Hey everyone! I'm new and looking for advice. I have a 15gallon freshwater aquarium. I had it set up 6 years ago and had it up and running for about 3-4 years. I had absolutely NO problems. Once my fish died I cleaned it and put it up in storage. Its been about 3-4 years since ive had one up and running and now that I have a 5 year old he wanted some fish so I got it back out and got it set up. I treated my water as I did before with all the recommended chemicals etc and I had some trouble with my ph, it was 8.0 and extremely cloudy. I gradually decreased it and it's running 7.0-7.2, the water became crystal clear after the ph got within normal limits, my chlorine, nitrate, everything else is within normal limits except my alkalinity, it's running like 300. Anyway I had my tank set up for about 3-4 weeks before adding fish. So last week I bought easy fish: 6 neon tetras, 6 glowfish (tetra), 4 lamp eye tetras, 4 black mollies, and 4 red platy's. My water was alittle cloudy at the time I added the fish so I added a capful of water clarifier. So within 24 hours 5 of my glowfish died, 1 of my lamp eye tetra, 4 of my mollies, and 4 of my platy's. The next day 2 of my neon tetra's died.
So my tank has been up and running 5 days now and my water is cloudy. My levels are all within normal limits except the alkalinity is still high and my water is soft. I will say that when I had my aquarium a few years ago I was on a different water system. Where I live now is well water. Even though it's well water it's not like I've got a well in my yard, it's filtered and treated by the city if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I added too many at one time or if the clarifier killed them although in the past I've added it with fish in there and it's never done anything like that. I'm not sure if the fact that the alkalinity is off and adding the clarifier did the opposite. I've changed my filter, but have not changed my water yet nor replaced the fish that has died bc I'm scared that the same thing will happen.
I need to advice, suggestions, and thoughts as to why this happened or what I can do. Thanks bunches!
So my tank has been up and running 5 days now and my water is cloudy. My levels are all within normal limits except the alkalinity is still high and my water is soft. I will say that when I had my aquarium a few years ago I was on a different water system. Where I live now is well water. Even though it's well water it's not like I've got a well in my yard, it's filtered and treated by the city if that makes sense. I'm not sure if I added too many at one time or if the clarifier killed them although in the past I've added it with fish in there and it's never done anything like that. I'm not sure if the fact that the alkalinity is off and adding the clarifier did the opposite. I've changed my filter, but have not changed my water yet nor replaced the fish that has died bc I'm scared that the same thing will happen.
I need to advice, suggestions, and thoughts as to why this happened or what I can do. Thanks bunches!
