Hi All, I was hoping to get another tank this week, I thought I was having a nice easy introduction to keeping fish and counted myself very fortunate that only being in this hobby for around 3 months (ish) I had tootled along with very few mishaps even tho I did a fish in cycle, I think in first couple of weeks I lost 2 maybe 3 fish due to adding far too many much too quickly, I felt bad about the casualties but I've moved on since and thought things were going well enough to get another tank, in the last 2 days tho things haven't been good, my tank is I guess around 37 US gallons, water readings which I take using API mater kit have been constantly good at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and as best as I can tell the nitrate is deff less than 40 and deff much nearer to the 20 color on the chart, water looks crystal clear, fish look happy with no bullying that I've seen and I watch them more than you can imagine, yet in last 3 days I've lost 1 male guppie, 1 galaxy rasboro, 3 neon tetra and a 3 spot gourami, I have no idea as to why and I've done a 40% water change each day for 3 days running just as a precaution in the hope things will settle down, another thing I've now done is gone out and bought a Fluval 306 canister filter, I thought the internal Fluval U3 was more than enough but again just to be on the safe side I thought I'd be better getting the new one in, only been installed for last half hour so early days yet as to what difference it's going to make, I'm obviously still running the internal filter as well and will do for few weeks till new one is established, in the 306 I've just put it in as it comes in the box with sponges, then bottom basket has more sponge, then other 2 have bio rings and carbon bags, I wish things for this hobby were as cheap in UK as over there, the 306 just cost me the equiv of around $200 still if it stops the losses then it's gonna be money well spent, so with this extra expense plus the knock it's given my confidence in my abilities I'm putting the new tank on hold, reckon I've gotta get more experience first, case of learning to walk before I try running, just one quick question for anyone, given I don't know why I've had the losses does anyone think I'd be better off having anything different in any of the baskets in the new filter and if so what the benefits would be be, also I'm assuming there's no such thing as over filtering as I must be turning over something like 12 + water volume an hour? Any opinions or input be great.
BP
BP