# Fish Crisis!! Please Help, why are my Fish dying??



## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Hi, I have had 4 of my fish die today, 2 gold dust mollies, 1 neon tetra, and 1 swordtail. There are several others that dont look good at all. They were happy and swimming and healthy just a day ago. The only symptom I can report right now is that the water is getting, sort of greyish, not really green but its definatly cloudy. Please Help! I would like the rest of my fish to live!


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## adpierin11 (Jan 2, 2008)

First what are your take parameters? Ammonia? NitrItes? NitrAtes? Once you answer those someone may be able to answer your question.
How long has the tank been established? Hurry and answer these so someone can get you some help


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

48 x 16 inches. 75 gallons. I dont cycle my tank and I dont know the level's. The tank has been going for like 2 years or somthing. This has happend before and most fish died.


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

It will be tough to offer solid advice without knowing your water parameters :dunno:.

Another question then: how often to you feed, what do you feed, and most importantly, how often do you perform water changes (and how much water do you change when you do them)? What kind of filter do you run for the tank, what kind of media is in it, and how often do you rinse and/or change the filter media?


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

I feed my fish 2 small feedings a day, to make sure every fish gets food. I feed them tropical fish flakes, nothing fancy. I dont do water changes that often but when I do, I do more than 50% of the water. I'm not sure what filter I have, but it has been working great in the past and as far as i know, there is nothing wrong with it. I have old, fake plants in the tank. I just did a water change and I'm leaving the plants out. I dont wrinse them too often. I'm not sure what filter media is. I've been putting alot of heath medications and aquarium salt to the tank and the fish are not looking as bad as they were. I hope that helps anyone for giving me advice..


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

hi
sorry to see you're having problems.
the filter.....is it an internal one(sits inside the tank) a HOB,
a canister ?
do you know what is inside the filter.
have you had any fish die that you did not notice.
the water test kit is a must.
what have you been adding exactly and for what reasons ?


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

cool, well a loose guess would be that the nitrates are creeping up in your tank, and causing an algae bloom in the water (the cloudiness that you see)... also likely that nitrates get too high and that causes the death of some of your fish. Again, this is just a guess though, hopefully someone else will chime in and support or refute my suggestion here.

I would guess that a combination of infrequent water changes, and (it sounds like) never rinsing or changing your filter media is causing water quality problems. Regular water changes (at LEAST once a month, maybe every two weeks, every week would be better.. the more frequently you do it, the less you have to do per change) would be much better for the long-term success of the tank.

Also, its very important that you rinse your filter media, and replace it every so often. If you run carbon, it should be changed monthly, and if you have a mechanical sponge, that should be rinsed every water change in the water that you just removed (not under the tap), and replaced every three or so months. If you don't do this, then it gets stuffed full of gunk from the tank, and turns into a nitrate factory.

And lastly, like willow wisely stated, a water test kit is crucial, that way you can monitor your water pararmeters and much more quickly recognize and handle problems before they turn into fish deaths ;-). Good luck!


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Willow, My filter is accually a Carbon filter, if that makes any sense. I have 2 of them, one at each end of the tank. It is external. I do not know what is inside the filter. I have had fish die that I didnt notice. I found one today that I havent seen. I have been adding Rid-Ich, a few fish have really bad ich and I thought it couldnt hurt to add some. I'm adding a double dose because it also treats other fish sicknesses in the tank as well. I have also been adding medi-booster, a follow-up on the Ich treatment. Lastly, I am adding a thing called Algee Destroyer. Says it clears water but it is very old, by a few years so I ddnt give a full doseage of that.




conger said:


> cool, well a loose guess would be that the nitrates are creeping up in your tank, and causing an algae bloom in the water (the cloudiness that you see)... also likely that nitrates get too high and that causes the death of some of your fish. Again, this is just a guess though, hopefully someone else will chime in and support or refute my suggestion here.
> 
> I would guess that a combination of infrequent water changes, and (it sounds like) never rinsing or changing your filter media is causing water quality problems. Regular water changes (at LEAST once a month, maybe every two weeks, every week would be better.. the more frequently you do it, the less you have to do per change) would be much better for the long-term success of the tank.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I will do my best to get a test kit within the next few days. As for water changes, I really tried to do them frequently from a few months ago, but I have just started doing more than 50% every 2 weeks. I have carbon filters, I do wrinse them but we change them not long after we do water changes. Another note, When the fish die, they still have most of their color. If that helps to identify whatever is going on in my tank. Also there is alot of fish in my tank and so they produce alot of waste. I have heard that the waste produces ammonia with can kill fish. I didnt want to dig into the rocks today with my syphon becasue there are fry in the tank currently and I didnt want to suck any of them up. One last thing. The death of the fish species is consistant. 2 Tetras have been lost and 4 mollies have been lost. Thanks for the advice guys. I'm kinda thinking that this is some kind of poisening from what i have read on the site.


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## MBilyeu (Nov 25, 2008)

It is possible that such a large water change in addition to a filter media change could have left your tank lacking in the bacteria needed to handle the waste of your fish. The bacteria doesn't live in the water column, but it does live in your filter media and doing such a large water change could have disrupted and possibly taken out the much needed bacteria from the habitat. I would recommend doing smaller water change more frequently and test your parameters asap.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Well, it just came out of noware and thats when I did the water change. We also replaced the filters a few weeks ago. We use carbon filters in our tanks, im not sure what filter media is


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

hi
i really don'r know what a carbon filter is  sorry maybe someone else does.
usually inside a filter you get some sponge/ceramic rings/filter floss.
to change all the insides of a filter is bad.when you replace the cartridges you begin
a new tank each time from the begining,stressing the fish,in an unstable situation.
would it be possible for you to buy a new filter with the aformentioned ceramic rings
and stuff. ?
all the stuff you are adding is not going to help very much either.
i need other members to help you with the filter situation.


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

I think we're all talking about the same thing. I think by "carbon filter" they mean the filter media is carbon. MollyPlatySwordtailfish: "filter media" is just a term that refers to what stuff you have in your filter... e.g. a bag of carbon, a sponge, ceramic rings, etc. What the water runs through as it is pumped through your filter.

If you only have a bag of carbon in your filter, you might consider adding at least a sponge/floss too, to remove some particulate matter before going through your carbon. Ceramic rings provide a large surface area for bacteria to grow on, if you want to add that as well (I personally do not, but I have loads of rocks in my tanks and those provide more than enough surface area for bacteria... plus not having a bag of rings in my filter is one less thing to rinse and change every so often). Do you think you could look and see what exact filter you have (make/model)? If you use all three, the typical order is sponge first, then carbon, then ceramic rings. The sponge provides mechanical filtration, to remove chunks of stuff from the water, the carbon provides chemical filtration, by trapping unwanted chemicals in the tiny pores of the carbon nuggets, and the ceramic rings provide biological filtration be allowing bacteria to grow on the large surface area and consume ammonia and nitrites. And like willow said, never change them all at the same time, as that could disrupt the bacteria population of the tank and re-start a cycle.

I also agree with willow, that adding lots of medications to the tank isn't a great idea. I personally don't like to do that (just a personal preference, not saying they don't work), as I prefer to keep the water/tank environment as natural as possible. I feel like at some point the water will be so full of chemicals and other stuff, that it will turn into a bad thing :dunno:.


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

speaking of carbon and chemical filtration, if you are putting all of these medications in your tank, but leaving the carbon in your filter, then the carbon is probably removing the medication before it can really work (and the carbon is getting "full" more quickly as well, reducing the effectiveness or lifespan of the carbon). I bet if you check out some of the fine print on the bottle/box of the medication, it will tell you to remove the carbon from your filter while medicating!


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks for the help. I did take the carbon filters out(I am not totally uneducated:-D) Now the sponge. There is this blue meshy stuff on the filter and there are little nuggets(im guess that is the carbon) inside the meshy stuff. Is that meshy stuff the sponge that you guys are talking about? Also what are ceramic rings? I have these spinning cylinder things that get really gross after a while. I'm not sure what those are. I'm not sure of the filter make/model but I can find out. As for the current fish situation, 2 losses already today and a few more on their way out. The fish are dying fast. I'm getting the water test kit today to see what is wrong.


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

ok cool, yeah I would imagine the blue meshy stuff you mentioned probably is the sponge, though it's a bit weird that the carbon is packed inside the sponge (not un-heard of though). In most filter's I've seen (which isn't that many, mind you :-D), they are separate entities. The sponge is usually just a block of meshy/spongy material, and the carbon just resides inside of a thin mesh bag (the carbon itself is a black, course gravel). The bag of carbon is then placed on top of the sponge block, assuming the water flows from the bottom of the filter up through the top.

Ceramic rings are just that, little white or almost-white cylindrical rings almost like small donuts. They're placed in a bag similar to the carbon (probably 50-100 or more rings, depending on the size of your filter). I'm not sure what you are seeing when you say "spinning cylinder things", the ceramic rings are cylinder things but they don't spin! :-D They just sit in a bag and let water flow through them. It's very possible that you don't have the ceramic rings in your filter, they certainlty aren't standard stuff in every filter, and some people (myself included) don't use them. But knowing the filter make/model would help, I could look it up online and see exactly what kind of media it takes and such. 

I'm really sorry to hear that your fish are still having a rough go of it! Once you get the test kit, hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom of it quickly. I hope our discussions on here are helping!


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

hi
would there be any chance of a picture of your set up, ?
the tank and then the filter ?


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

conger said:


> ok cool, yeah I would imagine the blue meshy stuff you mentioned probably is the sponge, though it's a bit weird that the carbon is packed inside the sponge (not un-heard of though). In most filter's I've seen (which isn't that many, mind you :-D), they are separate entities. The sponge is usually just a block of meshy/spongy material, and the carbon just resides inside of a thin mesh bag (the carbon itself is a black, course gravel). The bag of carbon is then placed on top of the sponge block, assuming the water flows from the bottom of the filter up through the top.
> 
> Ceramic rings are just that, little white or almost-white cylindrical rings almost like small donuts. They're placed in a bag similar to the carbon (probably 50-100 or more rings, depending on the size of your filter). I'm not sure what you are seeing when you say "spinning cylinder things", the ceramic rings are cylinder things but they don't spin! :-D They just sit in a bag and let water flow through them. It's very possible that you don't have the ceramic rings in your filter, they certainlty aren't standard stuff in every filter, and some people (myself included) don't use them. But knowing the filter make/model would help, I could look it up online and see exactly what kind of media it takes and such.
> 
> I'm really sorry to hear that your fish are still having a rough go of it! Once you get the test kit, hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom of it quickly. I hope our discussions on here are helping!


Thanks, the discussions are helping alot. I appreciate it. 



willow said:


> hi
> would there be any chance of a picture of your set up, ?
> the tank and then the filter ?


I could do that. Its no pretty site though. I took out all of the plants and such. I'll have them up for you in a few minutes.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

My fish tank currently:

You cant really tell from this angle, but it is quite cloudy.









You can see how cloudy it is from this angle. Can't even see to the other end. Wouldn't It be a shame to lose all those nice fish?









My one of my 4 fliter things I use:









Spinning Cyndrical things(Maybe somebody knows what they are









Dont Judge Me! Very dirty filter setup. One on each end. Its not as bad as it seems. The flash from the camera makes the stuff more vibrant. I know what your thinking, that all of that crap is making the fish sick and dying. But its been there for a _long_ time









Food that I feed them









Medications for the fish









More medications


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

awesome, good pics there that helps  The spinning cylinders are called bio-wheels. Those will basically take the place of the ceramic rings we talked about earlier. Those wheels basically allow water to run over them as the water returns to the tank, and provides surface area for the bacteria to grow on. I've never used biowheel filters myself, but I am pretty sure from hearing other's discuss them that you shouldn't ever change the bio wheels themselves (someone else who knows better please correct me if I'm wrong!). If they SHOULD be replaced every so often, I'm sure it's not often, and when you do, only change one at a time (not all of the cylinders at once).

It looks like the blue mesh bags you show are indeed a combination of mechanical filtration (sponge) and carbon, if the carbon is inside of it, and its probably fine. Different filters use sponges/carbons of different shapes, yours just happens to use that one. I don't know if that type is any better or worse than the block sponge/carbon bag style I described earlier, its probably equivalent. Try to replace them every month or so, to keep the carbon fresh and working. Simply swirling it around in the water you just removed during water changes should be good for rinsing it out in between replacements (one mans' opinion, others speak up if you think they should be rinsed more often or differently).

So it looks like you've got a good filter setup, and as long as you've been keeping up with the maintenance of it then that's probably not the problem. Once we know the results of your water tests, we'll be on a roll!


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

deleting my post due to additional evidence just now posted above. Pictures! Now we can help. Great advice above.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks yet again guys. I just did a test on the nitrite in the tank. And (Drumroll) If says that the nitrite levels are at .50 mg/L. It said anything higher than 0 could hurt the fish. How dangourous is that?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Water change time.....


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

kymmie is right, go ahead and do another water change. A fully-cycled tank will have ammonia and nitrite readings of 0, with some level of nitrates (in general 40 ppm is getting to a dangerous level, ideally below 30 ppm, 20 or below is even better). Since you've got some nitrites in there, do a water change to dilute them down.

You must have done something recently that hurt or destroyed your bacteria population, since you mentioned the tank has been up and running for a couple of years. If the bacteria die off (or you put a bunch of fish in all at once, and the bacteria population is no longer large enough to support the bio-load), the tank will go through another cycle, meaning the ammonia will spike then the nitrites will spike until enough bacteria grow to consume them and keep them at a constant level of 0.

Now what happened to kill the bacteria, I don't know (or maybe you added a bunch of fish recently?). I imagine the medications you added wouldn't do that, but I suppose its a possibility. But, I bet that's why your fish are having a rough go of it, the tank is cycling right now, and the toxic ammonia and nitrites are claiming victims. Just watch the levels and do water changes as needed to keep the levels down, until they stay at 0 by themselves. Then following the advice of others in the thread, frequent and small water changes along with proper filter maintenance should prevent it from happening in the future! Keep us posted on the other test results if you like


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Ok just got the uh Nitrate test. It says that the levels can be from 40 mg/L to 80 mg/L. It is hard to tell but I think its more toward 40 mg/L how is that for a nitrate level?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

As Conger stated...ideally nothing over 30 but preferably 20 or under. That reading, along with your nitrite levels indicate that a water change be performed, pronto.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Oh No! I just did a water change yesterday! Ok i'll do another one. We did add a whole bunch of fish a like the weekend before this last one. Maybe thats it. The water change shall be done though. One small problem, when I do the change, I like to dig in the rocks with my syphon to get some of the waste out that may be spiking the ammonia levels. But, There are fry in the tank currently(I dont know how, but they live down there and when I was doing the change yesterday I scared a few out and they were eaten. Would it just be fine to not dig in the rocks?


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Well, if it was my tank I'd do the gravel too. I'd be more concerned with my fish than the fry. The fish will reproduce anyway. Harsh, I know....
I had a similar situation with a mini cycle and it seemed like I was doing a water change every other day, sometimes two days in a row. You have to do what you need to do in order to keep the levels in check and get your tank back on track. If you're siphoning off into a bucket you may be able to net out the fry??


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

its really good that you got the test kit, now we can see that the tank is cycling and the nitrate level is getting a bit high. And the addition of a bunch of fish recently is probably the culprit .

Just a suggestion for frequency of testing, I'd recommend testing fairly often (every day or two) while this mini-cycle is going on, until you see the ammonia and nitrites at 0, and the nitrates down to a safe level. This will allow you to closely monitor the really toxic stuff (ammonia, nitrite) and know when you need to do another water change to dilute them, which like kymmie stated may be every day or two.

Once you get to that point, you can probably back off testing to once a week... and also can probably cut out testing for ammonia or nitrite, and just do a nitrate and pH test each weekend. If at any point you have reason to believe the ammonia or nitrites might be rising, at that point you can perform those tests to find out. If you set aside half an hour to an hour each weekend to test the water then do a small water change and filter media rinse, you'll probably find the tank will stay sparkling clean and your fish will stay very happy and healthy!


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

Agree w/ Conger 100%-

PS. Conger, LOVE your avatar!


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks for the advice guys. I just did what kymmie said and I did about a 75% water change. I am going to hold off on the medication and Start testing like you say and see how that goes. Oh and I made a small discovery, When I went to start the syphon to start the water change, the water was very cold. I look at the thermometer and it read a little below 70. Not good. I followed the line from the heater to the outlet and of course it was unplugged. Now would that have maybe killed any other bacteria in the tank?


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

MollyPlatySwordtailfish said:


> I look at the thermometer and it read a little below 70. Not good. I followed the line from the heater to the outlet and of course it was unplugged. Now would that have maybe killed any other bacteria in the tank?



I'm not sure about the bacteria, but I bet that was adding to the stress your fish were under! Good catch, sounds like you're on the road to recovery!


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## toddkelly12 (Oct 15, 2008)

how bout i was reading this thread and saw what happened with your heater being unplugged so i checked mine. sure enough mine was unplugged also. my tank was at 72 degrees it is usually at 80. im sorry to hear about your fish but thank you for reminding me about my heater. my fish thank you also.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

hello all! I did a follow up nitrite and nitrate test the morning after the water change and when the filters were put back in. And I have good news, the nitrite level went down to 0 mg/L! I'm pleased about that. However, the Nitrate levels did go down, but they are now somewhere between the levels of 20 mg/L and 40 mg/L. Also, the tank has started to clear up dramatically. Most of the fish are happy and look pretty healthy. The water temperature is about up to 80 where it should be. I'm hoping to report more good news soon!


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

aunt kymmie said:


> If you're siphoning off into a bucket you may be able to net out the fry??


Oh I use to siphon into a bucket but it was a pain with such a big tank. We just siphon the water right out the window now because the tank is right near a window.


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

thats cool, i have a few larger tanks myself (46, 55, and 90), so I've transitioned to using plastic containers from Lowes... I've got a couple 24 gallon "boxes", and some 30 gallon brute trashcans. That makes it easy to drain the water quick in one fell swoop, then I use a 5 gallon bucket to refill the tanks (so I can lift it up tank-height!).

If your tank is right by a window, beware of whether or not it gets significant sunlight, direct or indirect (direct being worse). That can cause algae problems in a bad way. But if you've had your tank set up for 2 years, and haven't constantly battled algae, then it's probably OK. Just thought I'd toss that little tip in (I have one of my tanks near a window, but I put up a thick curtain to block any sunlight from coming in... my other tanks are far away from any window/outside light).


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Ok, yeah the window that it is near is usually always never open, the blinds are covering it. Oh, and I did do a ph test earlier today, it said that the level was at around 8.5 and it also said that 7 was normal and any more could be harmful. What can I do about that?


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

The pH tolerance will depend on the fish, I bet the "anything above 7" you saw was a general guideline as lots of freshwater fish like a pH in the range of 6-7. But for example, 8.5 would be just fine for African cichlids. You must be like me, the city water supply here in NM has a pretty high pH too so if I don't do anything, my tanks sit at about 8.

I'd first read up on the specific species of fish you have, and find out what their pH preferences range, then seek to find a common or close match if they are different. If you need to alter the pH of your water, the only fairly easy way I know to do it is with pH buffer tablets or supplements, the only downside is that it can get a bit tedious as every time you do a water change, it will tend to push the pH back to where it sits naturally for you (8.5). So you might find yourself continuously buffering the water over time (not a big deal, but wouldn't it be nice to set it and forget it?).

You can get pH buffer at pretty much any fish store, and you should be able to get stuff that keeps the pH at a variety of different levels... just determine what pH you want based on the fish you keep, then get a buffer that will do that.

Maybe someone else will chime in with better advice, I'm not extremely experienced/knowledgable in all the ways and tricks that one can use to manage pH.


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

thanks for posting those pictures,that was great.:-D
well things will pick up for you now,keep your water changes regular,
and like conger said test regular as well.
i'm really glad that you'll be able to finally enjoy your tank,and fish.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks guys, is water change the only way to manage pH? I just did some research on pH tolerance for livebearers, and they like it around 6-7 pH. Water change the only way to get it down? Also conger mentioned pH buffer, how does that work? Can I get it at a local pet shop?


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## conger (Feb 2, 2008)

water changes might not alter your pH at all from where it is, it depends on what the pH of your city's water supply is (assuming you use treated/conditioned tap water for your water changes). If it's at 8.5, then doing water changes won't change your pH at all :-(. Buffer is the only way I know to alter pH, or use a different water supply ($$$... not recommended, just saying its possible ). But again, I have never really researched ways to manage pH, so hopefully someone else will have better info!

The buffer I am used to seeing is either a liquid that you dose (e.g. 5 mL for every 10 gallons or whatever the directions on the bottle say), or tablets like cold medicine or something that fizz and dissolve in the water. But you may have to periodically buffer, because even after adjusting the pH, the water might have a tendency to rise back/fall back to its original pH. And after a water change with water at a different pH, it will very likely swing a little bit. Testing the pH every so often will allow you to know when you need to add more buffer!


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

My tap water also comes out high. 8.0. I don't try to mess around with or alter the ph because I think that a stable ph is better than an *ideal* ph. It would be too much maintenance for me to constantly be adding buffers, etc. I did add a large amount of driftwood at tank set up and I know that helped lower the ph some. I slowly acclimated my fish and the ph does not seem to bother them in the slightest. I'm also not keeping fish that *must* have a lower ph. Of course, mine is 8.0 and not 8.5. If I had 8.5 I'd go for cool cichlid tank! Just my .02 cents...


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks, I guess I will just leave the pH alone then and focus on controling the nirtate:-D. I really appreiciate all the members who helped me and taught me things to make my tank better. Thanks so much, as I do beleive the tank right now is on its way to recovery!


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Hello Everyone! I have good news to bring, the fish massacre has stopped and fish are returning back to their previous health. I did a follow up nitrate test and it read 20 mg/L! A huge improvment and from what I am hearing that is pretty good. The tank has cleared up hugely. And all the fish have their top fin(I dont know what its called) up in the air which I know means that they are happy! Here is a picture of the tank currently. I am hoping to put the plants and such back in tonight. Thanks so much to everyone who helped me through this and help put my tank back together.


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## aunt kymmie (Jun 2, 2008)

I'm glad you're back on track. It's great how happy you sound!! Patience & Perseverance = Happy Fishkeeping.


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## MollyPlatySwordtailfish (Nov 29, 2008)

Thanks so much!


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Phew! Glad to hear things are working out for you. I wish I could have jumped on this thread earlier, but it's finals season and all so I haven't been on the forum as much as I normally am. Anyway...

Those filters are Marineland Bio-wheel filters. Very good filters, in my opinion. The actual Bio-wheels should never be replaced. As far as the filter cartridges - those shouldn't be replaced until they start to physically fall apart. If they get gunked up, you can swish them around in some water you remove during a water change. As for the carbon, definitely keep it out of your tank while you're medicating or it'll suck the medication right out of the water. If you want to run carbon on your tank on a regular basis, take a sharp knife and slice open that blue sponge along the top edge of the cartridge. Then, buy yourself a big jug of carbon from the LFS. This will allow you to replace the carbon however often you'd like without having to replace the entire filter cartridge and thus compromise your bacteria colonies.

I would guess that you lost fish due to both the stress of adding more fish as well as the water being so cold. Also, I didn't see any evidence of ich in any of your pictures. Ich looks exactly like someone poured salt on your fish. Some ich medications can be very harsh on certain types of fish, like your tetras, so that could be causing problems.

I would add those fake plants back to the tank - the fish will be a lot more comfortable if there are plenty of hiding spaces and stuff to break up lines of site in the tank.

Glad things are back on track, though!


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