Beginners bad luck?

Hello.
I’m new to owning my own aquarium, but my Family had one growing up and I don’t remember my parents having any trouble with theirs.

we set up a 20 gallon tank in January and let it cycle for about 2 weeks before introducing fish. Temp has been at 76F since the beginning. We have plastic plants and hiding places. Filter on the back of the tank. Water bubbler buried in the gravel. We had the water tested and everything was good. We introduced 3 male fancy tale guppies and they continue to do very well.
About a week later we then added 2 lyre tale mollies from a different store. They were also doing very well. A week passes and We added two Powder blue gourami and one died within a few days. The second died after a week or so. In between deaths we added a pleco to help clean the bottom of the tank.
After the second gourami died I purchased a Ph test kit and an Ammonia test kit. Both readings were very high to my surprise. But after reading I realized I was probably over feeding the fish. So I did a 50% water change, vacuumed the gravel, and gently rinsed the plants.
the ammonia levels went down to about .25 and the next day were .5. The Ph continues to remain high.
I’ve done 3 more 25% water changes and gentle vacuums. I also ran the filter under the faucet to remove any large chunks, but it didn’t look too dirty to me.
Today one of my mollies is doing awful and probably will be dead before morning.
I guess I feel like I’m missing something and wondering why I’m striking out? I feel bad about loosing our fish, but I’m not sure what else to do. Especially after the mollies have done so well.

Any ideas? Please, be kind.

 

Hello.
I’m new to owning my own aquarium, but my Family had one growing up and I don’t remember my parents having any trouble with theirs.

we set up a 20 gallon tank in January and let it cycle for about 2 weeks before introducing fish. Temp has been at 76F since the beginning. We have plastic plants and hiding places. Filter on the back of the tank. Water bubbler buried in the gravel. We had the water tested and everything was good. We introduced 3 male fancy tale guppies and they continue to do very well.
About a week later we then added 2 lyre tale mollies from a different store. They were also doing very well. A week passes and We added two Powder blue gourami and one died within a few days. The second died after a week or so. In between deaths we added a pleco to help clean the bottom of the tank.
After the second gourami died I purchased a Ph test kit and an Ammonia test kit. Both readings were very high to my surprise. But after reading I realized I was probably over feeding the fish. So I did a 50% water change, vacuumed the gravel, and gently rinsed the plants.
the ammonia levels went down to about .25 and the next day were .5. The Ph continues to remain high.
I’ve done 3 more 25% water changes and gentle vacuums. I also ran the filter under the faucet to remove any large chunks, but it didn’t look too dirty to me.
Today one of my mollies is doing awful and probably will be dead before morning.
I guess I feel like I’m missing something and wondering why I’m striking out? I feel bad about loosing our fish, but I’m not sure what else to do. Especially after the mollies have done so well.

Any ideas? Please, be kind.

Hello there,

By 'cycling' for two weeks, do you mean adding bottled ammonia every couple of days or letting it run for 2 weeks? There's a huge difference between these two, and the reason your fish are probably starting to die off is due to an uncycled tank.

Here's my advice:

1. Don't Panic
2. Daily water changes of up to 75% will need to be done to ensure your fish do not die due to toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite (these should both be zero)
3. Test your parameters everyday. Try and keep that ammonia as close to zero as possible, and maybe pickup some Prime as it can help reduce stress on your fish during a fish in cycle. I would recommend either getting the full API Freshwater Master Test Kit, or if you're on a budget just the nitrite one alongside your ammonia one. I wouldn't worry to much about PH at the moment. You'll need to be doing this for up to two weeks before you begin to see nitrates (good as long as it does not exceed 10ppm) and both (ammonia and nitrite) those levels are down and stay down for a couple of days.
4. I would recommend reading up about Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle - The Nitrogen cycle as knowing will prevent any more fish deaths in the future. I'm sorry if I haven't explained this in such a great way, hoping this article will provide a bit more help.

Wish you all the best and keep us updated,
SeaMonkey06

EDIT: What kind of Pleco is it, do you know? Most plecos require tanks of 55 Gallons+, so you may need to rehome him and get a fish that is more suitable to 'help' clean your tank. For now, just focus on cycling it though and keeping those bad parameters down!

 

I'd say the tank didn't cycle fully before adding fish. If there was no ammonia (food) source for the growing bacteria during those two weeks then it would've died off and only been replenished once you did the 50% water change. Don't panic, just know that you're now doing what's called a "fish-in" cycle, it works the same as usual, just now the fish are the ammonia source and you have to keep the ammonia really low to keep them safe.
Since the tank is in the cycling process still I would suggest getting filter media that doesn't need to be replaced. Most kits come with too small a filter so here's my upgrade suggestions:
1: Get a Marineland penguin 200b filter. Ditch the blue carbon filled pouches and instead get a media mesh bag and fill it with seachem biomax. Put that where the original media was and get this: filter pad to go in front of that. None of this will need to replaced (the filter pad may start to fall apart after a few years) for a while, only rinsed every couple weeks.
2: If you're less of a DIY person, go ahead and get a Fluval AquaClear 50. It comes with a sponge block that works the same as that filter pad, a pouch of carbon, and a box of Fluval prefilter (very similar to the biomax). Run it with the carbon for about a month which is when the carbon is about fully used, then replace the carbon with more prefilter rings or biomax.

 

Welcome to the forum!
As SeaMonkey06 said, it’s most likely the ammonia in your tank and doing water changes to keep the levels down is your best bet. The article they linked is extremely helpful, and YouTubers like aquarium co-op are also great resourcesUntil the tank is cycled, I’d avoid adding more fish. It might also be helpful to get a dechlorinator like Prime which also neutralizes ammonia temporarily, but water changes and testing are more important. Finally, you mentioned that you ran the filter under the faucet. This might be stunting your bacteria growth in the tank as, if there is chlorine in your tap water, it can kill beneficial bacteria. I usually clean my filter with water I pulled out during a water change.

As for pH, as previously stated, don’t worry about it. It will probably fluctuate during the cycling anyway. Even if it stays high, you should be alright. My tank is somewhere around 8 or 8.2 generally and I’ve had success with both livebearers and my gourami. So, once your tank is cycled and the pH is stable, low or high, you should be in good shape.

Okay, I promise that’s it! Best of luck and welcome to the hobby! Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions!

 

Thank you for your quick reply.
by cycling I mean I just let it run. I added water conditioner and let the bacterial bloom do it’s thing. I hadn’t read about adding Ammonia.
I found a pet shop that I like and has what seem to be very a knowledgable associate, So I guess I may have trusted too much?? I also figured out what pet stores I don’t like...

I’ll do a larger water change tomorrow and see how things go. I’ll also get a nitrite testing kit, but with the shutdown in my state it may be a few days before Amazon delivers.

Update.
Thanks for the very helpful responses!
I was able to get my hands on the full API water testing kit hours before stores started shutting down
Ammonia has been around .25 since I last posted.
Nitrites and nitrates both test 0 (or whatever the lowest number is, the results aren’t right in front of me at this moment).
Ph is still high.
I also got Prime. Should I add some as a precaution?

The Pleco is a clown Pleco and from what I understand should only grow to about 3”.

The Lyre Tale Molly that died began to get sick after I dropped the ammonia levels down considerably. Could it have been delayed reaction to what the levels had been, or shock to such a swing in water quality?

 

Hello.
I’m new to owning my own aquarium, but my Family had one growing up and I don’t remember my parents having any trouble with theirs.

we set up a 20 gallon tank in January and let it cycle for about 2 weeks before introducing fish. Temp has been at 76F since the beginning. We have plastic plants and hiding places. Filter on the back of the tank. Water bubbler buried in the gravel. We had the water tested and everything was good. We introduced 3 male fancy tale guppies and they continue to do very well.
About a week later we then added 2 lyre tale mollies from a different store. They were also doing very well. A week passes and We added two Powder blue gourami and one died within a few days. The second died after a week or so. In between deaths we added a pleco to help clean the bottom of the tank.
After the second gourami died I purchased a Ph test kit and an Ammonia test kit. Both readings were very high to my surprise. But after reading I realized I was probably over feeding the fish. So I did a 50% water change, vacuumed the gravel, and gently rinsed the plants.
the ammonia levels went down to about .25 and the next day were .5. The Ph continues to remain high.
I’ve done 3 more 25% water changes and gentle vacuums. I also ran the filter under the faucet to remove any large chunks, but it didn’t look too dirty to me.
Today one of my mollies is doing awful and probably will be dead before morning.
I guess I feel like I’m missing something and wondering why I’m striking out? I feel bad about loosing our fish, but I’m not sure what else to do. Especially after the mollies have done so well.

Any ideas? Please, be kind.

There are several things to note here:
1) Fish have become more fragile over time as they are bred for their appearance instead of heartiness. You may very well be just as good an aquarist as your parents and just be dealing with more fragile fish now.
2) Two weeks is fast for an aquarium to cycle. Decent chance it wasn't fully cycled before you added fish.
3) Gourami kind of fragile compared to guppies and mollies so if something went wrong they would be the first to die of the group.

From how you describe your tank nothing appears to be wrong. I'm guessing as others have already pointed out that the tank didn't cycle when you thought it did.
Toxic shock is a thing. Weird thing as it is reducing a toxin too fast can kill fish. A fish might be alive, if unhealthy, in 2.0ppm Ammonia (crazy high) and then die if you do a 75% change to drop the Ammonia to .5ppm (still high) simply because its body was accustomed to the bad conditions and couldn't take the quick change.
If you had rocks or a soil-like substrate I'd consider the possibility of pH shock as a culprit in the death of your fish as they can shift pH away from your tap pH when new and so there's a bit of a pH swing which is dangerous to fish... the smaller swing that can be caused by the benefitial bacteria doing their thing is nothing to worry about tough.

Glad to hear your Pleco won't outgrow your tank. It's a common worry here when they're mentioned in a newbie tank. Common Plecos need a TON of space.
just an FIY though: Plecos aren't great cleaners. Yes they eat algae (and ideally veggies you give them to maintain their health) but they poop, a lot, creating more waist than they clean.
Snails make for better cleanup crew. A Nerite (if you want something small and inconspicuous) or Mystery (if you think snails are cute) would work wonders but may clean a bit too well for only 20 gallons and would need supplemental food like algae wafers or blanched zucchini.

Other than that the tank as you describe it sounds like a great start. The hobby can get as complex as you're willing to make it but you don't need anything more advanced than what you have now.

Edit: Your Pleco would also appreciate Blanched Zucchini... I don't know what it is about ZucchinI but it seems like every freshwater animal that isn't strictly carnivorous likes the stuff.

 

Just curious, but what is "high pH"? Do you know what it actually is?

 

HI just a word of caution, try to avoid rinsing any filter media or decor in tap water once it’s in an established tank. You want to retain the beneficial bacteria especially from the filter media. When doing your water change, a good habit to get into is to rinse things in the bucket of old tank water. Good luck with your tank, I hope your over this bump!