Unknown Issue

markpelly

So if you want a little background, visit this thread.

We bought a new fish last night because we finally lost all of guppies. The Swordtail and the two platies are doing great. We put the new variatus in the tank and she died over night, she was lying on the floor of the tank this morning barely breathing. We don't know if she was bullied but she has a little white on her tail.

We have the ammonia at about 1 and the pH is going to stay low for now.

Whats going on? We lost four guppies in four days and now this fish died over night.

markpelly

Sorry for the first post guys, just read the sticky. Hope this helps


1. What is the size of your tank?
20 gallon

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.
Ammonia = 1
pH = lower than 6
Not sure about bacteria numbers..

I use both of these products when doing water changes:
Aquenon Water Conditioner
AmQuel Plus

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?
Freshwater

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?
3 months

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?
1 Swordtail, 2 platies (all females) all of them are fullgrown between 2 and 4 inches. I have had these ones since the tank was established

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?
No

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?
Upper 70s

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?
One or two, nothing crazy. I just removed some moss from a moss ball as it turned white randomly..


9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.
Aqueron 20 gallon pump


10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?
Nope

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?
No sunlight, the lights are on about ~8hrs a day

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?
We do a water change maybe every week/week and a half. The water was changed about 8 days ago. We vacuum every couple weeks.

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?
Normal tropical flakes. We feed once a day, only enough for 5 min of feeding time.


14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?
Aggression between the females, we just lost 4 guppies in 4 days, And then a variatus in last night and she died over night.

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.
We treated the tank with the Ammonia Detox everyday for a week or so. That brought down the ammonia significantly. As well as added the water condition every time we change the water.

We added a little baking soda to bring the pH back up a little, but most forums told us to leave it alone because the fish probably had already gotten used to the level. They also said if it changed a lot it could kill the fish.

Romad

Did you cycle the tank before you added fish?

The first issue is the level of ammonia in your tank. You'll need to do fairly large and frequent water changes to bring that down. Live plants will help as well. If you don't add live plants, you might want to consider a small air stone to increase aeration until you get the water params. under control.

Adding chemicals other than water conditioner to the tank is only going to help in the very short term and might do more harm than good in your tank.

You really need a good quality test kit like API Freshwater Master liquid test kit. Even though it can be a bit more expensive than others, it's the best one out there and will last you a really long time when testing weekly.

In order to know where your cycle is (or isn't) you'll need to test for ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and PH. Ammonia and nitrIte are lethal to fish.

You can also use a conditioner like Seachem Prime when doing water changes which will help render the ammonia and nitrIte in your tank harmless but only for 24 hours or so.

markpelly

I did test them. The ammonia is at 1 and it will not go any lower. I have a lot of chloromine in my water and doing these frequent water changes has just made things become worse. I add ammonia detox and water conditioner everytime I add new water. What else would you suggest? pH will be staying where it is btw. The other fish will die if I raise it from where it is.

Romad

I strongly suggest that you use a water conditioner like Seachem Prime which will take care of chlorine and chloramines in your tap water. And as stated earlier, it will help with the ammonia and nitrItes in your tank until you get those levels under control.

I'd start doing some pretty significant water changes and siphon the gravel each time to get those ammonia levels down. Fish and food waste along with the lack (or possible lack of) beneficial bacteria in your tank will contribute to the ammonia levels that you're seeing.

Without knowing what your nitrItes and nitrAtes are, it's hard to say where you stand in the cycling process. I would not add any more chemicals other than water conditioner to your tank in the meantime.

The process can be a little daunting and time consuming in the beginning but once you're there, it's pretty much weekly maintenance to keep those levels where they need to be and also keeping your levels stocked with the right amount of fish for the tank capacity that you have.

So hang in there. We're here to help. Here's a good link to the nitrogen cycle in the meantime.

A Beginner's Guide to the Freshwater Aquarium Cycle