# Dying Fish



## mechanic27 (Feb 11, 2010)

Hey I am looking for some help. My fish are all dying. I have a freshwater community tank. My ph is 7.0, my nitrates and amonia is zero and the temp is 76. I dont see any white spots on them or any signs of ick. I do not have any plants. I have had dwarf frogs, snails guppys danios, and a few other die over the past week. I need help or any possible advie? Thanks in advance


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## Guest (Apr 16, 2010)

what about your nitrites? you ideal tank readings should be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and <40 nitrates.

is your tank cycled?


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## mechanic27 (Feb 11, 2010)

Yes my nitrites are also zero. My tank has being cycled for a few months now


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## Guest (Apr 16, 2010)

if your getting an all 0 reading there is something wrong. either your tank isnt cycled or your test kit is on the fritz. try getting a sample of water tested in a fish store. if you get a diff reading then change your tesk kits.


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## narizina (Mar 17, 2010)

Are these the first fish in there? Could be New Tank Syndrome. You should definitely get your water tested though and add some plants after.


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## mechanic27 (Feb 11, 2010)

We have had this tank set up for about 4 months and have no issues with any of the fish in the tank till this point.


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## mechanic27 (Feb 11, 2010)

It started after we did a water change and replaced the air stone. we get local city water but we put in the chemicals to make it fish safe. Our filter was extremely dirty and had to replace the cartridge but we did not have any left so the filter was turned off for about an hour. I dont really see any others issues with the fish, they all seem to be normal. One angelfish was randomly darting back and fourth in the tank then would just kind of float for a couple mins after. He died yesterday. My tank has been set up and running for about 4 months and have no real issues up to this point. We did have ich in the tank about two months ago but that was treated with water changes and chemicals. I hope this helps


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## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

What kind of test kit are you using? Is it drops or test strips? Drops are far more accurate.

What kind of filter do you have? When you removed the cartridge, does that mean you just removed carbon? I know you said your test results are all zero, but possibly when you replaced the filter cartridge - could that have upset the tank's cycle?


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## mechanic27 (Feb 11, 2010)

My test kit is the drops. I have a 20-50 gal aqua clear filter.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

What size tank is this? 

BTW your filter is the Aquaclear 200 or the Aquaclear 50. They are the same filter, they just changed the name a while back. You should consider that filter to be good for a 20 to 30 gallon tank, as it is a 200 gallons per hour filter when set to the highest setting. The filter can be adjusted down to 66 gallons per hour so you can feed without getting your food sucked up.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

When fish start dying right after a water change, then it's because that new water either has a problem, or causes a problem.

I'm guessing you changed a pretty large amount? That's usually what it takes to wipe out fish.

When new water is too new, that is, just out of the faucet, then it is a mess. Under the pressure it faces in the pipes, the dissolved gases ratios get all kinds of wonky, often dangerously so. For this reason, you should never make a large water change with too-new water. What I mean by that is you have to let the water "breathe" a while before using it. The best thing to do is run an airstone in it for several hours. This will force the dissolved gases to return to a normal balance BEFORE it goes into your tank. If it tries to restore itself while IN your tank, it will make a lot of sudden changes to your tank's water chemistry. This is a bad thing. 

So, to recap, let new water sit around, preferably while being aerated or pumped, for several hours before using it in your tank. This is especially important if you plan to change a lot of water at once.

Next, get another filter. I don't mean replace the one you have, I mean add a second one. Only clean one at a time. That way you won't wipe out all your filter bacteria when you clean, because the uncleaned filter can catch the slack until the cleaned one can get reestablished.

Between these things, you shouldn't have this problem anymore.


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