The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I have a 40 gallon tank with 4 cichlids between 2-4 inches, a small red tail shark and two plecos 1 common and 1 bushy nose
Up untill a month ago i had never done a water change and my fish were fine but a month ago i got three new cichlids to add to the three i had well two have died in the last week no signs of being sick. The stopped eating the next day they died in my hospital tank
Ack! You really need to be doing water changes, I do 60% once a week, but I'm over stocked. Also, make sure you shake the crap out if both test. Bottles, that can gave an effect on the result
Not doing water changes causes nitrates and TDS (total dissolved solids) to build up to a dangerous level in the tank. Fish that have been in the tank from the start will slowly become accustomed to the higher levels as they rise. When you add new fish they are not use to the poor water conditions so they go into shock and can die. Look up 'old tank syndrome'. As I said on your other thread, you need to do lots of large water changes to bring it down to 20ppm or less and keep it there with weekly water changes.
Ok something is wrong ive done a 30% and two 50% water changes and the tests are coming out the same. Im goin to take some water to lfs and have them test it. Ill let u know tomorrow what happens
Sounds to me like a faulty test kit. Are you using API? If so are you shaking the appropriate amount? Strips? You said when you tested the tap it was fine, that concerns me if the test was done any different.
Another option is the nitrate was just that high that you are bringing it down but not into the readable range yet. As said above make sure your doing the test correctly.