michelle

My tank as now been up for 4 weeks.
I did my water test yesterday and today and stats are fine
Nitrie 0
nitrate 10
ammonia 0
ph 8.0 (is this still to high)
These only settled down from yesterday until then they where quite high!
Anyway the problem is I had 2 guppies die yesterday and a couple of others are not looking so good today! I have 1 sat on the bottom looking rather sad she seems to be breathing a little faster but not as she is gasping for breath. Oh and I am not sure on this on but this guppy (female) her eyes look slighty bigger I think!
another guppy (male) seems to be looking like he's losing his colour he also seems like he can't be bothered.
I haven't added any new fish! I do water changes every 2 days. I had water treatment after doing my changes.
I have a 54L tank and 25 fish, mollys, guppys, swordtails, cat, platys and sharks.
Does anyone have any ideas whats happening to my poor guppies?
Thanks
Michelle

ahill3780

54L, thats like 15 gallons US. A 15 gallon tank with 25 fish is considered a heavily stocked tank. Is your filtration sufficient for this load? I assume it is since you only have a nitrate load of 10 ppm.

Your pH is too high at 8.0 (this is an acceptable range for SW fish, but FW needs to be closer to 7.0). I am working on expanding my FW knowledge and at the moment I can't offer any suggestions of how best to get it down, but there are others here that should be able to point you to a good solution. My only thought would be to ask what type of rocks or gravel you have in the tank?

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Jay

Whoa!!!

That's less than 15 gallons.

That's like packing 25 people in a building elevator with their only relief being the door opens every two days. Not really quite enough for them to be comfortable, sanitary and free of stress.

IMHO you need to rethink the number of fish in the tank. That is your killer.

And....

FYI,

That FW tropical fish need to have a pH of 7 is a MYTH. One of the top 10!!
Distilled water has a pH of 7, and distilled water WILL NOT SUPPORT LIFE !!!

IS EVERYONE COOL WITH THAT???

Regards,
Jay

ahill3780

What would it come out to Jay? 10-11 gallons?

Yes distilled water lacks the essential nutrients to sustain aquatic life, true, but the pH range is sufficient. Actually as I have been researching this it seems that FW fish have a much broader range of pH acceptabilities than SW.

Here are the pH ranges that I have obtained for each of Michelle's fish from Drs. Foster and Smith:

Guppies = pH range of 5.5 - 8.0 is accepted for almost any guppy.
Mollies = pH ranges from 7.0 - 8.5 depending on the species.
Swordtails = 7.0 - 8.3
Catfish = 5.8 - 7.8 depending
Platies = 7.0 - 8.2
Sharks = 6.5 - 7.5 depending

Looking at this data I would suggest her safe range for pH as between 7.0 - 7.5 depending on what exact species she has stocked, correct? And I would suggest that she try to lower it down to that range.

Now Michelle,

Jay is absolutely right when it comes to your overstocked tank being your most suspect killer. Although a tank with this many fish can successfully be kept with a sufficient filtration system, I would assume that yours is not up to par. In a tank that small you would have to change 50% of the water each day just to keep up with waste production and uneaten food.

Definately get a bigger tank, or get another tank and split them up. Overcrowding them all into one tank just adds to the stress and also plays its part.

HTH,
Aaron

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Striped Bass

Its something that happens to A LOT of beginers. All you can do for now is do a water change of 15 to 20% for the next few weeks. Im sorry to say your probally going to lose those fish. If you lose all of them or you only end up with only 1 or 2 fish in the tank after a month. Then you Have learned a big lesson. DONT ADD TO MANY FISH TO FAST. those first few months are a slow few months. If ALL YOUR FISH DIE. LEAVE THE TANK ALONE FOR A WEEK AND CHECK ALL THE LEVELS. If there all 0. Then start adding 1 or 2 fish every one or two weeks. Theres a easy way to figgure out how many fish yo can have in that tank. ONE, 1 inch fish or less per gallon. On in your case, 7 or 8 fish added VERY SLOWLY over a few months. This is of course just IMO. ALSO JAY AND AHILL will not head you in the wrong direction. They are both very knowledgable people for this stuff. LISTEN TO THEM and you'll be fine. Good luck and Welcome. I wish you the best of luck with you new aquarium.


Striped Bass

RDTigger

Do any of you use Purigen? Iknow it's a chemical filtration, but it has the makeup to help quickly and safely filter out some bad toxins?

But yes, 25 fish is still 25 fish. Way to much pollution and no swom space...leads to stressed and sickly fish. Are their colors deep and true or are they washed out and faded?

Jay

Purigen is a great product.

Not in this situation

Jay