PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[mrsrusso]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the group and am desperatly looking for some help. I have a 55 gallon tank that has been set up for about one year. Everytime I put in new fish they die. I float the bag for 15 min, then put some of my tank water in and let it float for about another 15 min. then release them. The next morning they all die. My temp is 78-80 I have had my water tested at the fish store, and they said everything is fone, other than my oh is a little high, but that it shouldn't hurt anything, that the fish would acclomate to it. Well they're not. LOL Now all of a sudden my old fish are dying to, it seems like I can't keep a fish alive for the life of me. I love having fish, I enjoy sitting at the tank, but just can't figure out whats wrong. The fish stor is stumped they don't know what to tell me. I have my lights on a timer for 9 hours everyday. I feed my fish once daily, I have decorations for fish to hide, I have coarse gravel, my water is well water and is naturally high in PH I tried using PH down to see if that would cure the problem but it won't budge it, the store said since my water was hard that it wouldn't budge, and that they don't reccomend it anyway becuse I would have to be a chemist due to my water being high as well. So I am completely stumped, I would start using spring water but thats gonna be a lot of work when I need to do water changes with my 4 litttle ones driving me crazy. LOL Someone please help!!! Any info is useful, I just don't get it.

 

[TLM4x4]

One thing I noticed is you dont mention what your water-changing-schedule is for your tank...if I were you I would invest in my own water testing kit and test it yourself...it is odd that all new fish die, and now all the established ones are as well. Something is obviously wrong in the tank. Get a test kit, take a water sample directly from your tap, test it...let it sit for 24 hours and re-test it. Take a sample from your tank and test it...see what your nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, ph all that stuff are reading. Until you know for sure, there really is no avenue to take other than starting with your tap and tank water. What IS your water changing schedule? Are you using any other chemicals in your tank? Changing your filter pads correctly, and leaving the bio part where the good bacteria are of your filter alone?
BTW Welcome to the tank!

 

[echoofformless]

Firstly, it depends on how high this pH of yours is, and what sorts of fish you are putting into it.

Anything over 8 is probably too high for any freshwater fish except for African cichlids.

Now what about hardness? And what other tests have been done to your well water? Are there any significant pollutants? Is the water chlorinated? Are you using dechlorinator?

pH down and up products are no good for the tank. They raise phosphates and since they don't effect hardness, they do little good for the pH anyway. Very hard water will buffer the pH and make it difficult for any changes to occur. There are two solutions for this, but they will require you to be careful...keep a close eye on parameters...AND know what you are doing to a certain degree.

1) you could use a water softener pillow in your filter.
2) You could put peat in your filter.

Now with the peat, this will depend what sorts of fish you are keeping. Each species has a particular hardness and pH range that it likes best. Say, if you're trying to keep tetras and barbs, these are acid loving soft water fish (generally speaking) so if you're running peat filtration and you get soft, acidic water, these fish will thrive. However if you're keeping livebearers (mollys, platys, swordtails, guppies...) they prefer a neutral-alkaline pH and a little bit of hardness, so they will not be as happy.



Generally a pH problem, unless it is really really high or low, won't be killing fish. So again, try to get your water tested for everything possible. You never know what can get into well water. Plus, sometimes nitrates can get into well water and groundwater from fertilizer runoff. If you're using water that's already high in nitrates, it will render your water changes not only ineffective, but actually more dangerous.


If you have a high pH, I would also suggest that your acclimation procedure will need to be a lot more involved. Test the water that the fish come in, and take note of how different it is. If it's significantly different, than 15 mins of water additions will not do. You will need to be pouring smaller amounts of your fish water into the bags over the course of more like an hour than over the course of 15 mins. Fish need more time than a few minutes to acclimate to these changes. In fact, sometimes even a pH crash within a tank itself can kill fish. (Anyone who does CO2 additions can attest to that.)

 

[pigs_fly]

If you can't figure out what is going on with your water, you might ask if your LFS sells tank water...I know mine does, and so far that has been my best bet, its also cheaper than buying bottled water....much cheaper, its only 38cents/gallon at my LFS. So, keep that on your list of things to try, but you will still need to use something like Stresszyme...Goodluck and welcome!!

 

[cybersymes]

all great info in the above mails...as for acclimatising the new fish...
i do it over an hour...a cup of tank water into the bag every 15 mins...

what's you water change routine...and why are you using well water...
i know these questions have been asked before...
but if you still need help...we need to know whats happening...

lets hope we can fix it for you...welcome to the tank indeed ...

 

[seastaar88]

welcome to the tank once we get some of the basics questions answered, we can take it from there. we'll get to teh bottom of this!!!!! also, if you could, post your equipment list and fish list please.