Plz Help

[Melissa:)]

Everyday for the last week I have lost between 1 till 3 fish per day. I have tested nitrite, amonia, both normal and tested PH. PH is showing over 7.6. I have done a 20% water change. Before I added the new water to the tank i tested the PH, it was showing a healthy. 1 hour later i tested the water in the aquarium for PH and its showing over 7.6 again.
Im lost, I dont no wats going wrong.
I have had the tank for over 6 months.
I havnt added anything new to the tank to cause this.
Ive lost mollies and guppies and coral plates.
Could some1 please help me.......
I dont even no if its the PH that is the problem.

Tank Size 170 litre
Fish:
15 Neon
18 White Cloud Mountain Tetra
8 Guppies
6 Mollies
1 Mini Angel
1 Simaze (sp) Male
1 Cleaner (Sucker)
2 Bumble Bee types
2 Working fish
5 Gold White Cloud Mountains
8 Amber Tetra
8 Cardinals (mini)
8 Coral plates
2 real plants
2 fake plants
1 coral stone (which i think is getting smaller, my husband disagrees)
Any help would be sooooo appreciated...

 

[DrRob]

OK, to start with, I'll admit that I'm not sure what all of your fish are from your list. We can get onto stocking and identification later right now it sounds like you have something more important to look at. It feels like a lot of fish overall, which may be part of the problem, but without detail it's tough to truly say.

It's good that you have 0,0 readings for ammonia/nitrite. Do you have test kits for anything else, and what test kits are you using?

I'm assuming that the coral stone is a decorative item. If it's truly coral then it will slowly (and likely not in any visible way over even a medium time span) dissolve, raising the pH and hardness of the water. To be honest though, 7.6 is probably not a really major problem if they've been in that sort of water for a while, and harder water doesn't fluctuate in pH too much. Personally, I'd take it out.

Given that things are dieing, logically, something is toxic or you have a disease of some form.

If it's toxicity problems then this is either something in the water, or changing conditions. I suspect that, if not much has changed recently, and you have relatively high pH, it's probably not swinging pH you're dealing with. I'd therefore go for a good sized water change. Take them down to just enough water to swim in and then refill, that way you'll get rid of about 90% of whatever is killing them. Hopefully you're dechlorinating your tap water and you can then replace with fresh. Whatever is toxic should hopefully be 10% concentration. It'd be worth knowing what's in the tapwater and what pH that is, so, if you haven't already, run a test on that as well.

If it's a disease we'd be expecting some form of symptoms. Can you tell us anything about the fish before they die. Any spots, unusual swimming/breathing patterns, furry bits, shrinking fins or anything else you can spot.

 

[crunch7]

13 species of fish in a single tank !! are you trying for an award dear ? 83 fishes there wooooooohooo. melissa get more plants and return some fish. I am not sure but are you taking about fish fry here? do atleast 50 percent water change too. lol there are so many types of fish it can make 13C2 combinations XD. Keep fish according to their tank requirements please or else they are going to get a slow death. You can normally say whether a tank is overstocked or not by the looks of it, but your numbers are off the charts.
Return em,gift em, free em, do whatever ...but save em.

 

[DrRob]

I was assuming (hoping) that they are all tiny.

I also mistook coral plates for decor, although on rereading, one of them died, so I guess not. Maybe Platies, but I'm guessing now.

Out of curiosity as well, how is this tank filtered?

 

[colleen0309]

What do you concider "normal" for ammonia and nitrite? Anything above 0 for these is not good. Sorry to say, you are severely overstocked and some of those fish have completely different requirements than others. You should be thinking of rehoming some of them. I would start with the "cleaner or sucker". This is probably a common pleco. If it is, it can reach 2 feet long. I'm not sure what you have for "coral stone and coral plates". If these are artificial, polyresin, plastic, ceramic, ect... they should be fine. If it is real coral, that will be the reason for the high pH, remove it.

 

[TropicalLad21]

That's alot of fish.. WoW - you really need to take the advice members have give you here otherwise things will only get worse... good luck.

 

[nick1200]

You have to think there are 83 fish in your tank doing there business.... all that business will burn the fish if you don't have enough live plants / filters to cope with it. Bet your tank is fill with allgy ? If it ent that will be the next stage. Id get more plants and maybe a external pump which can move most of the water which means it will get though all your water and get rid of all the business and acidey stuff .

 

[DrRob]

I'm not sure I should post any more today. I think I'm posting what I want to read, rather then what's there.

+1 to Colleen's comment on the ammonia and nitrite, as well as the other useful comments made above.

 

[colleen0309]

I'm not sure I should post any more today. I think I'm posting what I want to read, rather then what's there.

+1 to Colleen's comment on the ammonia and nitrite, as well as the other useful comments made above.

Sit back, have another cup of coffee, or tea, if you prefer, and come back and post somemore.

 

[DrRob]

Went out, bought a door, came home, spilt coffee. I think today is cancelled. At least I'm not breaking things at work.

 

[the_lock_man]

At least I'm not breaking things at work.

Do you regularly break things at work? I'm glad you ain't my doctor.......

 

[colleen0309]

Went out, bought a door, came home, spilt coffee. I think today is cancelled. At least I'm not breaking things at work.

You shouldn't have added that last comment! Just remember, Mama said there'd be days like this!

 

[Melissa:)]

Hi
Thanks every1 for the replies
First of al im not a total nut job. My tank is massive it over 4 foot x a foot and it looks totally empty.
I have an external ehim filter so that takes up no room.
Nitrite and amonia is at 0.
All the fish are tiny, the biggest are the mollies and they aint too big.
The sucker, i was told wont grow much bigger, bout and inch and a half if even.
Apart from the mollies and the guppies the rest are the size of neons.
I have test kits for Nitrite which is 0 every time.
Test kit for amonia which is 0 every time
and PH test kit which comes out blue stating 7.6 or over.
Before i do a water change, i tested my tap water, which was perfect for all tests.
My husband also add some thing he bought for when adding new water, aqua safe i think its called.
The only thing i notice is, for a few hours before the fish dies, it looks kinda lazy and starts swimming sideroads??
And yea DR Rob they r Platies
The coral stone is real
Thanks any help is appreciated

 

[colleen0309]

Ok. I don't think you are a total nut job. I think you have a fairly decent sized tank and bought a bunch of little fish for it. It looked empty, so you added more little fish. The only problem with this is that those little fish will grow up. they won't get "big" but they will grow. Aside from being overstocked, some of these fish have very different requirements.It looks like you did not research the individual requirements of these fish. The neons, cardinals, and amber tetras like softer, warmer water. The white cloud mountains like cooler temps. I have never heard of a mini angel or else I'd have a whole tank of them. I do not know what you mean by working fish or bumblebee type. The livebarers, mollies and guppies, like harder water with a higher pH than the tetras. As for the sucker fish, it must not be a common pleco if it won't get any bigger. Please don't get defensive. We are not bashing you, we are trying to get to the bottom of your problem. If the coral is real, remove it. This is causing your pH to raise. Pics of the fish would help us id the fish for you. That way you would know what fish went together.