Fish keep dying in my tank

[Shivvur]

Hi guys, I’m new to the forum but have been following to help set up tanks I’ve had in the past. I recently bought a house and moved a new 55 gallon tank in there. After setting up the tank with water from the inside, I found some of my fish were dying (about 6 old and new ones and none at the same time) so I cycled out about half of the water in small amounts at a time with the water from the outside spicket because the inside still had chemicals running through the pipes. It’s been a few days and my fish started getting better and schooling like they should, and they got their color back. I didn’t have a lot of fish in there after the others died, so I added some fish. I now have 1 black ruby barb, 1 green barb, 1 clown loach, 5 tiger barbs, and 2 glofish barbs. But I’ve still had two fish die in the past 2 days, one was an albino bristlenose pleco that I’ve had for a few months. But today, some of my tiger barbs and my clown loach are glass pacing, they’re swimming up and down the side of the tank. I’ve had the tank set up for about 3 weeks, the water is still fairly cloudy and I have an bacterial bloom which I think is why the tank is cloudy. I have driftwood, rocks, and plants for the fish to swim around and stuff, but I can’t figure out why my fish are stressed and still dying. My water tests are:
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: .25
Nitrites: .25-.5
Nitrates: 5ppm

 

[Byron]

From the test numbers it would appear that cycling is the issue. Live plants can deal with this if they are numerous and fast growing (floating plants are ideal here) but seeing nitrite especially is not good.

Can you elaborate on the chemicals in the water pipes?

You also have some serious stocking issues that must get resolved, but we can look into that after the present issue is resolved, though these are related.

 

[JxsPxxle]

Hi guys, I’m new to the forum but have been following to help set up tanks I’ve had in the past. I recently bought a house and moved a new 55 gallon tank in there. After setting up the tank with water from the inside, I found some of my fish were dying (about 6 old and new ones and none at the same time) so I cycled out about half of the water in small amounts at a time with the water from the outside spicket because the inside still had chemicals running through the pipes. It’s been a few days and my fish started getting better and schooling like they should, and they got their color back. I didn’t have a lot of fish in there after the others died, so I added some fish. I now have 1 black ruby barb, 1 green barb, 1 clown loach, 5 tiger barbs, and 2 glofish barbs. But I’ve still had two fish die in the past 2 days, one was an albino bristlenose pleco that I’ve had for a few months. But today, some of my tiger barbs and my clown loach are glass pacing, they’re swimming up and down the side of the tank. I’ve had the tank set up for about 3 weeks, the water is still fairly cloudy and I have an bacterial bloom which I think is why the tank is cloudy. I have driftwood, rocks, and plants for the fish to swim around and stuff, but I can’t figure out why my fish are stressed and still dying. My water tests are:
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: .25
Nitrites: .25-.5
Nitrates: 5ppm

As mentioned by @Byron there are also stocking issues. Barbs should be kept in a group of 10-12 at least and clown loaches also need to be in groups of 6 at least.

 

[Retired Viking]

Some good plants to buy are hornwort, water sprite, moneywort, and Anscharis, you can "plant them in your tank or let them float.

 

[Shivvur]

From the test numbers it would appear that cycling is the issue. Live plants can deal with this if they are numerous and fast growing (floating plants are ideal here) but seeing nitrite especially is not good.

Can you elaborate on the chemicals in the water pipes?

You also have some serious stocking issues that must get resolved, but we can look into that after the present issue is resolved, though these are related.

The house is a new construction and the builder said that it would take a little bit of time for the glues and whatever they used to put the pipes in to get cycled through. I have a bit of plants that are in the tank, but they don’t seem to be growing quickly.

 

[Byron]

The house is a new construction and the builder said that it would take a little bit of time for the glues and whatever they used to put the pipes in to get cycled through. I have a bit of plants that are in the tank, but they don’t seem to be growing quickly.

This I cannot advise on, they may be correct.

 

[utahfish]

As others have stated sounds like the biggest issue is your tank isnt cycled yet