im this close to throwing away this hobby.

[allecb]

ok thank you irm and tek.

btw, no i dont clean out my filters every WC, or honestly..never. i never do LOL. i guess im just gonna leave my tank alone, but its hard when i see fish dying i just instantly think: change water! and i would buy that test kit but thats way too much money right now.

and ive been feeding my fish brine shrip in the morning, flake in the evening. ill feed the shrimp less often.

looks like we cant do much until i report back from what petsmart says.

 

[tekonus]

I'm sure you still got bacteria in there, but by changing the water so often you're making the conditions in general unstable. PH always goes lower/higher when the water is settled, so the PH rate has been changing with each water change. Rapid PH changes are very stressful on fish and is a common cause of death... that's why it's recommended that you don't change too much water often. Stress also makes fish weak and susceptible for diseases, so assuming they were sick before, there's STILL a possibility of ick around the tank (ick is invisible when it's not leached into your fish yet, but it's still there), and/or they can contract other diseases by stress.

But, along that, even though you didn't remove all of your bacteria, the bacteria takes some time to get used to your conditions when it comes to changing water, dying/adding fish... and considering how rapidly your fish have been dying, you've been replacing all water, and added so much fish at once, I wouldn't be surprised if you had bad water conditions in that end. That's mainly why I recommend getting your water checked out, like someone mentioned... elimination process. Finding out what caused the problem is the best way to prevent it from happening again ;>

If you get the water from your tank from the same source every time, as most people do... rapid ph changes aren't usually an issue. Unless your water company messes with the water a lot.

 

[tekonus]

ok thank you irm and tek.

btw, no i dont clean out my filters every WC, or honestly..never. i never do LOL. i guess im just gonna leave my tank alone, but its hard when i see fish dying i just instantly think: change water! and i would buy that test kit but thats way too much money right now.

and ive been feeding my fish brine shrip in the morning, flake in the evening. ill feed the shrimp less often.

looks like we cant do much until i report back from what petsmart says.

If you have money to keep buying 10 tiger barbs at a time I can't see why you can't afford a $20 test kit that will save you money in the end by catching problems early, but hey... it's your tank.

 

[allecb]

If you have money to keep buying 10 tiger barbs at a time I can't see why you can't afford a $20 test kit that will save you money in the end by catching problems early, but hey... it's your tank.

i know..but im a kid. lol, fish are fun..test kits arent

 

[tekonus]

i know..but im a kid. lol, fish are fun..test kits arent

I haven't been a kid in a while, but I remember live fish being more fun than dead fish. Seriously, its worth the investment for you to get this ASAP. If you need help convincing your parents to get it, tell them it will save them from having to run back and forth to pet stores to test your water.

 

[Lycanthropic]

Yes, but its just my .02 cents. It will prevent problems... and you can still have them, just in a seperate tank. Its up to you if you want to keep throwing money to buy new fish and not a test kit or a QT tank

 

[allecb]

Yes, but its just my .02 cents. It will prevent problems... and you can still have them, just in a seperate tank. Its up to you if you want to keep throwing money to buy new fish and not a test kit or a QT tank

well, i was thinking bout putting the barbs in my 20 gallon tank, but i dont know if it'd help cause i dont know if whats causing my barbs harm is in my gravel or in my filter, so theres no point in setting up my 20gallon, and taking one of my filters from my 55 (i got two running on there) if its the filter thats housing this parasite/disease/whatever!

 

[KarlTh]

If you say you've changed 100% of the water and more in less than two weeks, that's probably it. :/ You're not supposed to change more than 25% in a month, so you probably hurt the cycle. You should really have those nitrates checked up, your LFS should offer tests for free...

Hang on - who told you that? 25% weekly is a common level of changes, and some Discus breeders will do 90% daily. The bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water, and as long as the incoming water is dechlorinated the water changes will have zero affect on them.

Besides, if the cycle were messed up we'd see ammonia and nitrite. We've already been told that these are zero.

 

[KarlTh]

If you get the water from your tank from the same source every time, as most people do... rapid ph changes aren't usually an issue. Unless your water company messes with the water a lot.

Indeed. It's a myth that pH changes harm fish. They don't. Fish are largely insensitive to pH. Big changes in TDS (total dissolved solids) are harmful, but that only happens if the tap water changes in consistency, or if water changes have been seriously neglected over a long period of time, or you are purposely messing with the tank water chemistry.

My tank water is pH 6.2 because of peat filtration and CO2 injection. My tap water is 7.4. I do weekly 50% water changes because I use EI dosing. This is a serious pH change and according to the myth my fish should all be floating with their fins in the air. They're not.

 

[Madding]

If the OP is admitting such unwillingness to do things like clean his filter (he said never), QT fish that have a habit of being unhealthy (refuses), and just seems to have a negative outlook on doing anything but buying fish and wanting them to do well, I'm thinking this hobby might just not be for him. For as frustrated as he is, saying things like "HELL NO" and "lol" to suggestions just seems lousy.

I'm glad people are trying to help keep fish alive here, but the OP just doesn't seem to be willing to go the extra yards, which is definitely necessary in an extreme case like this. Being a "kid" doesn't really mean you can cut corners.

Just my input.