dan168

when i had my tiger barbs... 6 of them in a 10 gallon.... they all seemed to die after water changes... i'm just wondering if i'm doing this incorrectly...

i do not remove the fish from the tank. i just vacuum up 10-15% of the water while cleaning the gravel on the bottom. than i replace it with conditioned new water that has been sitting for at least 30 minutes... i try to keep the temperature around the same. i don't pour the water into the tank i vacuum it and just drain it out of the bucket into the tank.

than usually 1 of my fish just start twirling around and later that night die. it's never happened to more than 1 fish at a time. also i do water changes every week at the same time.

Angela_96

have you tested your fish tank water? and then have you tested the tap water that you treat? It sounds like maybe the conditioner you use could maybe not be taking out the chorine and clorimene.... it has to take out both.

dan168

ok i'll go out and get a test kit or something..... i use aqua plus or something for water conditioner any recommendations for a better one?

how do you know like if the temperature is close enough or not.

Lucy

I just test the temp by touch.

For conditioner I've used Right Start and Stress Coat.

Unfortunately, 6 tiger barbs way overstocks a 10g gallon tank. They count as 3" of fish. So that's 18" of fish in a 10g tank.
The rule of thumb is 1"of fish per gallon of water (depending on the species)

Most here recommend the API master kit, it is very reliable, please avoid the strips.

Test your water, post the results and members can help you from there.

Good luck with your tank, tiger barbs are really pretty fish.

dan168

uh so for a few weeks now i've been feeding my tank with just fish food... every 12 hours quite a bit of it... ammonia readings from api kit say... 0 and so does everything else... my pH is 8.2... should i be changing the water during this time? cuz i haven't done it yet because of the none existent ammonia levels. thanks

Ryno

Did your nitrates read 0 too?

They should not, make sure you follow the directions and shake the heck out of bottle number 2.

Try and get Prime to condition your water. You can even get a little bottle unless you have other larger tanks. The stuff goes a long ways.

Lucy

Do you still have fish in your tank?
If you're doing a cycle with fish, you have to change the water daily. If you don't have fish, you don't change the water.

Are you saying you've never had an ammonia reading? That's strange, since at one point you did have too many fish in the tank.

Ryno is right about that #2 bottle, along with shaking, I bang mine on the edge of a table.

Try that, and retake the nitrate test, see what you come up with.

Good luck.

dan168

yeah it is weird... i had them before but my fish died than i changed the water and starting just dumping food in... to cycle but the ammonia and stuff is all at 0... i'll try shaking it harder i guess haha... i assumed that was the problem since its been about 6 weeks...

DarkRevoultions

Well, I usually use reverse osmosis water, and it's got nothing in it, no chlorine or chloramine, and that is really good for the fishes.

Now that I use it, I don't put aqua plus, cycle or anything. I just keep the lid on and I just fill up the water after siphoning, and doing water changes every 2 days. It keeps my fishes alive, and my fishes need to have water changes.

Especially for my discus and altum angels in my 350 gallon and 200 gallon tank.

You should really see if you can go to your local pet store, and ask them where you can find a place to get reverse osmosis water. it's just the simple drinking water that people use. You know those things that have hot/cold or you can push it, and water dispenses.

You can always get that kind of water. If the water that you are using has some problem then you should put a lot more aqua plus, about 1-2 more cap fulls of aqua plus. If you use that, and then let it sit for about 2-3 more min, then you can pour in the water.