This year I had more than 20 fishes dead

[Merlene]

Fish needs enough space for breathing. If it is a 20-gallon tank, you can grow 3 fishes. No more than 3.

 

[DutchMuch]

The above comment was, incorrect.. Highly... but I just wanted to say out of all the comments here the best two where these.

I am going to take a crack at this for you. Just for conversions sake (the metric system is not native here in the us) It sounds like you have a 20 gallon tank that is a tad tall for its length, a more squat tank is always better. Given that, your fish load can be pushed downward because or the amount of surface area per liter of water. That said, it does not sound as if you are overloaded from a fish perspective. You should add fish slowly however, one or 2 at a time weeks apart. It gives your tank a chance to reach an equilibrium between additions. You say you have plants, are they alive or dying? Dead plants will put an oxygen demand on the system that may be harmful to your stock. As stated by Goby, changing too much water at once is not a good idea, 10 to 20% at a time weekly or so should be fine. Too much and you shock the whole system. You should be adding water of essentially the same temp as what is in the tank already and should dechlorinate it BEFORE you add it.

So stop where you are......give things a rest. Keep an eye out for dying things Plants or fish and remove them as fast as possible. Wait until things stabilize and then add a fish or 2 and try to remain at about 8 or so fish of medium size. Make sure you have adequate light for the plants you have. keep your feeding such that you do not have tons of food reaching the bottom, if it does you have fed the tank and not the fish. Feed the fish what they will consume right away without much falling to the bottom. Keep us posted

Dianal, You say "good deal of light" I am not sure what that means. What you are trying to get is photosynthesis and that is dependent on photoperiod (duration of light), light intensity and wavelength of light. A bad light source will not promote growth no matter how long it is on. While I don't agree with the 40% figure Goby put out here or that 20% once every 2 weeks is inadequate, I think we both appreciate the value of water changes.....frequency and amount seem to be different for us. I am a big stability guy. Big changes do not foster stability, but instead wide shifts in chemistry etc. Go easy with the fertilizers and additives. Give your tank a chance to catch up, you are blasting it with change after change and additions, you will never be able to tease out which variable is the target if the palate of variables is ever changing and extreme. If you are getting attached algae, you have too much nutrient in the system but not so bad as if you had suspended algae. Hold on with additives and let the tank rest a bit. If you absolutely MUST add something, do the plant stuff at half dose until things stabilize.

Healthy plants will generally show some budding and new growth as evidenced by lighter colored shoots. If you don't have any of this, your plants are doing just ok, surviving not thriving.

Take this advice while you still can.

 

[diana1]

Hi

CAN someone reply me too my previous question?