Help!! Tank has turned into death tank!

[03darkness]

Hello everyone. New poster here but I'm out of ideas. So my tank has been set up for about 4 months now and everything was going fine. Had a little bacteria bloom about 2 months ago but nothing serious. Then a month after the bacteria bloom all my fish suddenly got sick and died in the 3hrs when I left the house. Tank was home to 2 blue rams, a goldfish, 2 bamboo shrimp, and 3 green barbs.
I immediately tried to save the ones I could by doing a water change and transferring them to my 10 gallon sick tank. I managed to only save the goldfish and the shrimp.
After the water change I let them heal and put them back into the tank. Everything was going fine for a month, ammonia was zero, nitrates, and nitrites read at safe and ph was at 6. So after a month of good readings and the fish looked good I figured it was safe to add some fish.
I added two bala sharks to start. Everything was going good and they were healthy about 1 1/2 inches long.
I then added 4 painted glass fish.
After A day of them being in the tank all of the fish now look sick? Ammonia levels rose a little and nitrite/nitrate levels read stressed. I put them in my sick tank and used seperators.
The only fish that doesn't look sick is my goldfish and shrimp who went through this epidemic before. Could they be infecting the tank?

 

[03darkness]

I've heard that adding a certain kind of salt might help this condition from my friend who has a few tanks.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Well to start your tank is overstocked. And they could very well be infected.

 

[pjg523]

What size is your tank? What kind of goldfish do you have? Goldfish have a huge bioload and are actually a cold water fish. The rest of your fish are tropical? It is hard to tell what is killing your fish but it may be a combination of stress at being overstocked, non-ideal temperature, and a disease in the tank that is pushing them over the edge. If you are having massive die offs it may be time to take everything out clean the tank and start a new cycle over. I would also look into getting rid of the goldfish as it really isn't ideal to have with tropical fish.

 

[jlk]

In addition to tank size, what are you using to test your water and what are the exact numbers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? The only 'safe' number for ammonia and nitrite is zero. If you have any detectable level of these toxins, you need to start doing 50% water changes with temperature matched, properly conditioned water to bring them down.

I suspect most of the issues you are experiencing here are due to a combination of high toxin levels, incompatible fish and adding fish that were not properly quarantined. Strips are notoriously inaccurate and its likely that your toxin levels are double or triple of what they appear to be showing. My suggestion is to invest in decent liquid test kit such as the API fw master test kit and a bottle of Prime and start by addressing water quality issues. You will also need to make decisions in respect to your stock and what is going to realistically work for your tank size. Aqadvisor.com is a good place to start to review your stocking situation. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions!

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