Help With New Tank Issues

[glubsgups]

Hi, all. My SO and I started a Fluval Spec V tank recently, but have been having trouble keeping anything. Guppies and even RCS all dying within a week. We had one holdout that lived about a month, a little endler hybrid, but he just died last night as well. We can't figure out what's going on here, so any help would be appreciated. Here's everything I can think of that may be of use:

• 
  Water is treated with prime and left to sit for a few days before use in a change

• Changing 25% weekly

• Measurements consistently near Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, nitrate 5

• Measurement within hours of endler death was .25, 0, 5 (not sure if the dead fish was the cause of the .25, haven't measure again yet)

• PH is around 7.0

• Tank is heated to 76 F, and uses the stock Spec V filter and lights

• Tank is planted (I can't recall the plant names, if that's relevant), and is otherwise decorated with marimo, cholla wood, and a piece of slate

Any help or ideas would be great. Also, as an aside, now that the last of the stock passed, should we be dosing to keep the cycle?

 

[toolman]

How big is your spec and was it fully cycled? Also read up on the sticky on the nitrogen cycle if your not familiar with it.
Were all your guppies endlers?
Endlers are awesome little fish, I have some in my 10gallon shrimp tank.

 

[glubsgups]

How big is your spec and was it fully cycled? Also read up on the sticky on the nitrogen cycle if your not familiar with it.
Were all your guppies endlers?
Endlers are awesome little fish, I have some in my 10gallon shrimp tank.View attachment 297202

The Spec V is a 5 gallon tank, and I do believe it was fully cycled. I'm not expert by any means, but my 6 gallon has been doing well for about 3 years with no issues (my oldest in there is a 2 year old gup, so these fast deaths are disheartening).

No they weren't all endlers. At the peak, there was one fancy and then two endler, all male. The initial idea for this tank was a small landscaped shrimp tank, so I agree on the endlers being great!

 

[A Little Fishy]

Yeah if your test levels are good I would let the water cycle and for me, whenever I have a water change, I move water out a couple days before and let it sit and go flat so the fish don't get all the crap my local water treatment dumps into make our water acceptable.

 

[joem6376]

Just same as the person before me, make sure the tank has got a complete cycle, this is the only reason why I could think of for your tanks amonia level rising, also check the levels in the water you are about to use for a water change just to be sure

 

[toolman]

All good replies, but imho the bioload was to much for beneficial bacteria to process the waste.
That's just my opinion, I could very well be wrong, but I don't believe very many fish should be kept in a 5 gal tank.

But you have experience keeping fish in a nano tank ...I don't, I keep mine in a 10 gal. More margin for error with more water and more plants to help process waste.

You'll find many on here agree, but some like yourself keep them... some very successfully. Hopefully one of them may more help.

 

[Obscurans]

I had a problem that was similar with my freshwater tank. My water was too hard ~750 TDS. Had to run a water softening pack in my filter. But since you seem to have success with the same water on your other tank, probably not that. But may be worth looking at if nothing else works? There are other methods to reduce water hardness that you may have done with your other tank, unknowingly making it successful?

 

[whatsgoodm8]

If I were you I'd tear the tank down and start from scratch. Maybe some soap got in there or some other problem that you might not be able to think of caused your fish to die. I'd definitely not wait for a little while then add more fish that would probably die again. Take all the water out, take out all the decorations and gravel and rinse everything. You don't need to use soap in washing anything that goes inside an aquarium. Rinse out the gravel, decorations and filter then set everything back up and let run for a few days to a week. Is the filter outlet nozzle pointing slightly upwards to cause surface agitation? (Where the water comes out of the filter, it needs to be pointed towards the surface of the water slightly so you see "waves", this is to make sure there is enough oxygen in the tank especially if you don't have live plants.) Add one or two balloon platies/mollies if everything looks fine after a week. These fish are hardy enough to survive any sort of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate spike and they look really cool in my opinion.

 

[Mark_the_shark]

Hi, all. My SO and I started a Fluval Spec V tank recently, but have been having trouble keeping anything. Guppies and even RCS all dying within a week. We had one holdout that lived about a month, a little endler hybrid, but he just died last night as well. We can't figure out what's going on here, so any help would be appreciated. Here's everything I can think of that may be of use:

• 
  Water is treated with prime and left to sit for a few days before use in a change

• Changing 25% weekly

• Measurements consistently near Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, nitrate 5

• Measurement within hours of endler death was .25, 0, 5 (not sure if the dead fish was the cause of the .25, haven't measure again yet)

• PH is around 7.0

• Tank is heated to 76 F, and uses the stock Spec V filter and lights

• Tank is planted (I can't recall the plant names, if that's relevant), and is otherwise decorated with marimo, cholla wood, and a piece of slate

Any help or ideas would be great. Also, as an aside, now that the last of the stock passed, should we be dosing to keep the cycle?

Have you tried other types of fish? Some workers at petco mentioned that guppies have a high mortality rate. I am not sure if this is true or not. Have you fully cycled your tank?