Fish are dying

[55gls]

I'm getting frustrated! 55 set up for two months now lost a lot of fish first month due to ick.
Stock now 2 angels six rummy nose one clown loch one skunk Cory one pineapple swordtail three red eye tetra and three candy cane tetra
Fish lost in two days. Four panda Cory one skunk Cory three pineapple swordtail one clown loch!
Ph is high has been since day one ammonia is 0 nitrates 0
Have been doing 50% water changes with filtered water every three weeks.
I'm wondering if the panda Cory's were sick I got them last week and they went first others followed
The six rummy nose I had from day one they survived the ich mess

 

[molliwopp]

Ich shouldn't of and shouldn't be killing fish on its own, something else is wrong. Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?

You should have a reading for nitrates as its a bi product of the nitrite conversion, are you sure you don't mean nitrite?

If your tank has only been up 2 months and you didn't cycle it, you must have ammonia and nitrite in the tank and this WILL be what is killing your fish (by cycle I mean feed the tank ammonia for at least a month). On a newly set up tank or even an established tank, water changes every 3weeks is nowhere near enough. I would do a 50% change today, Fresh water will stop your fish from dying and then I would do another tomorrow. when fish or become sick I do a 50% water change there and then to dilute anything possibly in the water.

Adding all those fish in the first 2 months of setting the tank up is asking for trouble, you should do it progressively.

what do you mean filtered water?

 

[55gls]

My tap water is hard as I was told by my local aquarium so I bought a ceramic filter.
I put fish in since tank was set up and was told this would create the cycle.
Ammonia never spiked and nitrate has always been 0
The ick was two months ago haven't had any problems until I added new fish last week

 

[Rivercats]

I'm getting frustrated! 55 set up for two months now lost a lot of fish first month due to ick.
Stock now 2 angels six rummy nose one clown loch one skunk Cory one pineapple swordtail three red eye tetra and three candy cane tetra
Fish lost in two days. Four panda Cory one skunk Cory three pineapple swordtail one clown loch!
Ph is high has been since day one ammonia is 0 nitrates 0
Have been doing 50% water changes with filtered water every three weeks.
I'm wondering if the panda Cory's were sick I got them last week and they went first others followed
The six rummy nose I had from day one they survived the ich mess

Read this article and you should see why you've been losing fish... I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice. When you set up a tank and add fish right away you have to do a fish-in cycle which means testing the water daily for ammonia and nitrites and doing a WC every time ammonia or nitrites rise above .25ppm. After cycling is done which will take weeks you need to do a 50% WC "weekly" not every 3 weeks to keep nutrients low and water pristine. If you didn't follow the above of daily testing and WC's as needed then your fish have likely died from ammonia and or nitrite poisoning. When they had ich all you needed to do was to slowly raise your temp to 86 for a couple week which not only would have killed the ich but would also have helped your cycle as the beneficial bacteria will grow faster at higher temps.

 

[molliwopp]

My tap water is hard as I was told by my local aquarium so I bought a ceramic filter.
I put fish in since tank was set up and was told this would create the cycle.
Ammonia never spiked and nitrate has always been 0
The ick was two months ago haven't had any problems until I added new fish last week

ammonia had to of spiked. there's no smoke without fire and there's no fish without ammonia.

yes this would create a cycle but it takes time, in the meantime you need to do regular water changes to keep them down. If you're genuinely testing your water for ammonia and nitrite without readings for either then your test isn't working. Ammonia wont kill fish straight away, it needs to build to a dangerous level and with your stock that wouldn't take very long.

a ceramic filter? you mean a filter with ceramic ring or balls in correct? this will have no effect on water hardness and is irrelevant and wont soften water. This is just a place for the good bacteria that digests ammonia and nitrite to grow.

 

[Mebbid]

What is your ph originally at that makes you feel you need to lower it? Those fish will happily live in a ph of 8.4 and its not really a big deal as long as its stable. What are you using to filter your water?

We need an ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate reading as well as 3 different pH readings on the tank. To take the ph readings, take one right before the lights turn on, one halfway through the day, and the last after the lights go off. This will let you know how much your ph is swinging. The cause of major ph swings is from using water that has very little buffering capacity (filtered water)

Assuming you are doing the ammonia and nitrate tests correctly then I will assume that your nitrites are going to be very very high. Anything above a .5ppm nitrite level is potentially poisonous to fish although I doubt that nitrites alone are going to be the cause of your problem. What are you using for a test kit?

I would highly suggest doing a 50% water change asap but instead of 100% filtered water use 25% tap water and the rest filtered water. After you get all the readings that you need we can help you more.

Finally, assuming your tank is even partially cycled you should never have a 0ppm nitrate reading. I would retest it.

A few other things to note that are common mistakes:
1 - Don't change out your filter media unless it is disintegrating.
2 - on the nitrate test follow the instructions VERY carefully or you won't get a correct reading.
3 - less than a weekly water change is insufficient on most tanks. 50% weekly is the suggested standard amount.

 

[flitabout]

I just looked up ceramic water filters they will do nothing to make your water safe for your fish. You will still need to treat your water with a declorinator like Prime. Hard water isn't inherently bad for your fish. I have what is considered liquid rock and it didn't seem to faze my fish in the slightest. Me on the other hand it gave me fits because my PH out of the tap got as high as 8.8. I didn't start using 100% Reverse Osmosis (RO) water until the rest of my parameters got really bad.
They were:
Ammonia 2ppm
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
Phosphate 2ppm
PH 7.8
KH 15dkh 268.5ppm
GH 30dkh 537ppm
The last two show hardness of the water.
The water having these number coupled with the ever constantly changing parameters of it, is what made me change to RO water. Hard water isn't bad as long as it's parameters are stable.
My best advice is weekly water changes of around 50% with dechorinated water or anytime ammonia or nitrite get above .25ppm so that means daily testing until you have 0 ammo, 0 nitrite and at least 5ppm-10ppm of nitrate or if you have plants up to 20ppm.

 

[55gls]

After reading all your advise I have to assume it's the nitrite levels as I do not have a test for nitrites only ph ammonia and nitrates.
I have the API test kits with the drops I will be bringing a sample to my local shop tonight and do a 50% water change after work.
Will get back to you with results of the tests thanks

 

[Sk3lly]

After reading all your advise I have to assume it's the nitrite levels as I do not have a test for nitrites only ph ammonia and nitrates. I have the API test kits with the drops I will be bringing a sample to my local shop tonight and do a 50% water change after work. Will get back to you with results of the tests thanks

Is that the API master test kit? If so that does have nitrite test as its the test kit i use. You need to shake the nitrate test bottles vigorously before testing and vigorously shake your sample for a good minute after adding the drops otherwise you wont get a true nitrate reading. API drops are easy to test ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia has two bottles. You use 8 drops from each bottle. Nitrite has one bottle and uses 5 drops. Basically after 5 mins of testing your looking for yellow in the ammonia test and a light blue on the nitrite test. If your getting green or purple do an immediate water change of 50% then retest after a few hours

 

[55gls]

Well had my water tested at the shop all levels are perfect! He said something must have contaminated the water I work with a PVC material called azek which creates a very fine dust when cut. Last week I was relocating some plants so I have to think this is the problem. Did a 30% water change let's see what happens

 

[molliwopp]

30% wont be enough if its contamination in the water. I would do 50% twice daily for 2 days.

 

[55gls]

All fish look good and doing well.
I was losing two a day for one week!