HELP...How do I get rid of the bad bacteria in tank

[whiteangel]

I have a 4ft tank, it has a canister filter, 200w heater. I have a few fish in there, but I have been losing fish everyday. I have done a water test which shows that there is Nitrate in the tank, some people would say that Nitrate is not such an issue in a tank, but thats all I can put it down too for my fish dying. I have taken out all my none aquatic plants & replaced them with artificial plants & I am only going to get real aquatics now & I am looking at setting up all the small fish tanks I have for quarantine tanks for any plants & fish I bring home. I have started to write a journal on all the things I have done & am doing, from what I feed them, what plants I have, what fish I have, the temperature in the tank, how much water I change & how often, what treatments I put in the water, but waiting for the Nitrate to leave the tank, I am losing fish, its horrible. I bought a 3ft tank a few weeks ago, but its still cycling, so I cant move my fish to that tank yet, I have other tanks that dont have this problem, but the fish are'nt compatible, so I cant mix them.

I was thinking of putting a filter booster in the canister filter, hoping that will help, I was also going to do water changes everyday, but from the water test I did from the tap water, the tap water isnt going to be good for the cause. I just dont know any good ideas to save my fish.

I have been keeping fish for a few years now, I usually leave the tank for at least a few months before doing a water change or anything & none of my fish die, but when I start attending to them on a regualr basis, thats when they start dying & getting sick.

I just dont know what I can do.

Any suggestions, Im looking at giving up fishkeeping, but I am to obsessed with fish.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

How high is your nitrate? You just want to shoot for under 20-40ppm. Unless it's insanely high (like above 100ppm or more), or you have very sensitive fish, it isn't going to be causing fish that are already into the tank to die. New fish are going to be more sensitive to nitrate, since they're coming from water with very low nitrates at the store.... but old fish get used to your nitrate levels slowly as they rise. All tanks have some nitrates unless they are heavily planted and have low fish levels.

What kinds of fish do you have, and what have been dieing?

 

[Pure]

Also to add to CAPS questions: How often are you doing these water changes and how much water are you changing? What is the PH of your tank? What is the PH of your tap water fresh from the tap and after it sits for 24 hrs? When you get new fish what methods do you use for acclimating them and how long do you normally allow them to acclimate? What kind of filter is this and is there any other surface agitation? Also need to know what your stocking level in this tank is?

 

[whiteangel]

Reply

Tap water test results (without water ager):
Ammonia - 0.5ppm
Nitrite - Nil ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm
Ph - 7.5ppm

4Ft water test results:
Ammonia - 0.5ppm
Nitrite - between 1 - 5ppm
Nitrate - 20ppm
Ph - Neutral

I have approx 180Ltr of water in the tank & usually take out about 32Ltr for a water change. As a rule of thumb, most people would advise that you change 25%, which would be more then what I take out. I have been doing a water change once a week, I use to not do them for a few months.

Fish in tank:
4 Opaline Gourami
6 Congo Tetra
1 Black Neon Tetra (the others died)
2 Gold Skirt Tetra
3 Black Skirt Tetra
3 Peppered Cory
5 Platy
4 Male Guppy
2 Adult Bristlenose
3 Bumblebee Goby
500 ml floating maternity tank in 4ft:
10 bristlenose fry
2 guppy fry


I am using an Eheim canister filter that I put filter wool & sponge in, I have taken the carbon out while I am treating the tank for fin & tail rot & doing an all over medication, cause some of the fish have had fin fungus.

When I add new fish, I float them in the bag for at least 5-10minutes, then I open the bag & start to add water from the tank, to climatise them to the water conditions, I usually do this for another 5-10 minutes approximately, Im not sure on the exact time. Then when finally adding the fish to the tank, I place the fish into a net, to empty out all the water that they came in from the aquarium store, then add the fish to the tank. The fish arent stressed in the bags, they swim around carelessly until its time to be placed in their new home.

I bought some Bio Booster today for the filter, to see what that will do for the tank, I thought, since my fish have been dying, at least I can do is try & save them, so that I will know next time what to do.

The fish that have died recently are:
2 Clown loach
1 Peppered Cory
3 Black Neon Tetra
3 Bumblebee Goby, but I think they were sick when I got them from the store
3 Female Guppy
3 Blue Emperor Tetra
3 Platy
3 Swordtail
Several bristlenose fry

It may sound like a lot of fish, but they are'nt all of full size & there is plenty of room in the tank

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I suspect the nitrIte is the problem, not the nitrates. 20 is really fine for nitrates, but nitrites should be zero once the tank is established. If they're over 1-2, they become toxic to fish. You could try a 30-50% water change, and see if that helps any... it should get the nitrites down if nothing else.

Oh, and don't add anything else to the tank for a while. Not until the nitrite levels are steady at zero.

 

[whiteangel]

Reply

Hi Capslock, thanks for the advise.

Well, I tested the water levels a night ago, the ammonia is high, the other tests follow, the nitrites & nitrates are high as well.

Im not planning to add any new fish, even though it is excruciating not being able to buy any new beauties to add to the tank, but I dont want to waste my money on anymore dying or causing anymore issues with the tank water conditions. I will be doing a water change today, I have been testing the tap water, was going to test the tap water with treatment in it & see what the difference is. I also boiled some water to see what the difference was, but it didnt make much if any difference at all, I was also going to add some treatment to the boiled tap water & see what changes that brought along.

I havent lost any fish recently, so thats good, maybe the fish are immune to the water conditions at the moment, but I am still working on lowering the Ammonia, Nitrate & Nitrite to a reasonable level.

Let's see how it goes