It was my childhood dream to have a proper fish tank, and I am pretty close to draining the whole thing and putting a couple of lizards or snakes in it atm. I could really use a little help in figuring out what is going on.
Tank Specs
850L ~ 200 gallons
Hardscape, 1cm gravel, 3 large rocks, 2 store bought driftwood.
Tank about 7 months old.
pH 7.0
Temp 26
Ammonia 0 - by the test, but I am trusting this less and less
Nitrates - 0
Nitrates 0 5ppm
Eheim 3 pro cannister filter
Fish
At the start
20 Cardinals
20 Rummy nose
6 Corys
3 Plecos
10 Cherry Barbs (5m/5f)
5 White tip tetra
4 Guppies
The first thing that went wrong was I was cleaning my substrate down to the glass each week, the entire tank. I then cleaned the filter out. I used tank water but I unbalanced the bacteria. I had white hazy water, then it went to green haze. I covered the tank and put some Pond One algae pellets in it, and didn't feed the fish for a couple day. This worked. Then (of the fish listed) I put in the white tips, 5 cardinals, and the guppies. The Cherry barbs killed the guppies instantly, within a couple day. Lesson learned, don't believe everything you read online about tank mates. Then one by one they started dying. I was doing 10% water changes, and dosing the entire tank with Seachem prime. The tests were showing 0 for the relative parameters, and the tank went into a mini-cycle. I lost about 5 cardinals, and a couple of my cories looked really sick. Over the next few days they died. The fish shop sold me formalin, and I dosed for 4 days. During that time a couple Rummy Nose died, and the shop told me that it was to be expected as tetras were sensitive to this stuff. I then did a 25% water change after the treatment as instructed, stopped gravel cleaning the entire tank and did 1/2 the tank deeply, and the other half just on the surface. Each day a couple more fish died. I ended up loosing another Cory, a pleco, 5 more cardinals, 2 more rummy nose and a white fin. The water parameters by the test were all fine (Its hard to say with the colour chart, but it certainly didn't look close to the second bar indicating toxins). Because the pleco died in a little hidy hole in the rocks, I moved the rocks and did a deep gravel clean. A LOT of crap came up, and I assumed that it was an ammonia pocket, that was killing them when they came into contact. The morning before I did a 10% water change after the dead fish, and I put the water in with conditioner, but I didn't check the pH as I was running late from work. I had previously checked the water pH from the tap and it was around 7.2, no ammonia or other things. We had a spike in the pH in the tap water and my pH shot up to 7.6. I put in a little pH down to move it down about 0.2 units. Then a couple more Rummy nose died, so I moved the other rock, which didn't have hidy holes in it and vacummed under that. A lot of crap came up from that as well. I pulled my filter apart, but didn't clean it to check that it was working fine. It was, and looked good. The filter inspection was this morning. I am still dosing with Seachem Prime, and am getting more and more frustrated by the day. I am doing proper feedings, once a day, it takes them about 30 seconds to eat all the food, and none ever hits the ground. Any thoughts? Do you move your rocks etc and clean under them regularly? What have I missed? Why are these fish still dying with what looks to be ammonia burns on their face, but the majority of fish are swimming happily around. Why are they dying 1-2 a day? If it was ammonia and my test was wrong would they not die in larger numbers?
Tank Specs
850L ~ 200 gallons
Hardscape, 1cm gravel, 3 large rocks, 2 store bought driftwood.
Tank about 7 months old.
pH 7.0
Temp 26
Ammonia 0 - by the test, but I am trusting this less and less
Nitrates - 0
Nitrates 0 5ppm
Eheim 3 pro cannister filter
Fish
At the start
20 Cardinals
20 Rummy nose
6 Corys
3 Plecos
10 Cherry Barbs (5m/5f)
5 White tip tetra
4 Guppies
The first thing that went wrong was I was cleaning my substrate down to the glass each week, the entire tank. I then cleaned the filter out. I used tank water but I unbalanced the bacteria. I had white hazy water, then it went to green haze. I covered the tank and put some Pond One algae pellets in it, and didn't feed the fish for a couple day. This worked. Then (of the fish listed) I put in the white tips, 5 cardinals, and the guppies. The Cherry barbs killed the guppies instantly, within a couple day. Lesson learned, don't believe everything you read online about tank mates. Then one by one they started dying. I was doing 10% water changes, and dosing the entire tank with Seachem prime. The tests were showing 0 for the relative parameters, and the tank went into a mini-cycle. I lost about 5 cardinals, and a couple of my cories looked really sick. Over the next few days they died. The fish shop sold me formalin, and I dosed for 4 days. During that time a couple Rummy Nose died, and the shop told me that it was to be expected as tetras were sensitive to this stuff. I then did a 25% water change after the treatment as instructed, stopped gravel cleaning the entire tank and did 1/2 the tank deeply, and the other half just on the surface. Each day a couple more fish died. I ended up loosing another Cory, a pleco, 5 more cardinals, 2 more rummy nose and a white fin. The water parameters by the test were all fine (Its hard to say with the colour chart, but it certainly didn't look close to the second bar indicating toxins). Because the pleco died in a little hidy hole in the rocks, I moved the rocks and did a deep gravel clean. A LOT of crap came up, and I assumed that it was an ammonia pocket, that was killing them when they came into contact. The morning before I did a 10% water change after the dead fish, and I put the water in with conditioner, but I didn't check the pH as I was running late from work. I had previously checked the water pH from the tap and it was around 7.2, no ammonia or other things. We had a spike in the pH in the tap water and my pH shot up to 7.6. I put in a little pH down to move it down about 0.2 units. Then a couple more Rummy nose died, so I moved the other rock, which didn't have hidy holes in it and vacummed under that. A lot of crap came up from that as well. I pulled my filter apart, but didn't clean it to check that it was working fine. It was, and looked good. The filter inspection was this morning. I am still dosing with Seachem Prime, and am getting more and more frustrated by the day. I am doing proper feedings, once a day, it takes them about 30 seconds to eat all the food, and none ever hits the ground. Any thoughts? Do you move your rocks etc and clean under them regularly? What have I missed? Why are these fish still dying with what looks to be ammonia burns on their face, but the majority of fish are swimming happily around. Why are they dying 1-2 a day? If it was ammonia and my test was wrong would they not die in larger numbers?
