Urgent - Unstable 16 gallon freshwater aquarium

[sabooo]

Hi folks,

Need advice.
Aquarium size - 16 Gallons
Aquarium brand - Aqueon with Quietflow 10 filter
Aquarium age - 2 years
Fishes - 2 baby Platys and 1 Guppy
Decor - 1 piece ( put it a week back because of algae growing on it)
2 thick Java fern plants
1 air bubbler (recent introduced)
Test Kit - API Freshwater Master Test Kit
Stats - Ammonia 0.25 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 5.0 ppm, High Range PH 7.4
Water change frequency - 2 weeks mostly
Water - Tap water. I use Prime and API tap water conditioner

2 weeks back, I used to have total 5 fishes ( 1 guppy and 4 platy's), I bought 3 new fishes ( 1 platy and 2 guppies) and within a week 5 of them died. Fish tank stats kind of remained constant. After then I cleaned and changed the filter and did -25-50% water changes every 3-4 days. After then it has been stable and I have now 3 fishes in the tank total.
This fish tank has been like that and I every time I try to introduce new fishes, it ends up in a disaster like this. I never took the fish count more than 8 in this tank and they have all been guppies + Platy's.
Please advise what I am doing wrong and how can I make this aquarium stable to run it at its capacity. I am losing hope and thinking of getting rid of it.

 

[sabooo]

Hi folks,

Need advice.
Aquarium size - 16 Gallons
Aquarium brand - Aqueon with Quietflow 10 filter
Aquarium age - 2 years
Fishes - 2 baby Platys and 1 Guppy
Decor - 1 piece ( put it a week back because of algae growing on it)
2 thick Java fern plants
1 air bubbler (recent introduced)
Test Kit - API Freshwater Master Test Kit
Stats - Ammonia 0.25 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 5.0 ppm, High Range PH 7.4
Water change frequency - 2 weeks mostly
Water - Tap water. I use Prime and API tap water conditioner

2 weeks back, I used to have total 5 fishes ( 1 guppy and 4 platy's), I bought 3 new fishes ( 1 platy and 2 guppies) and within a week 5 of them died. Fish tank stats kind of remained constant. After then I cleaned and changed the filter and did -25-50% water changes every 3-4 days. After then it has been stable and I have now 3 fishes in the tank total.
This fish tank has been like that and I every time I try to introduce new fishes, it ends up in a disaster like this. I never took the fish count more than 8 in this tank and they have all been guppies + Platy's.
Please advise what I am doing wrong and how can I make this aquarium stable to run it at its capacity. I am losing hope and thinking of getting rid of it.

Anyone?

 

[Aiken Drum]

How are you aclaimating new fish?

 

[sabooo]

How are you aclaimating new fish?

I normally leave the packet floating on top of aquarium for 30 minutes as per advice of Petco and then release them into aquarium. They didn't die immediately but died after a week.

 

[Aiken Drum]

How often has this happened?
Any signs of illness?
Are the fish acting strange in any way?
Are you always getting fish from the same store?

 

[sabooo]

How often has this happened?
Any signs of illness?
Are the fish acting strange in any way?
Are you always getting fish from the same store?

Thank you for your response. It happens almost every time, I have tried introducing fish 10-15 times so far and sometimes it stabilizes but then after some time I start losing fishes.
Guppies have been the most problematic for me, I had better success with Platies. They normally start floating on top of water instead of going in, going into corners and then later die. I did not notice any signs of any illness at all each time. I have tried switching the stores, it helped a bit but this latest incident was a big loss, even after switching to the new store.

 

[Aiken Drum]

When you introduce new fish, are you water testing every day afterwards? Could be an ammonia spike. That would explain the deaths after a few weeks.

 

[sabooo]

Quite possible. I used to test aggressively and daily in past when I lost lots of fishes. Now I test once in two weeks. Going by this factor, is there a way to keep Ammonia spike into control? Is it the problem with the bacteria in my tank that they can't keep up with that ammonia spike? Just thinking.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Possibly. Try adding new fish in slowly. Dont increase bioload by more than 25 to 30% in one go. If you have 3 fish, just add one more in. When you are sure that everything is ok add another. Maybe a couple more a couple of weeks later.

Possibly get a small quarantine tank and keep new fish there for a week or 2 before introducing into your main tank to make sure you arent introducing sick fish.

Test water everyday for a short while after introducing new fish and if you see a spike do a water change. Feeding sparingly for a short time will reduce possible spikes.

Your bacteria will be sufficient for the bioload you have, when you add in more it will take a little while before the bacteria catches up. If you add a lot in one go, the spike could be significant until it catches up a week or two later, by which time the damage is done but when you then test your water everything looks ok.

 

[sabooo]

Thank you so much for you valuable advice. I appreciate it.