hi what do you do when you wash you filter? with tank water i hope which you remove from waterchanges?

Iam never any good with guppys or mollies, mollies are best kept in brakish conditions,which id say your best leaving mollies alone,thats my personal oppinion,my local fish shop keeping mollies in fresh water is not good and they get like a white mucus on the bodys from fresh,so i never went into them or read up on them....

Your ph is fine, you do not need to mix water with distilled, just straight from the tap is fine,i add warm to match tank temp,esp winter time,however depending on pipes,not a good idea if your pipes are copper...

My ph is very high also 8.0-8.5....

I have managed to breed alot of different species of fish since i began keeping fish and to date have only had whitespot,

I much prefer to keep cichlids and oddballs,snakeheads being my personal favourites,but state side there illegal...

I would reccomend looking into some small cichlids to keep with you swordtails and some smaller catfish something like hoplo catfish.

 

[pittsburgh56]

My filter is an Aqueon 55 powerfilter. It has 2 cartridges that slide into the filter. i replace 1 filter every other month so i do not kill off my good bacteria. Directions say to replace cartridges every 4 to 6 weeks. I will look into those fish you mentioned. Any ideas on the flashing? I have copper pipes also.
Rick

 

[pittsburgh56]

this may be a silly question but what type of cichlids do you keep in your tank? i remember reading that angelfish were cichlids but they like a water that is more acidic.... I also read that those type of fish are very agressive. any suggestions?

 

[england]

Ok, do not bother changing cartridges,esp if sponge just wash it in a bucket of tank water<sorted> they say you need to replace but you certainly dont,just sold my tank,but had the filer well over four years and never changed the media once,seriously its how the filter companys make there money,You will find it much better not changing media,

Copper piping, ok best bet,as i do,save as many plastic milk containers/large water containers as possible and keep them filled with cold water from the tap,i keep mine on top of the fridge,it keeps the water near same temp as tanks,

Flashing, is the where they flick themselves on the substate and objects? this is probally down to changing the filter like that every few weeks,so your good bacteria is halved and has to work twice as hard,probally having a rise in ammonia thus the fish are flicking..

 

[england]

Not all cichlids are aggressive, but they have personality...lol

I had a big tank and large fish, but things like rainbow cichlids/ tbar cichlids/ festivums/ blue acara/ flag cichlids/ keyhole cichlid/ are good peaceful cichlids, best of choosing a pair or a solo with a nice stocked tank..Angelfish are not agressive, again depends how there kept....

What is the length/ width and height of the tank, and full stock list

Something along the lines of

6 swordtails
2 hoplo catfish
1 keyhole cichlid
1 blue acara
What ever guppys you have....or change one of the cichlids and get a pair

 

[pittsburgh56]

ok thanks for the help. should i rinse my filter screens from time to time? i dont have many fish so i kind of thought it was foolish to swap them with new ones. i will do some research on those fish and see if i can locate them in my local shops!

 

[Curiosity101]

Just to refer to the original post...

Your nitrates shouldn't be 0...0 implies it isn't cycled cause nitrates are the final product of the cycling process. You don't have that many fish for a 55gal but unless you have a jungle of fast growing plants I would expect to see nitrates.

5gal a week is less than a 10% water change. Your fish may well benefit from larger changes, 20% is considered about average per week.

Also you say that your levels have been 0 since you started... even with a low bioload that's not likely. What are you testing with?

And if it's particularly mollys you're having a problem with then I would hazard it's your supplier that's the problem. Not your tank.

And to refer to nelly saying mollys are brackish. They aren't. But they do poorly in soft water, your water actually sounds perfect for mollys and most other livebearers to be honest.