Fish Acting Strange! Help!

Ok, stats on water source are as follows
Ph 6.4
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm

I'm using the API liquid test kit, and I have well water, I know the water is soft but idk bc that's what the test strip says(before I switched to liquid)
 
The test strips are horrible. Did you test the water with the liquid test kit?
 
Keep doing 50% water hangs every couple of days until the problem gets better. Also leave the tank lights off. :)
 
Looks like you might have a similar problem I had that killed 90% of all my fish and wiped out three years of fish growing.

Me think’s that you might have some bacteria problems in your tank, or filters that are harming your fish. Looks like you will have to Nuke your whole tank, (But only it all other attempts fail.) and the problem persists.

How to..
First you should fill a clean bowl with fresh treated water and move all your fish to that with a net or something, limit the transfer of water from your tank as this may be contaminated. Clean the heater and place that in the bowl.

Then empty your tank and throw the plants away. They probably soak up the bacteria and hard as hell to get out.

Now throw away the gravel at the bottom of your tank and get new pack. Gravel is extremely hard to clean properly and its much more safe to get new bag. Objects like logs stones need to be scrubbed boiled in hot water and microwaved for five minutes.

Your filter is the next that needs to be Nuked and Nuked HARD.

Dismantle the pump and remove everything inside, Scrub and place filter sponges in the microwave for a ten or fifteen seconds until it steams. Be careful not to melt the sponges. Anything plastic will also need to be microwaved, but not the metal components or the pump unit itself.

If you have an external pump, microwave the trays and sponges, assemble and then run boiling water through it for half an hour. Basically everything needs to be killed inside the pump.

Once done, rinse everything and make sure the tank is scrubbed to the bone, don't use soap.

Then fill the tank with treated water, preferably to normal temperature and make sure the pump is working normally.

Now restore the heater and objects back into the tank and make sure everything had been in the microwave beforehand. Once done, move the fish back in, but transfer them with the net again, not pour the fish and water into your clean tank.

Normally this would reset everything back to normal, your fish might be okay after this, some might die, but the next step will need you to keep an eye on everything as your filter is not set-up with bacteria and there is nothing to control the toxins in the water the fish make:

Keep an eye on the water toxicity and if levels rise too much, add a treatment called Prime. It should detoxifies everything. Also there’s an additive that instantly establishes a bio- filter, but I forgot what It’s called.

With my tank, I left everything to stabilise on its own and the only fish I lost was the large Clown Loach. I think that died when I treated my angelfish for white spot, they don’t like medication.
 
Actually I did exactly what you said but I used bleach and hot water, totally changed my filters and scrubbed everything, I treated my tank and removed any dying plants. The only fish that were really dying were the mollies, I have 2/10 left now, I bought brand new plants and also changed my lighting to UV plant lights, that seems to have stabilized it a little bit. I believe that my water was too soft for the mollies and i also believe there is copper or too much of something in my water as I do have well water. The fish seem a LOT happier now, I found a water conditioner that takes heavy metals out and also added some stress coat and stress zyme. If this fails then I know it is my water and will have to spend $60+ on bottled water for the tank...hoping it doesn't come to that as it is a 60 gallon and it's about $1 a gallon...
 
Thats good that the problem has been fixed. Have you ever used Prime before? It is manufactured by Seachem.
 
haven't used that, I added some stress coat+ and some stress zyme and now my tank is FINALLY crystal clear!!!
 
Thats great to hear! I used to use those products until I switched to Prime. I have nothing bad to say about them though. :)
 
I'm SOOOOO happy that my tank is finally clear, haven't lost any more fish yet! Fingers crossed, I think everything is finally ok...for the moment, I was going to switch from gravel to sand but now that my tank is doing good I don't want to mess anything up.... :hyper:
 
Yeah thats a good idea. Some of the good bacteria live in the gravel so if you switch it right now then you risk an ammonia spike. I would wait until your filter gets established ( 1 month or so ). :)
 
yea, I had to change my filter to a brand new one, it seems to have solved the problem along with the stress coat+ and the stress zyme, so I'm not going to touch it for a while except for water changes...
 
Thats good. Since you changed the filter you should be regally testing the water for any signs of ammonia or nitrite. if there is do a 50% water change everyday until the problem is resolved or until the tank re-cycles itself.
 
Question: Will Co2 lower my ph? I've read that since I have well water it has a lot of Co2 in it but when the water gets aerated it releases the Co2 and that is why my Ph is so high, which in turn makes any ammonia in my tank more toxic. So since I have plants anyway I think it would be a good idea to get a Co2 system and hope it will lower my Ph so that the ammonia won't be so toxic. It all kind of makes sense on why my fish are dying from small amounts of ammonia. Usually the ammonia never gets over .25ppm and they were dropping like flies, so this is why it makes sense and why I never caught on to what was going on.
 
It depends on what type of Co2 you use. Liquid Co2 like the API Co2 booster won't drop the pH. Im not sure about others though.
 

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