Hello,
I'm new to the freshwater aquarium, but I've done quite a bit of research and I can't figure out why some of my fish died. In addition, now that I have stablized the tank (fish look happy at least) the water is not clearing up. Here's the story...
Since the tank seemed like it was doing good, we decided we'd like to try live plants in the tank. So, we stopped by our local pet store and picked up a plant. It was in there for about a week with no problems. We gradually, over the next week replaced almost all of the fake plants with real ones. My wife also added a fertilizer pellet without my knowledge (this had me worried, and I still think may have been the cause) and swore that it was safe for the fish. So, I left it in. Maybe a couple days later we lost our Pleco. All the other fish seemed fine, so I chalked it up to bad luck and picked up another one. That one died by the next day.
So, at this point i'm thinking something is wrong. I tested the water as I do at least once a week and PH was at 7.4 and Amonia, Nitrate and Nitrite levels were fine. I did a 15% water change and kept an eye on them. The next day, we lost our betta which has been with us since the beginning and then about 2 hours later our bala shark then a rainbow fish. Our dalmation molly wasn’t looking real good either and the water had a brown tint to it. At this point I'm freaking out.
Something had to be done, so I replaced 50% of the water and pulled all the plants and tried to vacuum up whatever was left of the fertilizer. Cleaned out the filter and added new carbon. (I read that old carbon can make your water brown) Added cycle and stress coat to compensate. Since that change, the remaining fish have recovered and seem happy.
However, now the water has gotten real cloudy almost like new tank syndrome all over again. Except, it’s not clearing up… It’s been 6 days now and it’s still very cloudy, the water is still testing fine. During the initial break in period it only stayed cloudy for a day or so. This seems way to long.
I’m open to suggestions at this point. Do I start changing water daily or should I wait out the cloudy period? What killed my fish? Could it have been the fertilizer? It did state on the package that it was safe for fish.
What’s left in the tank…
10 Neon tetras
6 Phantom tetras
3 Orange platies
1 Dalmation molly
1 Silver molly
Filter type: Fluval 304 canister filter.
Tank Size: 47 Gallon
I'm new to the freshwater aquarium, but I've done quite a bit of research and I can't figure out why some of my fish died. In addition, now that I have stablized the tank (fish look happy at least) the water is not clearing up. Here's the story...
Since the tank seemed like it was doing good, we decided we'd like to try live plants in the tank. So, we stopped by our local pet store and picked up a plant. It was in there for about a week with no problems. We gradually, over the next week replaced almost all of the fake plants with real ones. My wife also added a fertilizer pellet without my knowledge (this had me worried, and I still think may have been the cause) and swore that it was safe for the fish. So, I left it in. Maybe a couple days later we lost our Pleco. All the other fish seemed fine, so I chalked it up to bad luck and picked up another one. That one died by the next day.
So, at this point i'm thinking something is wrong. I tested the water as I do at least once a week and PH was at 7.4 and Amonia, Nitrate and Nitrite levels were fine. I did a 15% water change and kept an eye on them. The next day, we lost our betta which has been with us since the beginning and then about 2 hours later our bala shark then a rainbow fish. Our dalmation molly wasn’t looking real good either and the water had a brown tint to it. At this point I'm freaking out.
Something had to be done, so I replaced 50% of the water and pulled all the plants and tried to vacuum up whatever was left of the fertilizer. Cleaned out the filter and added new carbon. (I read that old carbon can make your water brown) Added cycle and stress coat to compensate. Since that change, the remaining fish have recovered and seem happy.
However, now the water has gotten real cloudy almost like new tank syndrome all over again. Except, it’s not clearing up… It’s been 6 days now and it’s still very cloudy, the water is still testing fine. During the initial break in period it only stayed cloudy for a day or so. This seems way to long.
I’m open to suggestions at this point. Do I start changing water daily or should I wait out the cloudy period? What killed my fish? Could it have been the fertilizer? It did state on the package that it was safe for fish.
What’s left in the tank…
10 Neon tetras
6 Phantom tetras
3 Orange platies
1 Dalmation molly
1 Silver molly
Filter type: Fluval 304 canister filter.
Tank Size: 47 Gallon
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