Kingzilla
Aquarium Advice Regular
I set up a 20gal tank on Saturday with fake plants, decorations, and gravel. Everything was washed, water was conditioned, and I let it run. On Wednesday I went to the store to get some fish to help cycle and of the few options I was presented for the age of the tank, I picked 5 different guppies (the guy recommended 5). AT this point my tank had been running 96hrs, I placed my bag of fish that I just brought home in the tank (about 8pm) and let it float for about 20mins before letting the fish out.
The next morning while getting ready for work (about 7:30am), I checked the tank and found my yellow guppy belly up in the gravel (lived less then 12hrs), my pink flamingo guppy sitting just above the gravel, and the other 3 swimming at the surface. Throughout the day, I was getting texts from my gf as the fish died off 1 by 1 with the last fish dieing just after 5pm.
So I went to a pet store after work and picked up a 6in1+ammonia test kit, went home and everything was fine except the pH was of the charts, I added pH down until the tank was around 7 (yes, I read today to stay away from that stuff but oh well, it's done) and then took a water sample, my ziplock of dead fish, and returned to where i bought them for an exchange. The person tested my water and said it was fine, the fish shouldn't have died and i got another 5 fish at half price.
So i go home, do the ritual again and it seems like i have happy fish by the time they're swimming freely (about 9:30pm lastnight) and go to bed.
Now I'm thinking it was the high pH that killed my fish so it being resolved, everything should be fine, well apparently not... I was getting ready for work thismorning (about 7:30) and deja vu, my yellow guppy is belly up floating around in the tank. I just asked my gf how the fish are doing and my blue guppy is now also dead and one is half dead so ive lost 2.5 of 5 fish in under 24hrs.
So, this brings me to my obvious question, what could be wrong? The only possibility I can think of at the moment is temp as the tank is between 29-30C and the only reason it's that high (it's set to be 25C) is because it got quite warm yesterday and the temp in the house peaked at 29C. Is this hot enough to kill the fish? Or is there some other possibility as to why my second yellow guppy died in less then 12hrs like the first one?
The next morning while getting ready for work (about 7:30am), I checked the tank and found my yellow guppy belly up in the gravel (lived less then 12hrs), my pink flamingo guppy sitting just above the gravel, and the other 3 swimming at the surface. Throughout the day, I was getting texts from my gf as the fish died off 1 by 1 with the last fish dieing just after 5pm.
So I went to a pet store after work and picked up a 6in1+ammonia test kit, went home and everything was fine except the pH was of the charts, I added pH down until the tank was around 7 (yes, I read today to stay away from that stuff but oh well, it's done) and then took a water sample, my ziplock of dead fish, and returned to where i bought them for an exchange. The person tested my water and said it was fine, the fish shouldn't have died and i got another 5 fish at half price.
So i go home, do the ritual again and it seems like i have happy fish by the time they're swimming freely (about 9:30pm lastnight) and go to bed.
Now I'm thinking it was the high pH that killed my fish so it being resolved, everything should be fine, well apparently not... I was getting ready for work thismorning (about 7:30) and deja vu, my yellow guppy is belly up floating around in the tank. I just asked my gf how the fish are doing and my blue guppy is now also dead and one is half dead so ive lost 2.5 of 5 fish in under 24hrs.
So, this brings me to my obvious question, what could be wrong? The only possibility I can think of at the moment is temp as the tank is between 29-30C and the only reason it's that high (it's set to be 25C) is because it got quite warm yesterday and the temp in the house peaked at 29C. Is this hot enough to kill the fish? Or is there some other possibility as to why my second yellow guppy died in less then 12hrs like the first one?