Fish dying. Please help.
I am having an ongoing issue where another fish dies about every 4 days. I cannot figure it out. If anyone can shed some light, that would be great! Here are the particulars:
This is a 3.5 month old, freshwater, slightly planted tank. It was started on Jan 30, 2017. It is a 120 gallon aqueon 6’ long tank. There is an aquatop CF500UV filter running along with some LED strip lights. There is one wave maker at 1000 gal/hr running 24/7 for water surface agitation. I am using one 100w Eheim Jager Aquarium thermostat and one 200 watt thermostat. I also monitor the temp with two always on, displaying digital thermostats, the Seneye and a manual digital probe.
Inside the filter is the media it comes with, but I have added a bag of purigen and Seachem Matrix Bio Media (1 Liter). I have also changed the filter pads and cleaned the filter twice, and changed the carbon and purigen once.
I have one piece of driftwood (that I soaked for a few weeks) that has been “decorated” with live java moss attached to foam (I followed these instructions here:
). The substrate is the CaribSea Eco-Complete. There is about 2 inches of that on the bottom. There is also some plastic drainage cell sheets (Seen here:
) used underneath some “dragon” stone rocks (to protect the glass bottom). There is also some large 3” PVC sections hidden under the rock to create “caves” for the fish to hide. The Java moss is thriving.
I feed the fish with Omega One Fish flakes (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045K93JU). Occasionally some frozen blood worms in a hang on defroster cup. I really want to say that I do not over feed. I would say I put in a tiny pinch-worth each morning. Its regulated by an automatic feeder. The guidance on feeding is very vague.
I use a small amount of aquarium salt in the tank. About 30% of what the directions call for.
I do weekly water changes. They have varied over the months. I used to do larger water changes 25%-50%. However, lately I am doing smaller 5-15% changes. Originally, I was using tap water with Aqueon water conditioner, now I use Seachem Prime. I have since switched to RO/DI water in attempt to lower pH. Using RO/DI water has not affected pH at all, but has lowered my kH & GH.
Regarding pH, I originally only used the API liquid to test. Which is worthless if your number is in the 7.0-8.0 range as the tests for both pH and High Range pH are very generalized. What I do know is that my pH fluctuates from 7.5 during the day to 7.4 during the night (I think it’s the lighting, photosynthesis, CO2 and oxygen changes). The Seneye tracks this best.
Here are the chemical parameters. I am testing three ways: API liquid, paper strips and a Seneye monitor. I also use a calibrated digital probe for pH.
Temp: 77
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-25
Copper: 0
kH: 2 (Was 6 with tap water)
GH: 5 (Was 8 with tap water)
pH: 7.4/7.5
Chlorine/Chloramine: 0
Here are the fish in the tank:
Marble Molly
Dalmatian Molly
Pearl Leeri Gourami
Rainbow Shark
Electric Blue Acara
Redstriped eartheater
GloFish Tetra Starfire Red x2
Angel Fish Blue Phantom Cross
Redheaded Severum (baby)
Goyder Rainbow
Praecox Rainbow
Redline torpedo Barb x2
Rainbow Shark
There have been in the past (RIP):
Honey Gourami
German Blue Ram x2
24k Molly x2
Pearl Leeri Gourami
Electric Blue Acara
GloFish Tetra Starfire Red
Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid Apisto x2
Redline torpedo Barb
Swordtail platy
Here is some more history of the tank:
I bought my “tester” fish and everything was going great. No deaths. Tank cycled properly. Then, there was a bout if ich about three months ago. I got some Seachem Cupramine from the LFS. I followed the instructions on the bottle (don’t ever follow the instructions on the bottle as they are wrong! If you call Seachem they will tell you a bunch of important information that they were too lazy or cheap to print on the bottle). 11 fish died overnight. Apparently when the say don’t use with water conditioners, they mean wait at least 48 hours. I waited 6 hours. Chemical reaction killed fish. Ich remained. I used an herbal Ich med (KORDON 100% Natural and Herbal Formula Ich Attack-Ich Treatment) and 4 weeks later it was cured. Only 1 or 2 more fish died. The list of fish above does not include any fish that dies from ich. That’s a separate list and not my concern. The dead fish listed above have died systematically for no discernable reason.
I also used for a short time Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel for the java moss, but it was unnecessary as the java moss grows great without it and I was experiencing a lot of brown diatom growth on the tank while using the treatments.
In the last 3 months, there have been no signs of illness. There have been no new fish. However, I lose about 1 fish every 4 days. They all die the same way. I find them acting differently (as in not how that fish normally acts), followed by struggling to swim or floating around too weak to swim. Finally, dead, stuck to the filter. It is sickening. Any info to help me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this LONG post.
I am having an ongoing issue where another fish dies about every 4 days. I cannot figure it out. If anyone can shed some light, that would be great! Here are the particulars:
This is a 3.5 month old, freshwater, slightly planted tank. It was started on Jan 30, 2017. It is a 120 gallon aqueon 6’ long tank. There is an aquatop CF500UV filter running along with some LED strip lights. There is one wave maker at 1000 gal/hr running 24/7 for water surface agitation. I am using one 100w Eheim Jager Aquarium thermostat and one 200 watt thermostat. I also monitor the temp with two always on, displaying digital thermostats, the Seneye and a manual digital probe.
Inside the filter is the media it comes with, but I have added a bag of purigen and Seachem Matrix Bio Media (1 Liter). I have also changed the filter pads and cleaned the filter twice, and changed the carbon and purigen once.
I have one piece of driftwood (that I soaked for a few weeks) that has been “decorated” with live java moss attached to foam (I followed these instructions here:
I feed the fish with Omega One Fish flakes (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045K93JU). Occasionally some frozen blood worms in a hang on defroster cup. I really want to say that I do not over feed. I would say I put in a tiny pinch-worth each morning. Its regulated by an automatic feeder. The guidance on feeding is very vague.
I use a small amount of aquarium salt in the tank. About 30% of what the directions call for.
I do weekly water changes. They have varied over the months. I used to do larger water changes 25%-50%. However, lately I am doing smaller 5-15% changes. Originally, I was using tap water with Aqueon water conditioner, now I use Seachem Prime. I have since switched to RO/DI water in attempt to lower pH. Using RO/DI water has not affected pH at all, but has lowered my kH & GH.
Regarding pH, I originally only used the API liquid to test. Which is worthless if your number is in the 7.0-8.0 range as the tests for both pH and High Range pH are very generalized. What I do know is that my pH fluctuates from 7.5 during the day to 7.4 during the night (I think it’s the lighting, photosynthesis, CO2 and oxygen changes). The Seneye tracks this best.
Here are the chemical parameters. I am testing three ways: API liquid, paper strips and a Seneye monitor. I also use a calibrated digital probe for pH.
Temp: 77
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-25
Copper: 0
kH: 2 (Was 6 with tap water)
GH: 5 (Was 8 with tap water)
pH: 7.4/7.5
Chlorine/Chloramine: 0
Here are the fish in the tank:
Marble Molly
Dalmatian Molly
Pearl Leeri Gourami
Rainbow Shark
Electric Blue Acara
Redstriped eartheater
GloFish Tetra Starfire Red x2
Angel Fish Blue Phantom Cross
Redheaded Severum (baby)
Goyder Rainbow
Praecox Rainbow
Redline torpedo Barb x2
Rainbow Shark
There have been in the past (RIP):
Honey Gourami
German Blue Ram x2
24k Molly x2
Pearl Leeri Gourami
Electric Blue Acara
GloFish Tetra Starfire Red
Cockatoo Dwarf Cichlid Apisto x2
Redline torpedo Barb
Swordtail platy
Here is some more history of the tank:
I bought my “tester” fish and everything was going great. No deaths. Tank cycled properly. Then, there was a bout if ich about three months ago. I got some Seachem Cupramine from the LFS. I followed the instructions on the bottle (don’t ever follow the instructions on the bottle as they are wrong! If you call Seachem they will tell you a bunch of important information that they were too lazy or cheap to print on the bottle). 11 fish died overnight. Apparently when the say don’t use with water conditioners, they mean wait at least 48 hours. I waited 6 hours. Chemical reaction killed fish. Ich remained. I used an herbal Ich med (KORDON 100% Natural and Herbal Formula Ich Attack-Ich Treatment) and 4 weeks later it was cured. Only 1 or 2 more fish died. The list of fish above does not include any fish that dies from ich. That’s a separate list and not my concern. The dead fish listed above have died systematically for no discernable reason.
I also used for a short time Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel for the java moss, but it was unnecessary as the java moss grows great without it and I was experiencing a lot of brown diatom growth on the tank while using the treatments.
In the last 3 months, there have been no signs of illness. There have been no new fish. However, I lose about 1 fish every 4 days. They all die the same way. I find them acting differently (as in not how that fish normally acts), followed by struggling to swim or floating around too weak to swim. Finally, dead, stuck to the filter. It is sickening. Any info to help me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading this LONG post.
