New Tank - Fish Do Not Survive

[Kelee999]

Hi Guys,
My name is Lee, i am am 20-25 veteran of tropical fish keeping.
I have recently moved to Canada from the UK, and have encountered conditions where so far i have been unable to keep fish alive, let me explain.
I bought a 29 Gallon fish tank (all inclusive of equipment), on the 29th June. After setting up tank and letting water settle for 2 weeks, i went back to the same store (July 13th) and bought approx 16 fish of various breeds. Within 7-10 days i lost most of the fish, and lost the remainder within 14 days (28th July). After the first week, i bought some water testing strips, these tested Nitrate, Nitrite, pH, Carbonate Hardness, and General Hardness. The only concern was GH, this was a little high, but according to the test strip info, was not outside of normal parameters.
I contacted the store, who basically spoke to me like a newbie (even though i have never had any problem with starting with this amount of fish before), they stated that i stocked the tank too full too quick.
Approx 2 weeks later (weekend of the 18th Aug) , i did a 1/4 water change and ensured that the tank was stable, i re-tested the water and the results were identical. i then went back to the same store and bought 6 fish, unfortunately these lasted less than an hour, i put this down to my personal error as i must have caught the thermometer by mistake as the water temp was 86-88 degrees.
As you can imagine i was frustrated, at such a silly mistake to make.
Today (25th Aug) we decided to try a different store (to eliminate poor fish stock), we bought 4 Zebra Danios and 4 gold Twin-barred Platys. I placed them in the tank (after 15 minutes acclimatisation), at approx 4:30pm, and i went out at about 5pm.
When i returned home at 8:15 pm, i had already lost 5 fish, with one struggling. I re-tested the water, and all limits were within normal parameters, and once again the GH was a little high.
It is now 9:40pm and i can see 1 fish left out of the 8.
I am not an idiot, and always treat my fish with respect, but i am at a total loss about what is happening. Every item in the tank (ornament wise) is bought from a fish store so is fish safe, plus i have an extra Air pump going into the tank, so the tank is well oxygenated. i just dont understand why the fish are dying, i can only think of 2 things that is doing that.
1 - i have been given the wrong chemicals to treat the water (not being familar with the local brands, i listened to what the shop assistant advised me)
      - Multi-purpose bio-support (shop brand)
                 - used to set up a fresh water aquarium
                 - Helps eliminate toxic ammonia and nitrate
                 - helps clean a dirty aquarium 
      - Multi-purpose aquarium Water conditioner (shop brand)
                 - Replaces natural slime coating
                 - removes chlorine from tape water
                 - contains Aloe vera to promote healing
2 - The hardness in the water is an issue
I seriously have no idea, why my fish are dying !!!!!!
Can somebody HELP !!!!
Thanks
Lee
 
 

 

[Ninjouzata]

I'm sorry you're having a hard time with getting everything started. If you havn't already, have a read of the fishless cycling article at the top of the page 'Cycling a Tank'.
If you can, buy a liquid test kit, the test strips are very inaccurate.
The hardness should not be a big issue, I believe most of your problems are probably coming from not cycling the tank and stocking too much too quickly. It could also be bad stock from where you're getting them.
Even so..I wouldn't think they'd die so quickly Hopefully someone with more experience comes along soon to help you!

 

[Nordk]

DId you cycle the tank? What are the exact water parameters and stocking?
Firstly, your test kit doesn't measure ammonia, which is definately something you need to measure as it is very toxic. Paper dipstrips are notoriously inaccurate, you need a liquid test. API makes a good masterkit that you should be able to find pretty easily in Canada.
A 1/4 waterchange won't do a whole lot of help in getting rid of whatever killed your fish, as you'll only have removed 1/4 of it.
The first chemical sounds like it's got ammonia remover and other stuff in there which may throw off your water chemistry, and does more harm than good.
The second one sounds like a tap conditioner with some "magic everything" thrown in there, so I'm not sure either way on it's merit.
I don't mean to state the obvious, but son't put anything in the tank until we can figure out what's going on.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

to the forum
 
It sounds like ammonia poisoning, either that or you haven't acclimated your fish properly.
 
Read the cycling link in my signature, it will explain to you about cycling. 
First, you need to do a 90% water change AT LEAST (95% would be better). 
Second, you need to buy a liquid test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and pH. You then need to report back here with your readings, we can then go from there.
 
What signs are the fish showing? Is it rapid gill movement? Or something else?
 
The only other thing I can think of is that you haven't acclimated the fish properly, I assume you floated the bag in the tank for awhile then added the fish to the tank? 
This method doesn't do much except ensure the temperatures are the same
Have a read of THIS, its better IMO to do the drip acclimation

 

[snazy]

Yes, unfortunately the tank isn't cycled. Running a tank for 2 weeks does little in order to cycle a tank. 16 fish at once is extreme.
As already suggested, read about nitrigen cycle in aquariums and also how to fishlessly cycle a tank with pure household ammonia.  Be prepared for a 4-8 weeks cycling period before introducing anymore fish.
Sorry about your loss. It's always very frustrating seeing fish die like that.

 

[becketlady]

Buy a liquid test kit. I never use test strip. go from there and see if this helps alot. 
Also leave the fish in the bag to get use to the temp in the water by letting the bag float in the tank and wait about 20 mins. Or you can add the tank water into the bag to sit and let the fish get use to it for a few mins. This is how i do it. either way is fine. 

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Your tank sounds full of ammonia (did you also use dechlorinator?)... if you added so many fish after only 2 weeks (what does letting the water settle mean?) and then after only changed 1/4 of the water... that would leave a lot of ammonia in the tank when you added more fish.

 

[becketlady]

mmmmmhuh, how often did you do a water change? is it once a week or two weeks? the ammonia will add quickly with lots of fish. 

to the forum

 
It sounds like ammonia poisoning, either that or you haven't acclimated your fish properly.
 
Read the cycling link in my signature, it will explain to you about cycling. 
First, you need to do a 90% water change AT LEAST (95% would be better). 
Second, you need to buy a liquid test kit that measures ammonia, nitrite and pH. You then need to report back here with your readings, we can then go from there.
 
What signs are the fish showing? Is it rapid gill movement? Or something else?
 
The only other thing I can think of is that you haven't acclimated the fish properly, I assume you floated the bag in the tank for awhile then added the fish to the tank? 
This method doesn't do much except ensure the temperatures are the same

Have a read of THIS, its better IMO to do the drip acclimation 

 
 
Thank you for the information on "cycling". I am going to print this and handed this to my mother to read through carefully. Hopefully, this will help her. Perfect education

 

[Meeresstille]

Do you still have fish in your tank? If so ,then you are doing a fish-in-cycling of your tank. During a fish-in-cycling you will need to check for Ammonia in your tank every day, sometimes even twice. Anytime you see Ammonia you need to do a water change. You need to aim to keep the ammonia as close to 0 as you can, and do the amount of water changes needed to achieve this. The same goes for Nitrite during the second stage of cycling a tank.
 
To acclimate my fish I use a bucket in which I empty the bag with the fish when I get home. I run an airline tube from the tank to the bucket and let the water drip into the bucket, I control the speed of drips with a knot in the tubing. I let the fish be for 30 to 45 minutes and gently net them out to put them in the tank.
I do this, because our water differs greatly from where I get the fish. The two cities use a different filtering system where we have a pH of 6.4 and over there it is 7.4 (somewhere there abouts)! We have very little dissolved minerals there it is better!
I believe during acclimatization, the temperature unless VERY different is not as important as getting them acclimated to the rest of the parameters of your water. This way you prevent some kind of osmotic shock that can kill them quickly or even still the day after! 
Another benefit is that no water from the bag ends up in my tank!
 
Invest in a liquid test kit, you will need it a lot during the cycling process, and after that to do spot checks to learn about your tank, or anytime when you find your fish behaving weird or have any problems with them. 

 

[becketlady]

Very good and well input. I do not add bag of water into my fish tank that may not be clean and/or have diseases. Drip water is new to me. Thanks