Multiple Issues

[Otter2009]

Hi Everyone,

I've been working to setup a tank for about the past four months. It's been having some issues but I'm not quite sure what's going on. Here are the details:

Problems


The biggest issue is that I can't seem to keep fish alive. I have 6 tiger barbs currently which is about half of what was added when I first started adding fish (I added them in small groups). They had been doing well for a while (and still are) so I added 4 odessa barbs a couple of weeks ago which all died. I then tried adding 3 more tiger barbs a few days ago. They seemed to be doing well with the others for the first couple of days but went missing today (I'm not sure if they're dead or just hiding).

I've also been having troubles with my plants. Some of them have been growing super fast (such as my super red ludwigia) but others have been struggling (such as my anacharis and red flame sword).

Tank Specs:

Planted 36 gallon bowfront
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10 (although it has reached closer to 20 at some points)
pH: 6.4-6.6
Liquid ferts (I currently use Thrive but have used Leaf Zone and Flourish)
Root tabs
CO2 - The drop checker has been staying at green (although I've been tweaking it so it sometimes shifts back a bit to blue)
2 finnex 24/7 lights


Any help/ ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Brookster123]

Poor stock? Where you getting fish? Sometimes they just die because they never had a chance

 

[Otter2009]

I had thought about that as well. Some of the fish came from PetSmart (which definitely isn't the best) but I've also gotten some from my LFS which I've had good luck with in the past.

 

[m.j.gomez]

Hello, this may not be problem but ph is low(ph swings injure & kill). Are you drip acclimating fish before dropping into tank?
Some say I over do it but I like to take the fish bag, empty out half water, set in tank & add a little water every 15min till bag is almost full. Takes about 2hrs then i release to tank. This way I'm sure that fish are used to tank chemistry. Hope this helps!