Water issues

[Brenda26910]

I have a 20 gallon fresh water. Everything has been going very well until Friday. I have lost a fish a day and not sure why. They are fish I have had for about 6 months or so. They didn't look sick or acting strange just looked in take and they were dead. What should my water levels be?

 

[Sillyfishies]

I have a 20 gallon fresh water. Everything has been going very well until Friday. I have lost a fish a day and not sure why. They are fish I have had for about 6 months or so. They didn't look sick or acting strange just looked in take and they were dead. What should my water levels be?

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
And under 60 nitrates.

If you have anything more than 0 ammonia or nitrites that is most likely why it died.

What type of fish do you have? It may have been bullied (most of it occurred during the night so you may have not seen it).

 

[kwandrsn]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20 or less

Some say 40 on the nitrate I shoot for under 20 less the better. And I also keep my temp at 77

 

[calfishguy]

0 ammonia
0 nitrites
And under 60 nitrates.

If you have anything more than 0 ammonia or nitrites that is most likely why it died.

What type of fish do you have? It may have been bullied (most of it occurred during the night so you may have not seen it).

Yes we need more info. Also 60ppm nitrates is dangerous to certain species. What are your parms stock water change schedule.

 

[kwandrsn]

Correct me if I'm wrong and I don't mean disrespect but you have had the fish for 6 months and don't know what your parameters should be ok. So we need to start with
how did you cycle the tank?
What fish are in the tank?
How much you feed them?
How often you change water?
And what the parameters are as of now.
Is it a planted tank?

Am sorry for your loss by the way
And hopefully we can fix the problem

 

[Brenda26910]

I have an angel, 1 female Molly, 3 neon tetra, 2 red tales, 2 red eyes, 2 female platy, 1 male platy, 2 painted glass, 1 female guppy, 1 male guppy, and and algae eater. Most of these fish I have had since the start about 6-7 months ago everything has been fine until now so I never bothered with checking levels. Temp holds steady at about 78 degrees. I do 5 gallon water changes once a month. Feed twice day. It is filtered with a medium size aqueon filter.

 

[Brenda26910]

Here is a current pic of tank

 

[kwandrsn]

Very nice tank.
Ok well you should get a test kit and start checking levels. In my opinion 5 gallons once a month is not enough but some may say its possible.
I change 10 gallons a week in my 20 gallon.
Personally I would suggest changing 5 gallons a week

Check your levels and let us know what they are

 

[Brenda26910]

The reason I only do once a month is because my home is very dry and I have to add almost a gallon a week due to evaporation.

 

[kwandrsn]

Well the water will evaporate but it leaves all the bad stuff behind :-(

 

[calfishguy]

The reason I only do once a month is because my home is very dry and I have to add almost a gallon a week due to evaporation.

That's not a great reason for not doing proper aquarium maintenance you should be doing a 30-50% water change a week.

Investing in a python water changer will make the task a lot less daunting.

 

[Brenda26910]

Took a water sample to Lfs he said the ph is to low

 

[Brenda26910]

He recommends doing 2 gallon changes every day until it comes back up

 

[kwandrsn]

Ok what is the Ph. You will definitely kill fish if you start changing Ph around

most fish will get used to a, certain level of Ph and when you start changing it it bad
As far as Ph is concerned stability is the key

If you tell me the exact numbers I can help you

 

[Brenda26910]

Right now it is 6.0. The Lfs said I need it around 7.2

 

[kwandrsn]

What was your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels?

 

[Brenda26910]

Not sure he didn't tell me

 

[kwandrsn]

I, would buy a test kit if I was you

 

[calfishguy]

I, would buy a test kit if I was you

Agreed its always useful to be able to test whenever you need to.

 

[kwandrsn]

I use API liquid test kita for my freshwater and saltwater tanks