Please help save my dying fish!!

[Elisabeth]

Please Help.
I've got a Juwel 55 gallon bow front tank which has been set up for a just over a month but recently the fish have been hanging around the surface of the water and gasping. I did a 30% water change and they seemed ok. Then a few hours later I added some Biostart and within minutes the fish were back at the surface. Could the biostart be absorbing all the oxygen in the water?
Today 3 fish have died, a tetra a female swordtail and a silver hatchet fish. The hatchet fish and the swordtail looked a little blue around the gills. I'm assuming this means they definitely died from lack of oxygen?
I've tested the tank every day since I set up the tank and I've never had any water quality problems. The readings today have been ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 20. Ph is 7.3.
The tank is understocked. I was able to use gravel, water and filters from an established tank so it cycled fairly quicky.
Anyone have any ideas what I can do?

 

[semper fi]

your nitrate is high. are you sure that the tank was properly cycled before adding the fish? you say that the tank has only been set up for a month and the nitrates are 20. sounds like the tank is not through cycling. cycling a tank can take up to 6 weeks. do you have any plants in the tank? could try to add some plants to lower the nitrates. try faster growing plants like swords. they require more nitrates.

how often are you doing water changes? do you have an air stone in the tank?

maggie

 

[Elisabeth]

I used Biostart which is meant to reduce the cycle to roundabout two weeks.
For those two weeks I only had 5 emporer tetras in the tank. Since then I have added a couple of fish every few days. I thought I would be ok as, as I said, I used gravel, filter medium and decor from an established tank.
The fish I added were 2 pearl gouramis, 2 swordtails 2 hatchet fish and an elephant nose.
Sadly the other hatchet fish passed away about half an hour ago.
I have a mixture of planted and fake plants in the tank.I've been doind a 30% water change every three or four days.
I don't have an airstone. The brochure that came with the tank said not to use one with a Juwel aquarium.
The weird thing is, the fish only start hanging out at the surface just after I've added Biostart or just after I've put the light on. The rest of the time they seem perfectly happy. Thats why I thought the Biostart might have something to do with it.

 

[bodyshop20]

Hi There!, Not any authourity but know enough.
Kept fish for 10 years now, and i always start a new tank with hardy fish.
Try not to use to many chemical, because water tests will show ok, but fish live in water not chemicals .
Hope this is of a little help

 

[Angel Lady]

Hi There!, Not any authourity but know enough.
Kept fish for 10 years now, and i always start a new tank with hardy fish.
Try not to use to many chemical, because water tests will show ok, but fish live in water not chemicals .
Hope this is of a little help

I hope this helps you I read some where that if you keep the ph level below 7.0 until the tank cycles thstthe ammonia isnt toxic to your fish while the tank is cycling the web page is General Aquaria Artical and Information try to find this type in aquaria and see if you cant pull it up it has saved my fish while my tank is cycling

 

[sgtbirch]

I'm not sure what a juwel tank is but if your fish are dying from oxegyen deprovation. I dont see any reason why you cant. And you should I onece had a similar problem. I added an air stone and whlah penut butter and jelly sandwich my problem is gone. I've had one ever since. and my fish love to swim through it. I would highly recomend one.

 

[Elisabeth]

Juwel is the make of the the tank. It says not to get one but I don't see a reason why I can't. I guess they mean that I don't need one.
Besides, once my tank is ready to go then it might be a very useful thing to have. Being a bow front tank, its dimensions are odd and I think there's less surface area than there would be on a rectanguar tank of the same volume (55G). Adding a airstone should mean that I can keep a few more fish.
Anyway, things seem to have settled down in the tank. The fish are all happy again and I've had no more casualties. I'm still convinced it was to do with Biostart- it got better immediately i stopped using it.

 

[Jimthefish]

Is bio start a bacterial boost or a cycle booster. If it's bacterial then it will add to the oxygen demands in the tank. If it's a cycle booster then it's basically ammonia for the filter bacteria to feed on. This could poison the fish. Check the info with the product.
You could increase the oxygen using the bends that come with the Juwel to take the filter return right up to the surface.
The reason they don't suggest using airstones is the splashing against the light unit!