Good evening everyone,
I've had a 20 gallon tank for about 10 months now. Over these 10 months I've had a couple fish die on me and I cannot figure out why. This is my first tank so any info will be great. The first fish to go was my Betta who I had for about two years. It only died once I put him in this 20 gal tank. Then I've had dalmatian mollies die, guppies, and lastly my bristlenose pleco. I keep the water at 77-78F, I use a 20 gal water filter (MF20 MULTI-Stage internal topfin filter). I was using Topfin Water conditoner to treat my tap water but have been doing 20% changes the last 5 days with preconditioned water by Topfin since I couldn't get ideal GH/KH levels with my tap. While using my conditioned tap water the parameters were GH-180 KH-0 pH-6.0-6.5 NO2-0 and NO3-0. I thought maybe pH spikes were killing my fish but the newest addition was the bristlenose and he was introduced with the new preconditioned water. He didnt last more than a couple days. The only fish I have had survive are two cory catfish. I never keep more than 5 small fish in the 20gal at a time so it isnt overcrowded, and none of them are aggressive/attack. I fed wardley tropical fish food, API bottom feeder food, and then a small amount of crab cuisine for my ghost shrimp. I only feed maybe three times a week and not a lot. The water is never dirty/cloudy etc. I vacuum the gravel about once every two weeks and 20 percent water change once a week. The only other thing I use is API Leaf Zone because I have some live plants inside, being bamboo and some sort of grass plant. If you guys need any more info I'll be happy to respond quickly. Any ideas or help is great. I'm sure I'm missing something cause I'm fairly new.
I've had a 20 gallon tank for about 10 months now. Over these 10 months I've had a couple fish die on me and I cannot figure out why. This is my first tank so any info will be great. The first fish to go was my Betta who I had for about two years. It only died once I put him in this 20 gal tank. Then I've had dalmatian mollies die, guppies, and lastly my bristlenose pleco. I keep the water at 77-78F, I use a 20 gal water filter (MF20 MULTI-Stage internal topfin filter). I was using Topfin Water conditoner to treat my tap water but have been doing 20% changes the last 5 days with preconditioned water by Topfin since I couldn't get ideal GH/KH levels with my tap. While using my conditioned tap water the parameters were GH-180 KH-0 pH-6.0-6.5 NO2-0 and NO3-0. I thought maybe pH spikes were killing my fish but the newest addition was the bristlenose and he was introduced with the new preconditioned water. He didnt last more than a couple days. The only fish I have had survive are two cory catfish. I never keep more than 5 small fish in the 20gal at a time so it isnt overcrowded, and none of them are aggressive/attack. I fed wardley tropical fish food, API bottom feeder food, and then a small amount of crab cuisine for my ghost shrimp. I only feed maybe three times a week and not a lot. The water is never dirty/cloudy etc. I vacuum the gravel about once every two weeks and 20 percent water change once a week. The only other thing I use is API Leaf Zone because I have some live plants inside, being bamboo and some sort of grass plant. If you guys need any more info I'll be happy to respond quickly. Any ideas or help is great. I'm sure I'm missing something cause I'm fairly new.
