Cookieskennels Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 i have 2 tropical tanks and they have been up and running since beginning of the year, now i have recently changed to tank water from bore water and i have noticed fish going red in the gills (mainly guppys but they are new) and also last night i lost about 13fish (guppys). all other established fish are fine but im concerend about the new fish that are still alive. help.. p.s all ph levels etc etc are fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Tested the PH and hardness of your rainwater tank compared to your bore water? Big change could be the cause. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 p.s all ph levels etc etc are fine Clearly they are not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookieskennels Posted July 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hi again, sorry I really should have posted a bit more information from the water testing I did. I set both tanks up at the beginning of this year and at that stage we were using water from our bore. We changed over to the rainwater tank approx 6 weeks ago. I do 20% water changes every week and I test the water approx 2 - 3 weekly. My PH is 7.0 in both tanks and I have 0 ammonia and o nitrites. These readings are the same since changing from the bore to the tank. I wouldnt have thought changing would cause us any trouble, but since the change, any new fish that we add which happen to have been guppies seem very stressed, red in the gills and sit bouncing on the surface of the water. Last night I lost guppies from each tank, whereas all my established fish from both tanks remain healthy and happy. I am at a loss and just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on whether or not the change of water supply could have an effect, even though I would not have thought it would. They are both community tanks with a pleco and bristlenose each, neons, glowlights, black phantom tetras and a dwarf gourami. One is 180 litres and the other is 125 litre. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hmmm...when you said red gills I thought possibly an ammonia problem but then you said 0 ammonia. If it's only affecting the guppies and they are new, is it possible they may have been ill when purchased but nothing that you noticed???? Caper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 there are more things in the water than pH, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate that can affect the fish. What is the new water picking up on its way to the tap? What is it stored in? What is it collected on? You tested the pH but not the hardness. Rainwater would typically be very soft, bore water would be anything depending on where it came through. Are you not able to continue to use bore water for the tanks? Did you add any fish AFTER the tank was well established but BEFORE the change to rainwater was made? How did they go? What water things do guppies particularly not like but the other fish are fine with? I don't mean for you to answer all these, just different ways of thinking might help you figure it out. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 I wondered if there is something in the water the old fish have got used to (assuming the water swap was done slowly) but new fish can't handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bedazzled Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Would a new concrete water tank leech (sp) something in to the water? Or I guess even those plastic ones they use now could be putting off something as well, you know how terrible new plastic containers smell until they have been washed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted July 17, 2008 Report Share Posted July 17, 2008 Possibly chlorine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 What is the Nitrate reading? If over 40 ppm this may be contributing to fish death. If you are only changing 20% a week then the TDS are probably up there too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Anything being added to the tank water? I know some people add chlorine bleach to the thanks to keep their water fresh. Also was the bore water running through a filtration system before it got to the tank? I'm leaning towards a hardness issue, with no evidence whatsoever! Can you take a water sample from each source to a fish shop (or a pool shop, or a specialist water tester) and compare the two? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookieskennels Posted July 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Hi guys, Thanks for all the ideas - I went out yesterday and got a uv sterilizer for each tank - thought it may be a good thing to try and from what I understand is not a bad thing to have regardless. All guppies seem to have improved overnight, the redness is less than yesterday and they seem to be swimming around a little happier. I also got a GH & KH test kit too. Results of those are identical for both tanks - GH is 60mg/l and KH is 40mg/l. From what I can make out, that means that the GH is at the top end of "soft water" and the KH falls within a range that is normally associated with a low PH - good for fish that prefer acidic conditions. Have retested PH today and both tanks are 7.0 We are rural and our main water supply is a bore but last year (in the middle of winter!) our bore ran dry and we bought a plastic storage tank and hooked it up to collect the rainwater off the big implement shed. The tank was full about 6 weeks ago, so we switched from the bore to using the tank. I have to admit I didnt think too much about changing the supply - I thought with it being rainwater it would be ok. Both water supplies go through a filter that we have added. Today we are going to switch back to the bore but I will maybe test the bore water before adding it to the tank as well. I guess I dont understand enough yet about the GH/KH and PH levels - I'm learning as much as possible as quickly as possible I promise! :-)!! This will no doubt be invaluable information for me for the future. Also, I thought I read somewhere in one of the replys someone mentioned that I was only changing 20% of the water weekly - does that mean I am changing too little? Cheers for all the answers, I really appreciate it. At least we have had no deaths overnight and the fish seem happier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinsonMassif Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Fresh fish love fresh water. The idea of changing water is to get rid of waste and lower the TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water. If your water parameters are steady and not yo-yoing then change more water. 50% changes per week is a good number. This reduces the chance of your tanks getting old tank syndrome when they have only been set up for 6 months. Also you never posted what your nitrate readings are. Nitrate is the end biproduct of the bacteria converting the fish waste in the nitrogen cycle. At low levels it is not harmful. At high levels it will most likely affect your new fish as lethally as raised ammonia or nitrite would. So you should measure it imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 19, 2008 Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 I was at a club meeting last night talking to a couple who have been having trouble with their bore water as the drought meant a higher concentration of minerals and stuff were in the water and it killed their neons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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