Few Odd Deaths

[buminbeer2]

Short story -
Tank has been up 5 weeks.
API test kit, Ammo, Nitrate, Nitrites all 0 for the last two weeks - did the whole fishless cycle thing. PH is about 7.4.
29 gallon tank with a Marineland Penguin 200 and Aqueon 30 on the back.
Tons of live plants with Eco complete as a sub(plants might be why is cycled quickly).
I do a 5 gallon water change ever two days (50% weekly) and add API Stresscoat to the water, I prob over do the coat, thinking a little more is better then not enough? Temp - 76.

Current fish(left) -
5 Zebra Danios
3 Moscow Purple Guppies
3 Corys
2 Bumblebee gobys
2 Apple snails

Lost one Zebra jumping out, back is now covered, so my bad.
The Bumblebee goby is prob my fault as well, impulse buy and now it appears they need brackish water to survive, will reseach more,but it was missing the rear fin, not sure who/what got him.

Now, losing the cory, it appeared be had damage to one eye as it was purple looking and he was a little whitesh on the side lying on the bottom. I don't see any fish looking like I have any diseases at this point.

I lost a snail this morning and pulled him out, looked like it just fell apart. Maybe it is because I don't have any calcuim in the tank and need to add some?
All fish that died lived at least a week, if not much longer. The only thing I will admit I can't do well, is vacuum the bottom of the tank as it is heavily planted, with slate caves, logs and so on blocking most of the bottom, not sure if that has much to do with it?

So, what else should I be checking for or am missing to keep any of my other pets (especially my expensive pure strain guppies) from coming to harm. They all look so happy right now and deaths occur at night. Thanks.

 

[librarygirl]

Hi! I'm sorry about your fish....

I'm no expert, fairly new here myself, but I figured I would ask the more common questions others might ask as well:

- You said all your levels are 0, even nitrAtes? I thought you needed some nitrates for a cycled tank but I could be wrong (just starting a fishless cycle myself); How did you cycle your tank without fish?

- You also mentioned you add Stresscoat to the water. Do you add a dechlorinator as well?

That's all I can think of to ask so far. Someone else with more expertise should be along to help further.

Good luck!

 

[buminbeer2]

Thanks for the questions.
1. The Stresscoat say removes Chlorine, chloramines and ammonia on the bottle. I assume that is a "dechlorinator.
2. Ok, I went back and reread the instructions. Well, it appears I was doing the ammo and nitrites correctly, but not the Nitrates, Goes so show you, read the instructions better, I was not shaking bottle 2 for 30 seconds and the whole mixing for a minute. New result is 5.0ppm, still good there While not 0, as close as you can get, so I think the water is good.

So, I'll see if I get another more answers on what to check. Thanks for pointing out that is should not be 0 per se. I did finish the fishless cycling about two weeks ago using Ace hardware ammo and I am sure the plants helped speed it up some.

 

[librarygirl]

Well your levels sound great! So I hope someone comes along more experienced to help. Good luck. Sorry about your fish