Please Help!

[chick27]

PLEASE HELP ME IF YOU CAN, I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO.

Tank size: 90 litre
pH: 8.4 (currently treating with ph down for past 3 days due to sudden increase)
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 1
nitrate: 10
kH: 10
gH: 8
Cl2: 0
tank temp: 24

I have had the tank a little over the year, and apart from one or two minor problems, thigs have been fine until now.

Fish Symptoms: The algae shrimp have been trying to climb out of the tank, the smaller of the fish (lampeyes, platys, rummy nose tetra) have spent the last 4 or 5 days gasping at the surface, their gills being bright red, in the case of the rummy nose tetra and the shrimp, they lose all ability to stay upright, and finally they die. (fighters, corys, algae eaters, kuhli loach, snails and frog seem to be unaffected, although the otinculus and algae eaters are breathing rapidly) Since this started I have lost 4 rummy nose tetra, 5 shrimp, 1 platy and one female siamese fighter (Although i don't think this is related as she was already showing signs of aging) I have carried out daily water tests for 5 days.


Volume and Frequency of water changes: 20 percent every 10-14 days, more frequently if needed.

In the past five days i have carried out two 20% water changes (due to failing filter) and one 50%, (this was due to me finding that a kuhli loach had managed to swim into a hole about 2cms in diameter in the bottom of an ornament and was unable to get out again, when i removed the ornament, the smell coming from it alerted me to the fact that something had died in it. I don't know exactly how long he had been in there, but certainly no more than a week. I thought this was the probable cause of the problem, so threw the whole thing away as i didnt want any trace of decomposing fish to be left in the tank, and after completing a 50% water change, the fish seemed to have perked up again, were feeding, and swimming around the entire tank, but within 2 hours, they were back at the surface gasping again.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Put in a new Fluval U2 filter on Saturday due to the old one failing (I originally thought the failing filter was the cause of the problem)

Tank inhabitants:
1 Kuhli Loach, 2 Peppered Corys, 3 Otinculus, 2 Algae Eaters, 2 Endlers Guppies, 8 small Platys, 6 Lampeyes, 3 Rummy Nose Tetra (4 have died over the past 3 days), 1 male Siamese Fighter, 3 young female Siamese Fighters, 4 leopard danios, 1 Aquatic Congo Frog, 4 Algae Shrimp (5 others have died in the past 2 days) 3 Snails.

Recent additions to your tank :
Monday (before any problem was apparent)- 7 Rummy Nose Tetra (3 have since died, and the rest don't look like they will survive)
Saturday - 3 oxygenating plants, Fluval U2 filter

The tank has been treated with pH down, and aquasafe added to water during water changes.

I used a treatment for finrot in the tank about a week ago for a danio who is losing his tail.

I'm losing fish rapidly, the shrimp in particular seem affected, today I have lost 3 shrimp and 2 tetra.

Also, I was going to carry out further 10% water changes for the next few days, to get rid of any further trace of the decomposing loach, but wondered if this might be counterproductive because of the pH treatment??

If anyone can give me ANY idea at all about what might be going on, I would be really grateful, as I don't know what else might be causing the problem.

Thanks


In the past 10 mins I've lost another shrimp and rummy nose tetra

 

[WILDER]

Your tanks severely overstocked.
Female betta can't be kept with male betta.
Red gills can be bad water quality, gill flukes, bacterial gill rot.,
If a fish has rotted it could of caused a bacteria infection in the tank.
is there enough aeratiion in the tank.
Never use ph adjuster there cause more problems than there worth.
If there was a big jump in ph the fish could be suffering from ph shock.

I see you have a nitrite reading. Not surprised with all the fish in the tank.
Plus the fluval 2 won't be keeping up with the stocking of the tank.

Water changes and increase aeration in the tank.
Don't use ph adjusters.

 

[chick27]

Most of my fish are less than 4cms in length (With the exception of kuhli, corys male fighter and algae eaters). Also this was a sudden thing, not something which has happened over a long time..the fish all seemed fine on monday.
I have had female and male bettas in the tank since the beginning, never had a problem with them.
The filter is brand new - yesterday, and there are oxygenating plants in there too so I'm not sure its aeration.
I only added the pH stuff on the recommendation of the testing kit I bought.
What do you suggest I do?

Was a 50% water change too much?

I'm not dismissing anything which you have said, I just need to get to the bottom of this, so any help you can offer is greatly appreciated

 

[WILDER]

Your water stats are saying your tanks overstocked.
Rehome some fish.
You could get the male betta a tank of its own.
Rehome the strimp, frog and snails as you have some bottom dwellers.
Need a bigger filter as the fluval 2 won't cope with all the stocking.
Don't use the ph adjusters, No need too.
Red gills are due to bad water quality. Gasping is because they can;t breath because of the bad water quality.

 

[chick27]

Thanks for the advice, my dad has a large tropical tank, so i'm sure he wont mind a couple of extras, i'll keep the frog though, he's tiny and also my favourite lil guy
do you think theres a chance the rummy nose tetra were carrying something?? This only started after they were put in the tank.

Also, is a 50% water change too much? I've never done that much before, but after finding the dead kuhli loach, wanted rid of as much as poss.

 

[TigerIssey]

Firstly, Wilder is right you are way overstocked.
Your nitrite reading is nastily poisoning your fish. If it was 1.0 it would be way too high let alone 10.

Did you swap any of your old filter media over to the new filter??

You did not have any problems before as your fish were used to the bad water quality in the tank. On Monday you say you added fish then your problems started, the cause of the problem is adding new fish to an already overstocked tank with bad water quality. The new fish are dieing due to the bad water quality, whilst the old fish have adapted over time as they have grown, the new fish are not able to that quick.

You need to get rid of some fish.
You need a larger filter. The U3 would have been better.
DO NOT use ph down you are far better off with a stable pH than one that is artificially lowered. If you do need to lower, use peat in the filter and add some bog wood.
Aerate the tank vigourously.

The water changes you were doing were not enough for the amount of fish you have in that sized tank.

 

[chick27]

Apologies, I got my nitrite and nitrate mixed up, the nitrate is at 10 (which on the test kit says is safe, but still higher than it normally is for my tank) and nitrite is at 1.

I didn't swap any media over, as its a different sized filter, the Fluval 2 came with the tank, when that failed i replaced it with the new Fluval U2 filter. I bought the filter as it says its suitable for tanks up to 110l, my tank is a 90l and i was worried about the U3 being too powerful for the fish, particularly my male betta who likes still water.

I have bogwood in the tank, and as I said, only used the pH treatment as thats what the test kit recommended, I am not an expert, so just do as I'm told!!!

I have had the filter running on its highest setting for about 36 hours now.

 

[TigerIssey]

Your filter is going to go through another cycle, you should have placed some old media in the centre compartment with the bio chips to seed the filter.
Shops and manufacturers try to sell you stuff you don't need, do not add any more pH down.

You need to pinch a little filter bacteria from your dads filter to seed your tank or you will lose most if not all of those fish. I always buy the next filter up, over time your flow will decrease, also with the stocking you have you need to over filter. Male bettas can be kept in communities but do way better in around 5g tank by themselves.

Nitrite at 1.0 is still too high, the pink gills is nitrite poisoning, you need to do 25% or more water changes everyday and get some mature media in to stand a chance of saving anything.

You will still need to rehome some fish aswell.

 

[chick27]

OK thanks for that, this might be a silly question, but I do have the sponges from the old filter which I took out yesterday, will they be any good to put in the new filter or not? they have dried out.

 

[Mikaila31]

Once they have dried out all the bacteria has died. You will need media from your dad, keep it wet till you get it in your tank. If the sponges or whatever don't fit cut them or do whatever to get them to fit in the filter. Once you get the new media, I suggest a 50% water change to drop all your toxic levels so the new media can get rid of them faster.

 

[chick27]

OK, will do, thank you all for your advice.

Fingers crossed for my remaining fish