Help!! weird tank.

[ndriscoll1322]

I have two guppies and two ghost shrimp in a 20 gal. Tank. I added a feeder goldfish today to test the water to see if I could add any fish yet and it died in and hour. What could be in my water?! All tests show that the water is good.

 

[Cloudhp8]

What were the exact parameters of said water?
And did you acclimate the goldfish or just kind of toss him in? lol
what kind of chems do you add into the water?

How long has this tank been up for?

 

[ndriscoll1322]

The tank has been up for a week. I transfered from a 10 gallon. Everything came from the ten, rocks, plants, etc. I tested with a liquid kit. The goldfish sat in its bag in the water for 30 minutes before I put it in.

 

[ndriscoll1322]

I have tetra chems, aqua safe and easy balance

 

[Cloudhp8]

Well it's possible the PH could have swayed a bit.....but if all your original fish are in it just fine no change in the way they act....the gold fish could have just been weak or stressed.

I'd say if all of your fish that are in it do fine there may not be anything wrong with the water...

 

[ndriscoll1322]

The transfer to the 20 gal. Didn't go well. I lost all my fish except 2 guppies and 2 ghost shrimp. They are doing great now though. I hope it was just a stressed goldfish.

 

[Sharpchick]

The tank has been up for a week. I transfered from a 10 gallon. Everything came from the ten, rocks, plants, etc. I tested with a liquid kit. The goldfish sat in its bag in the water for 30 minutes before I put it in.

You didn't test the water in the bag, did you?

The reason I ask is that if you didn't do an acclimation on the water in the bag with water from your tank, 30 minutes is a really good amount of time for a goldfish in that little water to get really toxic from ammonia.

 

[ndriscoll1322]

I did not test the bag water. Every fish I've had has been acclimated the same way. And they've all lived. That is until the transfer (which I probably did wrong).

 

[shellieca]

To properly acclimate a fish you should float the bag/container AND add a tablespoon of tank water to the bag every 15 minutes for at least an hour, then release the fish into the tank without dumping the water from the bag into the tank. When you say water parameters are fine exactly what are the numbers for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? Are you testing with a liquid test kit or strips? Call me a skeptic, but taking items from a 10g to a 20g would not fully cycle the 20g tank & would have a mini cycle at the very least.

 

[ndriscoll1322]

To properly acclimate a fish you should float the bag/container AND add a tablespoon of tank water to the bag every 15 minutes for at least an hour, then release the fish into the tank without dumping the water from the bag into the tank. When you say water parameters are fine exactly what are the numbers for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? Are you testing with a liquid test kit or strips? Call me a skeptic, but taking items from a 10g to a 20g would not fully cycle the 20g tank & would have a mini cycle at the very least.

I'm going to agree with you on the cycling of the tank. It was my first time transferring tanks. I used at liquid test kit. Ammonia was below .25 ppm, nitrites were 0 ppm, and nitrates were also 0 ppm.