Ok it's getting ridiculous. Why do I have a fish die everytime I clean the tank?

Question

I do it textbook: 20% water change, check ph, check temp, add water conditioner/dechlorinator and wait 10 minutes to put it in the tank, vacuum the gravel, add a little diluted aquarium salt to the water before it goes in, I don't mess with the filter, and I slowly drizzle the water into the tank so as not to put the fish into shock. The last time I said I wasn't going to clean it anymore but the water level got low and I gave in. I went 3 weeks before I last cleaned it and no mortalities till yesterday when I cleaned it. I have a dead fish. Just 1. Never 2 or more. It's ALWAYS just 1 fish that dies. Help me! Do I need to just quit cleaning the tank?

I have an Angelfish, rosy barbs, tetras, platys, a snail, and 2 dwarf gouramis. It's a 30 gallon tank. It's 4 months old and I cycled it with media from an established tank. My water numbers are ph 6.4,alkalinity 50, hardness 120, nitrite 0, nitrate 80, amonia 0.

The water temp is always 78 degrees. I make the new water 78 degrees before I put it in.

Answer 1

your low ph and high nitrates would suggest you need to do water changes a lot more frequently.

Answer 2

Salt? These are all freshwater fish. I know some people suggest a little salt though I strongly disagree with this for most fish, especially Angelfish and tetras. Keep your 20% weekly water changes, similar temperature water, water conditioner and vacuum about 1/3 of the gravel deep though just surface clean the rest of the gravel. Do change the filter on a regular basis though don't vacuum the gravel deep when you change the filter to keep as much bacterial colonies going.

What is your ph out of the tap? Is it lowering to 6.4? If so, how is your feeding quantity? What size is your tank? Do you have too many fish? Is ammonia lowering your ph? If the ph is lowered due to ammonia and the water from the tank is significantly different that can shock your fish.

I'm sorry this isn't an exact answer though these are the best quesses I have.

Answer 3

What I'd like to know kitty is when you seeded the aquarium with the gravel, which is a good way to speed it along btw, how fast did you add that population in? See I have a feeling your tank didn't properly cycle out the first time around and your population got exposed to some toxicity in the chemicals. Even though you seeded the tank, if you don't have a population in there to provide a fuel source for that bacteria to grow with, then it's not helping much. So if you put your entire population in, (just wondering how fast you stocked) they would still be exposed to the cycle effects, only it wouldn't be the typical long term 8 week cycle. It should go much faster with the seeding but your fish still would be exposed to some spiked ammonia and nitrite readings. This may have weakend the fish as well as not cleaning for three weeks, continued exposure to nitrate readings of 40 ppm or higher is a reciepe for unhealthy fish. You gave some good input so my guess here is the immune systems of the fish and thier overall health had been depleted. As the other poster before me said, if you perform weekly change outs, vaccum the gravel if you see debris such as waste and uneaten food, add your salt as you have been doing, and condition the water, you're doing everything you should be doing. I think you just have some weak fish from the chemical exposure is all. Hang in there, and mix up thier diet. Give them a feeding of blood worms or brine shrimp every few days and see if that helps. Try to get a balanced flake diet of high protien and some more geared towards vegetables and see if that also helps. I think you're doing pretty good overall just go to a weekly change. Nitrates going over 40 ppm really want to have your attention.

JV

Answer 4

Yes and no, I found that the less I mess with the tank the better off it is. When you water level goes down just add more water, it's not necessary to clean it everytime you add water. I was the same way at first but like I said I finally figured out the less I messed with the chemicals and stuff the better off my tanks are. Usually I clean them around every 3 or so months. Getting a type of bottom feeders and an algae eater are very good for helping keep the tank clean. Hope I helped!

Answer 5

In most places, tap water is buffered at 7.0-7.4 (unless you have well water). If this is in fact your case, your low Ph indicates you have a lot of organic waste in the tank, (since poopie makes the Ph go down).

You probably need to change the water more frequently and more regularly. Additionally, watch how much food you are adding to the tank.

What is happening is when you do you water changes, you are quickly raising the Ph and shocking the fish. Since their is a lot of waste in the tank, the Ph eventually drops back down and you do another change and the whole thing happens all over again. The fish can live in the higher Ph or the lower Ph, but the yo-yo effect is REALLY stressful. If you do more frequent but smaller changes, you will be lessening this effect and you will keep more waste out of the tank.

Also, Nitrate NH3, is completely irrelevant in a freshwater tank. NH3 can be off your test kit chart and it'll never kill a fish. I have a ton of studies to back this up, but it just irks me to no end when people who know very little about fish start yelling that the Nitrate is killing fish.

Answer 6

Hi, I'm sorry of hear of your experience but I think you probably need to do more regular cleaning. You really should be performing regular partial water changes of 30% (or more) every 4 or 5 days. That way you are diluting the Nitrate-the end product of the cycled tank. Although Nitrate is not immediately lethal it is still toxic in concentration & yours is way up there unfortunately! So-when you do a partial water change you also need to gently rinse the filter material in old tank water, that way you will be preserving the beneficial bacterial colony in them while at the same time removing the excess gunk build up which if left can get so thick as to render your filter as ineffective as if it were new & uncycled. The frequency of rinsing the filter material (sponges/ceramic chips etc) depends to some extent on the type of filter you have-an internal will probably need attending to weekly whereas a large canister (external) can run for many weeks between cleaning. Remember 'Dilution is the Solution to Pollution' so get those partial water changes regular & you'll more than halve your nitrates, 25 would be a good target to aim for-good luck!

Answer 7

How often are you "Cleaning" your tank?
If you clean it 2 much, your going to rid it of its natural bactieria...I do a water change about 1x a month.
I clean the filter cartridges at least 2xs a week, and I buy new cartridges every 2 weeks.
I don't think you need to keep adding the salt everytime.
You'd better ck on that.
When I clean my tanks I take out the rocks which makes the water so black you can't see anything,
I wash the rocks real well under warm water, then put them in a Tank Buddies bacteria killer rinse, then rinse them 1 more time with fresh water...
About every 30 mins, I take the filter cartridge and rinse it out, I keep doing this untill the water starts to clear up.
It takes a few hrs to do this.
After the water starts to clear up (Where I can SEE the fish) then I put the rocks back in the tank.
By the next day, the water is 100% clearer, and I put in a NEW filter Cartridge.

Answer 8

It may not be the water itself but what you're choosing to clean it with. My sister used to clean algae off with bleach and wondered why all the fish died (dededee!). When I clean the tank, I change all the water at once, making sure that the temperature matches the dirty water. I wonder how you clean the tank of fecal matter and algae in hard-to-reach places with just a gravel cleaner? Lastly,all fish have their preference of water and tank conditions, and it sounds like you have various fish. Koi, for example, are pretty sturdy fish but like it cool, whereas other goldfish may like it warmer. You may want to seperate the fish (overcrowding may be another reason) according to breed and see how that works.

By the way, gouramis I've had in the past have sneakily wiped out a lot of my fish before I realized what was happening. Keep an eye out.

Answer 9

1st I wanna say this: in no way ever purchase a betta from a petstore! they are stocked in tiny cups, ill, deformed, have a foul character, ... and you help the overbreeding of bettas, we are very worried with regard to the overbreeding, purely some % of each and all of the bettas are properly bred, so in a stable environment, and stuff, this is véry stressful to locate a betta that has no undesirable/deformed dad and mom/grandparents/... greater helpful spent slightly greater advantageous than 2$ on a fish, for 30$ you incredibly have an rather stable tutor betta! And no, a betta desires a minimum of 10G, a slow flowing filter out, a heater and residing plant life to be happy, stuffing a fish in a 1G bowl is almost a human having to stay in a public lavatory his finished existence you apart from might might desire to have cycled you tank for no less than 4 weeks, yet because of the fact you have purely 1G, thats wont have worked... in case you maintain them in there without filter out, you may desire to do a a million/3 water substitute two times an afternoon, to ward off the fish from being burned in its own ammonia So greater helpful pass to the save, purchase 2 10G tanks, 2 filters, 2 warmers, some plant life (10 or so) and positioned your fish in there, you dont might desire to cycle that tank because of the fact by using the time its cycled, your fish would be already dying, in basic terms try the nitrate on a daily basis with a droplet try till 4 weeks have previous

Answer 10

One thing I noticed is that your nitrates are way too high...you should be aiming for 10-20 ppm. You need to do regular water changes more often. A 20% WC shouldn't shock your fish, but it is possible that the change in water quality and/or a temperature change might be having an effect.

The only other thing that pops to mind is pH...does it change drastically before and after?

Answer 11

Try not removing ur fish from the tank when you are cleaning it, And also you should clean ur filter too. Remember when you are cleaning ur tank you are stirring up whatever is in there. Good and bad bacteria. Ur filter is goin to suck all that up. Clean it out good. The good bacteria left in ur tank after the 20% water change should be enough for them to be ok.