I am very new to the fish world and have been reading and reading about how to set up an aquarium properly and I have to say there is so much information it's a bit confusing to this newbie!
We started with an aquarium we have had in storage for a long time. Cleaned it up and set it up and the first fish we put in it are dying. I put 3 platies in last night and their gills started turning red after a short time. Today 2/3 are gone and the last one is not looking so well.
It's a 30 gallon tank with heater and filter and live plants. We had it up and running for just over a week before introducing some fish. I've read about cycling with fish and without. So thought we would start with a few fish now I can see that's not such a good idea.
We have tested the water and the nitrates and nitrites are 0 but alkalinity and pH are high.
Does anyone have any ideas why the fish's gills were turning red or any suggestions on what we can do moving forward?
We started with an aquarium we have had in storage for a long time. Cleaned it up and set it up and the first fish we put in it are dying. I put 3 platies in last night and their gills started turning red after a short time. Today 2/3 are gone and the last one is not looking so well.
It's a 30 gallon tank with heater and filter and live plants. We had it up and running for just over a week before introducing some fish. I've read about cycling with fish and without. So thought we would start with a few fish now I can see that's not such a good idea.
We have tested the water and the nitrates and nitrites are 0 but alkalinity and pH are high.
Does anyone have any ideas why the fish's gills were turning red or any suggestions on what we can do moving forward?