Fish Death Why?

[bcpatti3]

I apparently am doing something wrong. I had two Mollies die recently. Checked my ph it was extremely high OVER 8. Bought PH DOWN and PH LOCK and it is now 7.0 and has been for several weeks. My ammonia level has been 0 since I do consistent water changes and add water conditioner. I bought 2 Neon Blue Gouramis. one died a day and a half later. I figured my water situation was fine now so maybe their was a small possibility it was the fish. I picked up recently 5 Zebra Danio's. One died within a day. The other's seem fine but today my other Neon Blue Grouamis died.

There has to be something else in the water killing these fish. However, I am confused because I have had two blue rams that have survived all other fish for at least 2 years now.

Should I be checking something else?

[hacket]

are you easing your fish into the tanks rather than just dropping them in?...they need time to adjust to the temperature change

[jones57742]

Bc:

Ditto Hc
but in addition this sounds like it may be a possible nitrate concentration differencing problem or hardness differencing problem.

Have you checked the nitrate concentration, Gh and Kh of the water which the fish "have been in" and the same water parameters for your tank.

TR

[emc7]

pH 8+ is fine for mollies, alkalinity didn't kill them something else did. Have you checked nitrite and nitrate? whenever you add fish you get a little version of the nitrogen cycle as the biology in your tank catches up to the new load. Also, even with regular water changes, nitrate levels can creep up over time. new fish are more vulnerable to high nitrates than ones that have slowly gotten accustomed to them.

[bcpatti3]

yeah, I do the add 1 cup of tank water every five minutes to the bag for no less then one hour and I always pull the fish out with a net. The Temp would make sense that was the issue for the two fish that died within a day but what about the other fish that have died weeks later? I am starting to think it is a NITRATE issue as well. When I talked the FISH store they did not mention anything about checking for NITRATES. They just wanted me to check ammonia and PH levels. I assume there are Nitrate tests out there. How do you correct Nitrate?

[emc7]

How do you correct Nitrate

Water changes. There are ion exchange resins and plant do take nitrates out, but if your nitrates are high (>80 ppm) odds are there are other things building up, too (like protein from food). Unless you have live plants, try to target keep nitrate around 20 ppm. Nitrate is the least toxic of the three (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate), but nothing removes it from the aquarium so it can build up over time. Ammonia kills in a 2 day old tank, nitrite in a 2 month old tank, and nitrate in a 2 yr old tank.

[adpierin11]

Just to let you know you need to test for ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes. I have to do two water changes a week about 20-30% which brings down my nitrAtes. Like EMC said water changes will bring down the nitrates.

[jones57742]

Bc:

Based on experience test strips "do not work" with the accuracy necessary to appropriately monitor your water parameters.
Also IMHO and based on experience I can recommend the TetraTest kits.

Originally Posted by emc7

alkalinity didn't kill them something else did.

emc:

This just a question as you have way more experience than I have but I believed, based on the literature (which obviously in not always correct), that an instantaneous change in Gh from (let's say) 3 to 150 would cause at the best stress and at the worst death.

Am I missing something here.

TR

[emc7]

He didn't say the change was instantaneous, just that it was high when he tested it (most likely from his substrate). The mollies weren't new fish and he hadn't done a large water change. So a gradual rise in gH will not hurt fish that can live in salt water.

[jones57742]

emc:

I appreciate the input.

TR