Our Fish Keep Dying!

[N4T4SH45]

Can anyone help.

We have had our tank for over a year now and only have neon tetra, some other neons and some guppys. However we are still loosing fish. Our readings are

Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Amonia = 0

PH = 7.6
High PH = 7.9

Is it the high PH that is slowly killing them off??? If it is, what is the best way to lower the PH?

Any help would be greatly received.

Thanks

 

[diademhill]

Those readings don't sound right.
What size tank, full occupants, plants. lighting, water change reime. chemicals used?

 

[Silverlady]

You should be showing some NitrAte. PH sounds OK

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Can anyone help.

We have had our tank for over a year now and only have neon tetra, some other neons and some guppys. However we are still loosing fish. Our readings are

Nitrate = 0
Nitrite = 0
Amonia = 0

PH = 7.6
High PH = 7.9

Is it the high PH that is slowly killing them off??? If it is, what is the best way to lower the PH?

Any help would be greatly received.

Thanks

How many gallons is the tank and what are the exact numbers of fish in it? How do you go about cleaning the tank (water changes, cleaning filter and substrate etc) and how often? Is the tank very planted at all? Did te#he fish hat died show any strange symptoms, wether behavioral or physical before death etc?

 

[N4T4SH45]

We think our tank is about 73 litres....... (not 100%)

We have the following fish in there:

3 guppys
2 neon tetra
3 other tetra (cant remember the name)

1 BIG algae eater (which again Im afraid I dont know the name of... he started off pretty small)!

We did have dalmation molly's but they have all slowly died off. The last one his eye went abit funny and then all of a sudden he disappeared! We have a feeling that "fat fish", the algae eater may have eaten him!! Also we never have any luck with balloon mollys... they never last very long.

Two of the guppy's we have left dont look good and are sort of swimming lopsided and near the top of the tank all the time.

We do a water change every other week or two, and clean the filter but also dip it back into water we have taken out of the tank

The only chemicals we use are a tap water conditioner, Nutrafin Cycle & Aquaplus.

We have only a couple of real plants in the tank.

Why would there be no trace of Nitrate? I find it strange that we have a reading of 0 if we should have a reading of some sort.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks

 

[babybell911]

When you say you clean the filter out and then dip it back in the tank water do you mean you rinse it off under the tap or in tap water?

 

[N4T4SH45]

No we use the water they we have taken out of the tank to clean the filter. Is that the right way to do it???

 

[b.c.f.c]

yes thats the right way to do it
what sort of algea eater is it. it deffinately sounds too big for your tank and its probly a common plec , he needs to be rehomed and there very messy fish and in that size tank he wont be very happy im affraid

 

[cane76]

maybe your test kit is out of date you should have nitrates. even your tap water would get a reading

 

[N4T4SH45]

Here is a pic of our algae eater......

He is very messy! What is the best size tank for him?


What does it mean if some of the fish are sort of swimming tilted??

 

[discus dreamer]

Sorry to hear about your neons
my book says that neons like a Ph no higher than 7 and I did lose some of my first batch so got the ph down to 7 and the rest of the original lot and a new lot seem fine
DD

 

[N4T4SH45]

I went out and bought some new water testing kits and as someone said on here my other ones must have been out of date, because I now have proper readings! These are:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0 - 0.25
Nitrate = 20
PH = 7.6

Do these readings seem ok?

Also our tank is about 120 litres not 60 that I said before (duh.... )

 

[millym]

hi
how much water do you change when you do it?? ie: 25% or something like that??? you dont change nearly all the water do you??

nitrite is harmful to fish so you should ideally have readings of 0 if you are doing enough of a water change & have a filter big enough to cope with the waste from your fish. ( i cant see your 'algae eater clearly but if its a big plec it means +++ waste & maybe your water changes/filter arent keeping up with the amount produced)

i personally do a 25% water change every week using chlorine & chloramine water conditioner ( i use interpets tapsafe).
your pH is unlikely to be the problem and trying to lower pH can cause more problems than its worth. the fish you have are not pH 'fussy'. im not sure where you are living but many areas in the uk like london have high pH tapwater (very hard water) our pH is regularly 7.8 or 7.9 thanks to thames water so i dont think thats your problem.

you dont need to clean your filter sponges/floss every week and you do need to make sure when you do rinse the filter out you only do it in tank water ie: dont rinse it in tapwater then dip it in tank water as the tapwater will kill or your 'good' bacteria that has built up in your filter sponge. ( sorry if this is what youre doing already im not that clear on what your doing with your filter cleaning regime)

if you have been doing too large water changes too often & have been cleaning your filter in tap water before dipping it in tank water it could mean that your tank has been going through little mini cycles again & again as every time you clean you have actually been killing the bacteria off from the filter & this could be stressing your fish ( as they would be having periods of time with ammonia & nitrites in the tank water which is harmful to them)

guppies & mollies are usually hardy fish, neons not so much now as they have suffered from years of inbreeding/weakened gene pools.

can you tell us exactly what youve been doing cleaning wise??? it will help hopefully give us a clue to whats going wrong for you.(as i may be well off track here.) ie: how much water do you take out ( how many buckets or rough % of tank water), & also what exactly do you do when cleaning your filter???

with nitrite showing in your readings id do a couple of small water changes over the next couple of days & see if you can get it down to 0 & monitor it carefully. by small i mean 10% water change or maybe 1 bucket out 1 bucket in & dont touch your filter.

let us know how your going etc.

 

[N4T4SH45]

Hi

When we clean the tank we take out only about 2 buckets of water each time and only clean the tank about once every 3 weeks.

When cleaning the filter we clean everything in the tank water we have taken out in the buckets, however we dont clean this everytime, only when the little yellow thing is depressed on it, which tells us it needs cleaning!

I hope this is the right way of doing it. I will do a couple of small water changes to try and get the Nitrite down to 0.

 

[d3tained]

To the sound of it you are doing 2 buckets water change every 3 weeks?

If this is true then try and do weekly water change of at least 20%.

Smaller more frueqent water changes are much better.