First fish has died!!! Did it cycle?

[pjos11]

Hi All I really need your help please. I have a Trigon 350litres corner tank. Its about three weeks old.
Thing is my readings have always been the same.
Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
PH 7.4
There is NOW three Platies one died today 4 Zebra Danios, 8 Cardinals. The Platie that died had been acting strange he began to hide and his tail looked straight and Square, he also seemed to have a bump on his head. Well this is what it looked like 8O When I found him today he was lying at the bottom of the tank. The other fish seem ok apart from one Platie that stays at the top of the tank in the corner. The water seemed a bit cloudy today so I have just carried out a 20 percent change.
The filter system is the one that came with the tank it is supposed to be very good. This is it.

http://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/trigon.htm
I have about 10 plants in the tank and a log of wood that I bought at the lfs. My water temperature is 26 degrees.
I am concerned about the fish that died Could the other fish be in trouble?
I do use Tap Safe to take out the chlorine. When I first started I used Nutrafin Cycle as advised by my lfs.
My lfs has a tank like mine his water is crystal clear and looks great. Why is mine so different?
I have tryed to giv as much information as possible can anyone help? I really don`t want to fall so soon.
Paul

 

[Jchillin]

Moved to "Sick/Unhealthy Fish" forum.

 

[Jchillin]

Sorry to hear that you suffered so many fish losses. I'm confused about which fish died though and which ones are remaining.

In order to determine what happened, please answer the following questions:

1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
9A~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?

 

[Cherry]

Hi Paul,

The cloudy water, considering your ammonia nitrite & nitrate levels are acceptable could be a bacterial bloom it is normally seen in newly set up aquariums, and will dissipate naturally over time.

ok...umm 350L is about 92US gallons that had 4 Platies, 4 Zebra Danios & 8 Cardinals which is understocked so that's alright...Yourr running a jewel filter?

Did you soak the wood you bought at your LFS b4 adding it to your tank? Is the water more of a white cloudy or a yellow cloudy?

Kerry

 

[RoK]

I've heard that the product "Cycle" doesn't really do what it says it does. It's possible that the platy may have died due to ammonia poisoning. This is assuming that the platy was in there at least most of the time the tank has been set up?
How often do you do water changes and how much of the water do you change?
Also, can you test for the hardness of the water?

 

[pjos11]

I cant test the hardness of the water but as I`m a plumber I know that we in N Ireland don`t have a problem with Hard water. I Have tested for ammonia with two different test kits they are reading Zero. I have feed the fish with TetraMIN flake food always. I would say that the cloudiness is whitish. I have done a 15-20 percent water change since I had the tank.(three weeks now).
Can I test for a bacterial bloom?
I only lost one fish a Platie.
When I change the water I use a Vac should I dig into the gravel or hover over it?

 

[Simpte]

The tank is cycled for the stocking levels. This does NOT mean that the tank will not repike (go through a mini cycle). The tank is very understocked and there is enough bacteria to handle the load you have in there now. Be prepared for more readings as you add fish. It sounds like you are on your way to a healthy tank. There is now way to tell for sure what your fish died from without further description of the fish and the symptoms it displayed prior to its death. It may have been unhealthy when you got him/her and the added stress of a cycle could have killed it. It may have died anyway.

 

[Cherry]

Hi Paul,

Unfortunatly there is no way of testing for a bacterial bloom it just has to run it's course, continue to do regular partial water changes and keep testing for NitrAte (sometimes this can be the culprit for over abundant bacteria). Digging into the gravel ensures you get all the crud that sinks between the gravel, I'm always amazed HOW much crud can hide in it! The junk in your gravel has some benifitial bacteria in it, but remember that it does have fish waste and left over food in it that will rot and raise NitrAtes so it's always good to do a good 'hovering' at least once a week.