Water chemistry great, fish dying - ????

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harleycodr

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 26, 2013
Messages
13
Location
Fremont, CA
I don't know what's going on.

The tank has been set up for 3 weeks and has fish. I have the liquid API test kit and all of my levels are great - the only one that is a little high is nitrates at 40ppm. My nitrites are 0, amonia 0...but I have lost several fish this week. I even had my local store test the water and they commended me for my water levels...

I have a 30 gallon tank. I had 5 neon tetras, 2 gourmis and 3 mollies. Now I have 4 neons, 1 gourmi and 2 mollies.

The tank is planted, has nice aereation going on and yet they are dying. What might be the problem?:fish1:
 
I have a few questions and suggestions. First, get a cheap corner filter and fill it with good carbon. Second, using a piece of airline tube pull a water sample from the bottom and test it. That water sample will likely answer all your questions, but if not are you using dechlorinater? You may have heavy metals not showing up on the test. If you're not using dechlorinater try some as a few drops may help the fish within hours. Are the fish gasping for air or are their gills rosy? Regardless the carbon will pull a lot of stuff out of the water, but if the gills are discolored or the fish huffing you are dealing with something toxic. Last line of defense is 20% water change. Wait an hour to see if there is improvement.

Are the gouramis on top, tetras in middle and moolys close to the top? Make sure everyone is where they sould be in the water colunm. If not you still have a water issue. If repeated water changes, 2-3 in one day, don't make the behavior correct, You need to look at everything in the tank. Decorations and stuff can give off lead from paint-painted gravel big no, no. If you let us know what type of filter you're using and if you fertalized the plants we may be able to help more. Don't know how much experience you have, but never dig into the gravel. It kills off your bio filtration and poisons the tank.
 
Assuming that you are using a HOB filter and a dechlorinator in your tank and since your parameters are well in range then I would think that its an internal problem with your fish. Most likely it could be an internal bacterial infection or parasite since you didn't mention any obvious external signs on your fish.

Without treating with medicine, I would at the very least suggest you attempt to get your nitrates down around 10ppm. It should take at least 2 50% water changes to get it that low, but it will help your fishes immune system. Another good option is to get some metronidazole medicated food. Metronidazole is used primarily to treat against parasites but it also has a fair effect against bacteria as well. If you choose to go this route then feed them nothing but that food for 1 week maximum. Any longer than that and it can cause internal damage.
 
Thanks for the replies - everyone is swimming 'where they should be' and yes I am using a dechlorinator.

I'll try a water sample from the bottom and then figure out if they are sick - everyone looks fine and they aren't swimming erratically or looking like they are having trouble breathing.

Marian
 
More info

The filter is a marineland with that wheel that you never change, I have regular gravel I got at PetSmart, all of the decorations resided in the tank with its previous owner except for a couple of natural seashells my husband put in and some glass nuggets.

There are a couple of real plants in the tank also. I don't dig around in the gravel at all. I had two African dwarf frogs in there also but they passed away within 2 weeks. It looks like I'm going to lose another neon tetra today; one has separated from the group and is hanging around inside a decorative rock tunnel thing. :-(

I'll try a 50% water change and see if that improves anything. I hate to think I have The Tank of Death.

Marian:huh:
 
It happens sadly :( my room mate had a columnaris infection come in on some of her breeding stock of bettas earlier this year and it swept through killing 13 of them before we could get it taken care of. It got transferred to my 55g tank from something and I was losing a fish every day for a week before I finally got it under control.
 
Antibiotics for fish showing obvious signs. Melafix for the entire aquarium and I actively kept my nitrates as close to 0 as humanly possible. It wasn't really possible for me to treat the entire tank worth of fish with antibiotics.

Columnaris has visible external signs and they matched up.
 
I believe I found the culprit

My home made hood is the culprit. My husband fashioned a tank cover out of acrylic and piano hinges. I just discovered the screws are RUSTING and no doubt contaminating the water!

I just yanked that off, got a clear piece of acrylic and placed that (all by itself) over the tank and am about to do a water change - waiting for the water to dechlorinate...I don't know how I missed that. It makes sense - it's been on for about a week and we started losing fish 5 days ago....
 
You could just skip the hood entirely if you wanted. The only tank that I have with a hood is my cichlid tank but they get overly zealous when eating and bounce off of it occasionally.
 
I seem to always have jumping, suicidal fish... :-(

I'm doing a 30% water change.....

Now I'm down to 3 neon tetras, a gourmai and two mollies.
 
Well it was worse than I thought. After a conversation and water testing with my local aquatic expert (40 years of it!) we determined that my water was perfect but the fact that my tank was a used one suggested that there was something that had laid dormant in the tank killing my fish. He asked how well the tank is sealed and whether there is algea in the corners sealed in and yes.

So, I've started ALL OVER AGAIN. They had a "dollar a gallon" sale so I got myself a new tank, filter, etc.

I had the fish hanging out in a bucket for a little over 2 hours while I prepped the new tank, got the bacteria in, conditioned the water - everything. So far so good; I'll be testing my water daily and watching my poor fishies....
 
...and now here we go again. The tank is cycling. Amonia is up to about the middle of the test colors...(can't recall the number)...came home and no more neon tetras. :0( So I have my two mollies and gourami...tough guys...I hope they can get through this...I put in some stress reducer that is supposed to lower amonia levels and added another dose of my bacteria...if I lose everyone, I'll do a fishless cycle. This is depressing.
 
Buy prime water conditioner if your not. You can dose prime at X5 the normal amount to emergency detoxify a tank. The chemicals will still show up on API or test strips, but will be non toxic.
 
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