Help My poor fish

[qrasflk2]

Hello,
I’m having a lot of trouble with my 20gal community tank. I had a successful tank up and running with no deaths for over two years. One day I bought some live food and next thing I know every thing dies. I bought HydroPlex and treated all of the fish but it did nothing. I took a dead fish into my local fish store, but no had seen anything like this before. So I started over from scratch, I cleaned everything and ran the tank empty for about four months, I treated it and tested everything, I bought a few fish, which seemed to be happy for a about three weeks then they all die over night. I tested the water and everything was fine. So I ran the tank again for another 6 months empty. I now just decided to try again. I Went to the fish store today and picked up a few Tetras and a Barb, I put them in my tank and it looks like they have Ick. I’m at a lost, is it my tank or just really bad luck. I husband is always at are local fish store talking to the owner and we are all dumbfounded. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do next?

 

[Menagerie]

ran the tank again for another 6 months empty

This won't help anything. Your tank may not be cycled, meaning there is not enough bacteria to keep up with the bioload. The only way a tank cycles is to add an ammonia source, either straight ammonia (fishless cycling) or to add a few fish at a time and monitor the water parameters.
How many are in the tank?
What are your actual water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temp)?
When you cleaned the tank, what did you use?
There is an excellent aricle on ich in the Articles section. I would try the heat and salt method.

[center:90f600a650] Welcome to AA, qrasflk2! [/center:90f600a650]

 

[qrasflk2]

We added AmQuel Ammonia Chloramines Chlorine before adding fish, We also Added Fritz Zyme #7. The tank should be done with its cycle. Also I think my husband has some bioload stuff, I know he used it but these are the only treatments I found.

Ammonia .0 Clear water
Nitrite is also clear or less than .2
Temp 76-78
I don't have a PH tester, But I thought that the PH was only bad when the tank had High ammonia. Same with nitrate.

also now I'm sure its ick, I have another very happy tank and I got a new fish, he had Ick. I shock treated the tank and he's doing good.

In the 20gal I had three, but lost two overnight.

I think he used dish soap to clean the tank, but that was over a year ago.

also I was talking to my husband last night and we were thinking. This all started when we got live worms from a fish store. We have not been able to keep a fish alive after that. Well we had some barbs for about three weeks, but then we got a new fish that had something and it killed all the fish then died. Could this have anything to do with my fish problems?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[qrasflk2]

 

[qrasflk2]

Also I read the artical on Ick and My fish don't look like that. They have white on their fins but it does not look like salt. Is that still LCK

 

[qrasflk2]

Ok found the problem, FesTest has a defective lot.... I went to my fish store with my water for them to look at. They use the same test I have used and got....
PH 7.6
ammonia 4.0
The woman at the store said she had the same problem a few days ago, and when she re-tested her water with a different kit she found the same problem.

 

[Menagerie]

Oh dear. That ammonia is causing problems. I recommend a 50% water change right away. Then 50% tomorrow and then 25% until that ammonia comes down all the way to undectable and stays there. Get new liquid tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
The reason for testing nitrite and nitrate is to see if the tank has fully cycled. In addition, nitrite, regardless of pH (although pH does influence nitrite levels) is deadly to fish. Nitrates on the other hand don't usually affect fish until higher than 40 ppm.

Since it doesn't look like ich, can you describe it a bit more? White stuff on fins~does it look like the fins are sloughing off? Are they covered in something?

 

[qrasflk2]

The fish looks a lot better.

It looks like cow spots all over the fish, with fuzzy eyes. I assume its a fungus.

So we are still treating the tank.

 

[Menagerie]

Bacterial infections resemble fungal infections. What exactly are you treating the tank with?

 

[qrasflk2]

HydroPlex -Treatment of bacterial and parasitic infection, also used for dipping new fish.

 

[Menagerie]

Okay, I've never heard of it. Keep us updated.