HELP...Yellow cherry females dying

[zacsbee89]

So woke up thismorning and my fav female striped yellow is swimming in circles and walking around like she's drunk! tested water. ph: 7.0, amm: 0, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 0, temp: 27 (this is cool compared to last few months)

I don't have gh or kh test kit or a TDS/EC pen which is where i think my problem lies. My red cherry females were doing the same thing. They stopped dying once I added crushed coral and more aeration. The Yellow tank has adequate aeration but i took the coral out a few weeks ago due to ph going over 8.0

I have some pics and a vid uploading to Photobucket as i write so ill post them shortly!

[BlueBolts]

1st thing you do is WC, and increase aeration to the tank.....then test WP, the. post results/pics.....if you can add some activated charcoal to your sump/filter...that may assist......

[zacsbee89]

Thanks BB,

20% wc done, fresh carbon added to HOB, Aeration turned up. ill wait for the fresh water to cycle before testing. I've moved her to a breeder box in the red cherry tank. She's stopped swimming in circles and seems more calm.

Ive been carrying out 3L WC every 2nd day. However with all this rain i thought it'd be a good idea to top up with rain water as all the tap water has had extra chlorine pumped through it. Maybe its made the water to soft? Making moulting difficult?

[zacsbee89]

After WC:

PH: 7.2-7.4

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0

Ammonia: 0

[jacet]

I feel your pain zacsbee89 I did that a couple of months ago we had a fair bit of rain and caught heaps of it and use it in a wc... next thing had shrimp dead everywhere... Last time i try to do the right thing....lol... I caught the water in bucket that i use for fish tanks only sitting in the back yard i did not catch anything of the roof it fell from the sky in to the bucket...

[rosiedosie]

Depending on where you live, there could be a fair bit of polution and the rain could be getting contaminated on the way down? Im not sure how likely this is, but its a possibility?

[zacsbee89]

@jacet : yeah my buckets were catching rain only! You can literally taste the chlorine atm in the tap water. I doubled my prime dosage just to make sure.

@rosie : you know I never even considered pollution from rain. I thought that it would be pure! didnt even think about the pollution that could make its way into the water on the way down. certainly possible although I think its due to a lack of minerals/hardness.

[smicko]

Hi zacsbee, did you test the water before you added it? it may have been really low ph in the water depending on how long the water was in the buckets for.some Plastic can cause ph to drop rapidly plus the rain may have been low in ph. My uncle collected some rain water for his Mexican walking fish tank and the ph was so low it started to skin them. I use tap water and always at least double dose with prime and age it at least overnight with an airstone and test before use. One day I might get ro unit but this seems to work for fish and shrimp so far.

Cheers Mick

[zacsbee89]

no I didnt test the water before putting it in. I've still got it buckets, ill go test it now.

[Triggs]

Could any contaminants have gotten into the tank? Bug sprays or cleaning chemicals, disinfectants or anything along those lines?

How long has your tank been running?

[zacsbee89]

Triggs, tank has been up and running for 2 months. its in the spare room so no where near any sprays etc.

smicko may be on to something. PH was 6.0 in the rain water buckets and the test kit only goes to 6.0 so could be lower :/ can't imagine gong from a stable 7.4 and dropping in 6.0 water could be to healthy!

[zacsbee89]

hope this vid works its quite distressing watching her almost dead :( shes still alive and looking like she's improving in the red cherry tank!

[zacsbee89]

unfortunately she died :(

[smicko]

Sad to hear about the loss. Try and get some foodsafe buckets as they don't alter ph.try some of the local take away or fast food places they usually get salads in 20 litre buckets.

Cheers Mick