Problem with Rainbow Fish

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chuck8825

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Apr 13, 2006
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Background
I have the following fish in a 50 gallon freshwater tank:

2 Zebra Danios
4 Harlequin Rasboras
1 Golden Gourami
1 Platy
1 Albino catdish
2 Rainbowfish

I originally had two Gouramis and 5 Rainbow Fish. I lost 3 fish two months ago by overdosing on an algae remover on accident. Not my proudest moment to say the least! I have since given up on any chemical algae removers and installed a UV sterilizer to my canister filter to help remove any algae blooms. In addition I added the following products to the canister: (i) phosguard - to remove any phosphate from the water column, (ii) purigen and Boyd's Chemi-pure to remove any other impurities from the water (iii) cuprisorb - to remove any heavy metals in the tap water.

The Problem
The algae problem has been resolved and the water has never been more clear, however I lost another rainbow fish a week ago. The fish had no sign of disease. In can only come up with the following potential problem: (i) the additional resins in the canister filter is removing something the fish might need, ie: trace elements, or (ii) the PH of the tap water and in the tank is 7.4 which might be too alkaline for the fish I have.

Do I need to adjust PH, and if so what is a good PH level for the fish I have? Should I add trace elements to the tank?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Roan Art

Roan Art

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Oct 7, 2005
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chuck8825 said:
Background
I have the following fish in a 50 gallon freshwater tank:

2 Zebra Danios
4 Harlequin Rasboras
1 Golden Gourami
1 Platy
1 Albino catdish
2 Rainbowfish
Click to expand...
First of all, what *kind* of rainbowfish are you talking about?


I originally had two Gouramis and 5 Rainbow Fish. I lost 3 fish two months ago by overdosing on an algae remover on accident. Not my proudest moment to say the least! I have since given up on any chemical algae removers and installed a UV sterilizer to my canister filter to help remove any algae blooms. In addition I added the following products to the canister: (i) phosguard - to remove any phosphate from the water column, (ii) purigen and Boyd's Chemi-pure to remove any other impurities from the water (iii) cuprisorb - to remove any heavy metals in the tap water.
Click to expand...
Do you have plants in that tank? Cuprisorb does not "remove" heavy metals. Nothing can remove metals except RO or DI. What it does is temporarily change them into something else, but they will revert back into metals.

The Problem
The algae problem has been resolved and the water has never been more clear, however I lost another rainbow fish a week ago. The fish had no sign of disease. In can only come up with the following potential problem: (i) the additional resins in the canister filter is removing something the fish might need, ie: trace elements, or (ii) the PH of the tap water and in the tank is 7.4 which might be too alkaline for the fish I have.
Click to expand...
Fish don't care about pH. Especially rainbowfish. They care about water hardness, not alkalinity.

Do I need to adjust PH, and if so what is a good PH level for the fish I have? Should I add trace elements to the tank?
Click to expand...
No and no.

Need more information on the fish you lost and your tank. How did they die? What did they look like dead? Where you there when they died?

How big is the tank and what exactly is the filteration on it?

Roan
 
C

chuck8825

AC Members
Apr 13, 2006
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Problem with Rainbowfish

A) Here are the Rainbowfish:

2 Dwarf Rainbowfish (1 remaining)
2 Yellow Rainbowfish (1 remaining)
2 Boesemans Rainbowfish (0 remaining)

B) I have no plants in the tank currently. I am not sure that I want to add any at this point. Regarding the cuprisorb, it doesn't sound like it makes sense to keep using it.

C) I don't have a hardness tester, but in my opinion the water is hard.

D) I was not around when the fish died, but its appearance did not bad. There was no damage to the fins or any other outward sign of disease.

E) The tank is 50 gallons and I have a Eheim Pro II with runs the mechanical & biological filtration. I also have a small Eheim Ecco I no longer use on a smaller tank that I run as my chemical filtration. Lastly, I have attached a coralife turbo twist UV sterilizer to the Ecco output.
 
Roan Art

Roan Art

AC Members
Oct 7, 2005
5,387
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0
63
Northern VA
bowheads.org
chuck8825 said:
A) Here are the Rainbowfish:

2 Dwarf Rainbowfish (1 remaining)
2 Yellow Rainbowfish (1 remaining)
2 Boesemans Rainbowfish (0 remaining)
Click to expand...
I'm going to assume that you have actually have Neon Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia praecox, which are of a blue coloration. Dwarf Rainbowfish, Melanotaenia maccullochi, are not readily available in the hobby and very few LFS will carry them.

B) I have no plants in the tank currently. I am not sure that I want to add any at this point. Regarding the cuprisorb, it doesn't sound like it makes sense to keep using it.
Click to expand...
I did some reading on this "Chemi Pure" stuff you are using. What is your water change routine -- how much and how often? I hope you are not doing as this stuff advises and not changing your water at all.

IMO that snake oil has no business in a FW tank. The claims it makes are totally ludicrous. The only thing that will remove "impurities" from the tank are water changes.

Please let me know what your water change routine is and if you haven't been doing any, when was the last time you did change the water out?

Roan
 
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