ive had my tank running for a good 2 weeks. Dechlorinated with Prime then used Fritz Zyme turbo start. I put 2 Synodontis catfish in it for about 2 weeks and they did fine. Introduced some glofish and that's when everything went to . Three at a time the glofish started dying. Then the cats died as well. Did a 50% water change thinking I may have gotten a parasite from the glofish. Then I reset the tank with more prime and turbo start and let it run for about a week When I checked all my levels ammonia,nitrate,and nitrate were all zero. The pH was at least 7.6 Now I have Molly's and they are dying in groups of four or more. The only thing I noticed them doing is they're all staying at the bottom of the tank they are not eating much and when they die they sink. The tank is 36 bowfront and I'm using an EHEIM 250 for filtration and my substrate is aragonite. Please help. I have never had this much trouble with a tank in my life.
You are suffering from new tank syndrome. Your tank isn't cycled. Pick up some stability and test your water right now, see what the readings are.
How do I know if it's cycled. If ammonia is zero nitrites are at zero nitrates are at zero and pH is at 7.6 what else am I looking for? In the bag in my tank for 30 minutes to 45 minutes Then I open the bags and use a net to get the fish out. The readings I posted originally are current readings
You will see an ammonia spike, then you will see a nitrite spike, then you will see nitrates as well. 0-0-0 means not cycled....or else really heavily planted, or really major water changes.
It's very rare to have 0 nitrates unless your tank is heavily planted. Are you sure your tests are accurate?
I haven't tried a high pH water test the only test I've been doing is the regular pH test When I set the tank up I set it up for African cichlids and have not had the time to go get the cichlids Hence the high pH.
I'm using an API test kit all liquid tests the latest test was without fish all of my zero tests have been without fish with tank running for A week and a half to two weeks before fish being introduced.
I've already gone through the spikes and took care of them before adding fish. I made sure everything was zeroed out before adding fish.
The tests results are from today for ammonia , nitrite and nitrate? Are you beating the heck out of the #2 nitrate bottle?
The thing is that if you add too many fish at once, ammonia spikes rise again. It's most likely New Tank Syndrome, though. Did you add any ammonia after adding your bacterial booster?
I hate to be pushy, but please go right now, and test your water and see what it says again... We want to help you, we need to figure out if this is a cycle issue or a diseased fish issue
I understand the tank will go into shock after adding a lot of fish, but I have never had this many fish die at one time after adding fish Not being pushy at all I want to figure it out. It will be a bit before I can't do all the tests right now as I do not have the API master kit I have to borrow it from my sister in law. I can test ammonia right now.
Water surface agitated enough? Temperature too high? Osmotic shock due to lack of minerals? Lights on 24/7?
Also, always quarantine new fish before adding them to an established tank or if you get them all at the same time, then quarantine them all together, even though you don't see any signs of illness. It is the best thing to do for all new fish.
