My fish arent happy

[lado078]

My partner decided to get an aquarium,left him to it.Now 6 weeks down the line am hooked. Problem some fish not well,the noen teras have all got fungus at different stages,one platty died unexpectedly with no signs then one ram cichlid died after 24hrs of looking ill(damaged).The ones that seem ok are the plattys that are left,the guppies and the black phantom tetras. I decided to test the water of tank (with little experience i may add)and the nitrite,nitrate and ammonia have little or no trace but the ph shows the highest on the chart 9.0-9.5. We have a 125l tank with many living plants,gravel and one rock of some kind. We also used(under the advice of the people at the store we bought them from) tonic salt and protozin. As advised when setting up/water changes/introducing new fish we use nutrafin aqua plus and nutarfin cycle and lastly we feed them once/twice a day with nutrafin max complete flaked tropical food. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ADVISE XXX

 

[dkpate]

I can only add one thing lol. You might want to check the rock, as some rocks raise the pH in water. You can google rocks for aquariums and maybe find some answers. More people will probably chime in with answers too. Good luck!

 

[Blueiz]

That is some PH you have there... What is the reading on your PH out of the tap after sitting out for 24 hours? If it is high as well, then you will need to find a way to work around that for your stocking, whether that be to naturally lower it a bit or to find stock that will work with your PH. Now, if the pet store has a high PH reading too, then the fish they stock should do OK in your tank. If the PH reading is not high out of your tap water that has been sitting out for 24 hours, then as DK said, it's most likely a rock, or something else in your tank raising your PH.

The only thing that you need to add to your tank when doing a water change is water conditioner to remove the chlorine and chloramine. The tonic salt, and nutrafin cycle are pretty much not needed or necessary.

Did you follow the directions on the protozin, from a quick internet search it appears to be a medication, is this correct?

 

[BigJim]

Any more information on your tank? Filter, test kit, other equipment, etc?

I'm not sure what tonic salt is, but I've had luck with using aquarium salt to get rid of fungus. I added one teaspoon per gallon and the fungus on my rainbows cleared up in a couple of hours.

The Nutrafin Cycle isn't necessary, but may help in your case. You'd be better off asking your LFS for a cup of gravel from an established tank. This will provide some bacteria to jump start your cycle.

An easy way to test your rocks is to take some out of the tank and pour some white vinegar on them. If they fizz, they're leeching stuff into your tank that will raise the ph.

Do 50% PWC every day, keep testing, and ride out the cycle. There will probably be other casualties, but it's the best you can do for now.

 

[lado078]

That is some PH you have there... What is the reading on your PH out of the tap after sitting out for 24 hours? If it is high as well, then you will need to find a way to work around that for your stocking, whether that be to naturally lower it a bit or to find stock that will work with your PH. Now, if the pet store has a high PH reading too, then the fish they stock should do OK in your tank. If the PH reading is not high out of your tap water that has been sitting out for 24 hours, then as DK said, it's most likely a rock, or something else in your tank raising your PH.

The only thing that you need to add to your tank when doing a water change is water conditioner to remove the chlorine and chloramine. The tonic salt, and nutrafin cycle are pretty much not needed or necessary.

Did you follow the directions on the protozin, from a quick internet search it appears to be a medication, is this correct?

Cheers for all that info.yes it is a medication,although following instructions i havent seen any results day five but i need to do it again tom day 6. I havent lost any more yet i mite add. Will do the other checks and will let you know.

I only added salt and cycle because of ill fish and not on water changes so i am doing something right.(I hope)

 

[lado078]

Any more information on your tank? Filter, test kit, other equipment, etc?

I'm not sure what tonic salt is, but I've had luck with using aquarium salt to get rid of fungus. I added one teaspoon per gallon and the fungus on my rainbows cleared up in a couple of hours.

The Nutrafin Cycle isn't necessary, but may help in your case. You'd be better off asking your LFS for a cup of gravel from an established tank. This will provide some bacteria to jump start your cycle.

An easy way to test your rocks is to take some out of the tank and pour some white vinegar on them. If they fizz, they're leeching stuff into your tank that will raise the ph.

Do 50% PWC every day, keep testing, and ride out the cycle. There will probably be other casualties, but it's the best you can do for now.

My test kit is nutrafin mini master(although i am unsure with it sometimes,especially the ph as me and my partner dont always agree)
my filter is an fluval u3 and my heater is fluval tronic and of course the tank is a fluval roma with lights both 20w one aqua glo the other power glo.
Whilst trying to list everything to you i realised we also leave the floaty algae magnet in the water which we didnt have from the start could this be my problem all along????
I have removed it anyway x

 

[jsoong]

My test kit is nutrafin mini master(although i am unsure with it sometimes,especially the ph as me and my partner dont always agree)

The way to tell if the pH is "off" on the tank is to get a tap water sample & test that side by side with your tank water. Comparing the 2 samples, you should have almost identical color. It doesn't matter what you call the pH number, as long as it is identical to tap, you are OK. <The nutrifin charts are terrible for color reproduction ... It change with the light & the angle you look at the card ... I can never be too sure.>

 

[lado078]

The way to tell if the pH is "off" on the tank is to get a tap water sample & test that side by side with your tank water. Comparing the 2 samples, you should have almost identical color. It doesn't matter what you call the pH number, as long as it is identical to tap, you are OK. <The nutrifin charts are terrible for color reproduction ... It change with the light & the angle you look at the card ... I can never be too sure.>

Thank you,i will test it.....tested it and they quite different???
What shall i do???

 

[jsoong]

In what way are they different? Ie- pH going up or down , how much?

Also, some tap water has unstable pH "fresh". Before jumping into doctoring the water, let a sample sit out overnight & see if it is different from the fresh tap water.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Give us some numbers, and if you can, take a couple pics of the sample tubes for each, side by side, and have the color key in the background, try flash/no flash/side lighting, try to get a decent pic and maybe that would help us help you.

My tap pH is off the API chart - 9.0+ and sitting in a 5g bucket w/a power head running in it, it drops very slowly to about 8.2 in 24 hrs and eventually stabilizes in my tanks at 7.4-7.6.

With the fungus it sounds like something else going on though, possibly at the fish store. Sometimes you have to watch where you get them. Also, did you cycle the tank before putting the fish in?

 

[lado078]

Give us some numbers, and if you can, take a couple pics of the sample tubes for each, side by side, and have the color key in the background, try flash/no flash/side lighting, try to get a decent pic and maybe that would help us help you.

My tap pH is off the API chart - 9.0+ and sitting in a 5g bucket w/a power head running in it, it drops very slowly to about 8.2 in 24 hrs and eventually stabilizes in my tanks at 7.4-7.6.

With the fungus it sounds like something else going on though, possibly at the fish store. Sometimes you have to watch where you get them. Also, did you cycle the tank before putting the fish in?

1= Thank you firstly for replying,my knowledge of aquarium should of been better before been too keen on getting these fish i feel i have let them down and cant bare to watch them suffer SLOWLY.Is it too late?
2=Will leave some tap water to balance for 24hrs,test and put side by side with aquarium test then photograph for you asap.
3=what is W/a power head?
4=(CYCLE TANK)if you mean did we set up and leave 2 weeks before adding then we did.(this was the advice from petstore)
5=OUR SET UP=125ltr many planted tank,with one rock from petstore
5 neon teras(only two poorly ones left)unknown gender
5 black phantom teras(all well for mo)one female
5 guppies(all well for mo)all male
2 ram cichlids-my favourite(1 of each)male left
3 leopard corydoras(all well)unknown gender
6 plattys(3 of each-although one female has died)
everything is bought all from the same store and was added to tank in order above and at the times and ways suggested by the store,but i feel we now should of not put so many in so soon with only 24hrs introduction but the damage is done so what can i do now?
6=i thnk they have ich=neons started with white spots,added salt and treatment protozin for suppected fungus,unexpected dead female platty the next morning,next morning damaged poorly looking female ram took 24hrs before dying,then neons white spots didnt improve after treatment the male plattys tried eating the ones with bigger spots until dead,still left with 2 poorly neon teras who dont come out from plants even to feed,the plattys and guppies have been seen rubbing against rocks ocassionally. Lost 5 fish in total. Apart from pic to send is there any more info ive missed for you to be able to advise?????????

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

First of all, the people at your pet store are total idiots. This is unfortunately very common.

It takes a minimum of 4-6 weeks for your tank to cycle, and you can't just let it 'sit there', you have to add food or ammonia daily or a piece of cooked shrimp so the nitrifying bacteria have something to feed on. Read this:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/24/1/Nitrogen-Cycle-/Page1.html

Your fish are stressed because this wasn't complete before you added them, and quit possibly they were sick when you bought them.

Ich can be treated holistically w/o (without) meds but late for that now.

w/a = with a, power head is a power head (google it)

You need to get an ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH test kit immediately. If there is any ammonia or Nitrite present you need to do a large (50% minimum) water change.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Also, still looking for the numbers of the pH difference between the tap and tank.

I just re-read your original post and it said you started the tank with Nutrafin Cycle. While these products promote a quick cycling of the tank, they generally don't work so you still have to test the water before adding any fish to make sure the cycle is actually complete.

Also, you probably shouldn't have added all those fish at once. Even if the Nutrafin Cycle worked, whatever bio colony it had established was probably minimal, inadequate to support such an immediate bio-load, and you probably had a cycle start again (mini-cycle, best case).

On top of that, I couldn't find much information about the Protozin as it is a UK product, but it very well could have knocked out your entire biological colony, meaning you're going to start the whole Nitrogen cycle over again. But read the label/insert and see if it says anything about if it is safe for beneficial bacteria / bio-colony, etc.

 

[dkpate]

Another way to treat ich is to raise the temp, and add aquaruim salt. The ich cannot breed in that high of temps, and the salt helps your fish create a slime coat (stress makes them lose it). But you should make sure your scaleless fish can handle the salt before you put it in! Good luck!