Over the last 10 days my fish have been dying ( a couple each day ), my tank is now almost empty apart from fry. 2 weeks ago I added some more sand to my tank so I could plant some plants, I added 4 plants from my local aquatic shop and 2 moss balls bought from ebay. My water has been testing fine other than my nitrite being 0 ( think that's the right one ) ammonia is 0 and my ph is a bit high ( but that's always been the case ), fish have showed little sign of illness and go down hill very fast, I have lost my rainbow shark, 2 panda Corrys , 3 swordtails, 3 mollies, 3 guppies and 2 neons, my plecs are all ok but looking stressed. I have been doing lots of water changes, have been moving the sand around ( in case there's any gas build up ), have air pumps running but fish are still dying.
I'm now thinking I'm just going to have to sit back and see what happens, if all the fish die then I can scrub the tank, clean everything and start again 
, totally gutted.
If you have a fish pond, fish tank or are seeking advice about keeping tropical fish, you can find advice on our Fish forum.
Fishnet
Have lost almost all my fish over 10 days, gutted :(
Marne · 11/02/2014 10:00
Ph is around 8 but the lowest it has ever been is 7.5 ( so no huge change ), couldn't smell anything when I moved the sand around ( I don't think it's been in there long enough to develop any gas pockets and my bottom feeders are quite good at turning it over), just found another tetra dead , all I have left is 5 tetras, 1 lonely Molly, my bandit Corrys, a couple guppies and my plecs ( and a load of guppy fry but I may have lost some of these as I'm not sure how many I had ). The swordtails were poorly anyway after they went skinny a few weeks ago but I only lost these yesterday after doing a water change which seemed to finish them off, everything that's left seems healthy other than my plecs who look stressed ( colour shave faded on them ). I'm going to try and find a small tank and start cycling it, then I can move anything that survives into there when I clean down and cycle my big tank. I'm collecting rain water in hope I can use it to lower my ph, I have tried buffers in the past but they don't work , I'm gutted, have probably lost around £30's worth of fish, doesn't sound loads but it's quite a lot for livebearers and Corys.
I have treated the tank for disease ( can't remember what treatment I used now ), was told rain water would be ok as I live in the middle of the countryside ( no pollution)? I have been testing it first. I have a RO unit but not enough room to set it up, the nearest place I can buy it from is 30 miles away ( a bit of a pain )
I will just have to let whatever it is run its course, I just hope I don't loose my plecs ( they have survived many things), once things have settled down I can start again, maybe with something that is happier in hard water?
Lost my last mollie today , she was perfectly fine last night and dead when I got up.
Nothing Eau, that's the annoying thing, the swordtails I lost were already poorly so I think what ever this is finished them off, this mollie was very healthy, happily swimming around and fed well last night so was shocked to find her dead, other than the skinny swordtails one of the others have really shown any signs of illness .
Lost more fish , have taken all my bog wood out and the fake plants ( so I can see any fish that die nod get them out as fast as I can ), have also set up a 2nd filter to circulate the water a bit more and incase the other one is not working properly. I'm down to guppy fry, swordtail fry, 3 adult guppies, 3 bandit Corrine's and my plecs, have no adult mollies or swordtails left .
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.