Our fish are dropping like flies! HELP!!

My wife’s aquarium has been up and running for about three years. It’s been good and we haven’t had much in the way of problems. Over the last week, we’ve lost 13 fish, including several older, bigger, awesome fish! We thought it was Ich at first and she has been taking measures to deal with that. (Empty a third of the water each day, refill and dose with ich-x). We also quarantined a few that were looking really bad (lost them two days later). Now we have a couple that look almost dead. They are just laying on the bottom. I thought one of them was dead and when I went to get him out he sprung to life and bolted around the tank!

We did a test for ammonia, PH, alkalinity, chlorine, etc. the only things that seemed off were hardness (very hard 300) and alkalinity was low at around 40). She is thinking about adding baking soda as googling this problem is leading to that. My question is, does low alkalinity or super hard water do this to fish?? Honestly, this is her hobby so I’m asking on her behalf.

any ideas?? Thanks guys!

 

Can you post the exact numbers of your tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

Have you cleaned the tank or the filter at all recently? If so, how did you do so? Do you ever replace the media or cartridge?

Before this all happened, what was your normal water change schedule like?

Did you introduce any new fish in the few months before this started?

What is the size of your tank and the type/rating of your filter? Can you post a full list of the previous fish stock (right before this happened), and current fish stock?

Can you post any photos of what you thought was ich?

 

My wife’s aquarium has been up and running for about three years. It’s been good and we haven’t had much in the way of problems. Over the last week, we’ve lost 13 fish, including several older, bigger, awesome fish! We thought it was Ich at first and she has been taking measures to deal with that. (Empty a third of the water each day, refill and dose with ich-x). We also quarantined a few that were looking really bad (lost them two days later). Now we have a couple that look almost dead. They are just laying on the bottom. I thought one of them was dead and when I went to get him out he sprung to life and bolted around the tank!

We did a test for ammonia, PH, alkalinity, chlorine, etc. the only things that seemed off were hardness (very hard 300) and alkalinity was low at around 40). She is thinking about adding baking soda as googling this problem is leading to that. My question is, does low alkalinity or super hard water do this to fish?? Honestly, this is her hobby so I’m asking on her behalf.

any ideas?? Thanks guys!

Welcome...

Water hardness and low alkalinity should not do this to fish.

What are your parameters? (namely, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) What size is the tank and what is the stocking? Do you have any pictures? What filter are you running?

Sorry for all these questions Hope I can help

 

Thanks for the quick replies! I’ll try to answer to the best of my ability but this is very much my wife’s department.

It’s a 40 gallon tank. She changes the water every two weeks or so.

Amonia tested in the “Ideal” range according to the strip. Nitrate was around 20. Nitrite was 0. Alkalinity was about 40.

She has not changed the media. She removed the charcoal from the filter because she was trying to treat Ich. We are wondering if Ich is not the actual problem.

She did recently add a few new fish (3-4 weeks ago?). A Blood Parrot Cichlid, an algae eater and to other small ones that I don’t know the names of.

The tank is 40 gallons. I don’t know the specs on the filter. It has two cartridges and rollers that send the water back into the tank like a pair of small waterfalls. Lol, I’m doing my best here.

I don’t have a picture of the fish that died that had it the worst but I’ll post another. It’s hard to capture it in a pic though.
Thanks guys!!

 

What's your pH? Low alkalinity can result in pH crashes or stalled cycles which can sometimes kill fish.

What dechlorinator are you using, if any?

 

PH was normal. I don’t recall the exact number.
She uses a primer.