# Dead, dead, and dead



## tanyabloom (Mar 5, 2013)

30 gallon tank
cycled 2 1/2 months-- yes correctly-- I even have algae growing at this point 
3 live plants
40 ppm nitrates
0 nitrites
0 ammonia 
8 pH 
80 F temp 

Water change after water change after water change, nitrates don't move ONE BIT 

Also--- I literally have been through 14 fancy guppies, 2 mollies, and 1 platy. 
One day they are swimming and eating and active, the next day dead with NO signs of illness whatsoever. The only fish that acted funny was the Dalmatian Molly in which she would swim on her side and look like she was seizing... But then swam normal after a few minutes and most the time (other than doing that weird thing). 

My plants are alive and healthy, the 2 remaining fish are healthy -- the guppies even breed in this tank once and there is a half grown baby in there.


What in the heck? I've tried different pet stores.


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## DarwinAhoy (Mar 13, 2013)

What is the pH of the water at the shop you're getting your fish at? Yours is quite high, and you might want to try to drip acclimate them if you haven't already.


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## tanyabloom (Mar 5, 2013)

the pH at the pet stores are right around 8 as well. between 7.8-8.2 .. Would the different pH ranges effect them long term though? They usually are gone/dead by between 2 weeks to 3 months.


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## DarwinAhoy (Mar 13, 2013)

Not likely when it's that sort of span of time. What are you currently feeding, and what is your current water change regimen?


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## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

well i am not sure what sort of test kits you are using but nitrates could be quite a bit higher than your test kit shows. i don't like standard test kits for nitrates as they are not very accurate. my standard test kit for mine shows to reds that look nearly similar and two oranges that are nearly similar and i can't tell the difference between them. so i bought a digital reader and i like it much better. if you are only doing one water change a week that might not be enough to keep the nitrates down. one four day weekend i had i did a 30 percent change every day because mine were quite high and it got them down to 20. you might want to do some back to back changes for a few days then go back to once a week after that.

--Angel


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Maker sure you filters aren't on a timer. Any CO2? Anything in your house that change at night? Does it get really cold? How big are the water changes? Do WCs correlate with deaths (like they die the night after)? What is left alive again? Anything nocturnal and aggressive? A "healthy" fish can carry a disease and give it to all new fish, but disease should kill day and night. Does the heater zap you when it goes on? Have you tested the tap water for nitrate?


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