55 Gallon Tank New fish dyeing quickly in new tank with good water

Have a new tank. I have kept a lot of fish including angel fish however took a break for 7 years or so. I pulled some of my old gear out and set up 55gal planted tank. It cycled for two weeks.
7.6 ph
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
5 nitrate
78 on the temp
Water is hard dont know exact numbers (maybe the problem) but have kept Angel's with this well water before.

I grabbed four juvenile koi angels and six panda Cory's. The six pandas dropped one by one the first 24 hours. I contributed that to the temperature even though I had kept them in warm water years past. Angel's seemed good and were eating. 48 hours couple angels were hiding but would come out for food. One developed a problem trying to swim it was dead within four hours the other was hiding and twitching now at surface cant swim I'm sure it will be dead in no time. Only one angel seems unaffected at this point.
I have sand substrate. Mopine driftwood. Micro sword, hornswart, and anacharis for plants. Couple of rip rap rocks

Anyone have any idea what's going on? I dont want to keep killing fish.
Thanks

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Im guessing your tank is not cycled if it was only running for two weeks. How exactly did you cycle it?

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Im guessing your tank is not cycled if it was only running for two weeks. How exactly did you cycle it?

Some API quick start when I added the plants on day 3. I watched the ammonia spike then come down as the nitrites spiked. Nitrites stayed elevated for 4 days or so. On Thursday nitrites were nothing and nitrate was at 5. Double checked before I went to fish store Saturday morning??

 

Hi Jshisler

Welcome to fishlore.
You ask for any ideas.



I also think it’s extremely unlikely the tank cycled in two weeks because you make no mention of adding anything from an existing aquarium. Two weeks is just not enough time for the colonies of bacteria to establish.

Do you know what the nitrates and or ammonia are in the well/ tap water?

Its possibly what you measured was from the API quick start you added on day three ?

You say the ammonia spiked but don’t mention adding any ammonia. Did you add bottled ammonia, rotten dry fish food or a dead fish?

 

I double checked the tank was set up on August 23 so about three weeks. I didn't test it for quite a few days then started testing every other day so I could watch it happen. Does quick start last that long? Didn't add ammonia but smashed some snails that came with the live plants. Also dead plant material in tank. I did test my tap water it has no ammonia. I didn't test the tap water for nitrate. The tank didn't read any nitrate until the nitrite started to go down

 

How much did you measure during your spikes of ammonia and nitrite? Im trying to figure out how it happened the way it did. As Flyfisha said it is too fast for API Quick start. Especially with that small amount of ammonia.

 

Without an ammonia source any living bacteria that was on the plants or in the dormant bacteria in the bottle would have nothing to eat. Any bacteria would not multiply into the amount needed or established themselves as the two separate colonies of bacteria needed to have a full working nitrogen cycle.
A few smashed snails even after the time to begin rotting and dead plant material seems unlikely to be enough of a food source to grow the bacteria into the numbers needed to cope with the poop load ( bio load ) of 10 juvenile fish?

It is often written that it takes 8 weeks minimum to build the colonies of bacteria when feeding a fish less tank with bottled ammonia up to 4 ppm.

 

How much did you measure during your spikes of ammonia and nitrite? Im trying to figure out how it happened the way it did. As Flyfisha said it is too fast for API Quick start. Especially with that small amount of ammonia.

1ppm ammonia 2ppm nitrite

 

Well that is definitely not a large enough bioload amount for the amount of fish you added. But they still shouldnt have died in 24 hours. How did you acclimate them?

What are rip rap rocks?

 

Well that is definitely not a large enough bioload amount for the amount of fish you added. But they still shouldnt have died in 24 hours. How did you acclimate them?

What are rip rap rocks?

RIP rap is a landscape term for baseball to football size rocks you pull from a quarry. Floated bag for 20 minutes to even temperature. Added half a cup of my water waited 30 minutes. Added a full cup of my water waited 30 minutes added a couple more cups waited 30 minutes. Netted the fish places them in my tank

 

Acclimate sounds ok.

Do you know what kind of stones those are? Do you have a pic? Where did you get them? Could they possibly have pesticide on them?

 

Definitely no pesticide they've been on the parameter of my pond for nearly ten years and I dont use pesticides they weren't in the pond just around it for deco. They got a good scrub before I placed them in tank attached is a photo.
Say the tank is not cycled. Wouldn't I see the problem in the api master test kit wouldn't I see a ammonia or nitrite spike? I continued to test the tank once in the morning and once at night since the fish and nothing has changed

 

I guess you just got some stressed fish. BUT you are now doing a fish in cycle and need to change water to keep ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as possible. Watch your numbers. When you add fish is should be a few fish at a time when you add more. Then watch numbers. Add more then watch numbers. I wouldnt add any more cories for awhile.

 

I guess you just got some stressed fish. BUT you are now doing a fish in cycle and need to change water to keep ammonia and nitrite as close to zero as possible. Watch your numbers. When you add fish is should be a few fish at a time when you add more. Then watch numbers. Add more then watch numbers. I wouldnt add any more cories for awhile.

Thought I would give you an update. The last angel I had left out of the group finally was out from hiding and acting like a angelfish when I got home from work today. Water parameters haven't moved at all but still checking them once in the morning and evening to see if I catch anything. Thanks again for trying to help me get to the bottom of the problem.