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Fish dying and tank cycling


Neil
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Ok, I posted about this before and got some great first step help.   Set up a planted tank and waited for 2 months before adding 5 guppies which died one by one over the course of maybe a week.   Got three more from a different pet store and the same thing happened. Found out I was using the API test kit wrong from a member of this group. Thank you!  Now I tested correctly and ammonia, nitrites and nitrates all at zero levels. GH and Kh are at very low levels.  Ph is around 7.   I never did a water change in the 3 months since i set the tank up until today, I did a 30 percent water change.  Should I have done a water change since I had zero ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?  Last guppies died about 2 weeks ago maybe tank wasn't cycled then but is now?   I got all those zero readings before I did the water change I just figured I should do it anyway even though readings were good.

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Zero ammonia and zero nitrites is normally a good thing. Zero nitrates however is telling me you have low, if any beneficial bacteria started. Did you add any fish food in the beginning to get your nitrogen cycle started? How heavily planted is your tank? Im somehow doubting your plants could have absorbed all of your nitrate, unless maybe you have a super heavily planted tank. If your nitrogen cycle hasnt started you could artificially seed your tank with Fritz zyme 7. Again i would add a bit of fish food to create ammonia so your bacteria have food to eat. As for your ph, gh, and kh you could use a wondershell, or seachem equilibrium. All 3 of those products are sold at aquarium co-op. Low kh may be your main culprit in causing ph swings. 

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16 minutes ago, Neil said:

No I did not add fish food but I will.  The tank is not heavily planted. Thats a very good point that  zero nitrates indicates low or no beneficial bacteria.  Thank you!

Only if you dont have plants or you just recently added the plants. And technically you can have a tank that isnt cycled but still handles waste, bc if you have plants that are taking up the ammonia before the bacteria has the chance to grab it then the bacteria will take longer to grow, but your tank can still process waste of fish

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12 minutes ago, Neil said:

No I did not add fish food but I will.  The tank is not heavily planted. Thats a very good point that  zero nitrates indicates low or no beneficial bacteria.  Thank you!

You probably do have beneficial bacteria, and I'm sure your tank is perfectly fine and cycled with being set up with plants for 2 months, altho I would raise nitrates to at least 5 pom if not 20 for the plants well being. 

Now onto the guppies, they are notorious for being very fragile nowadays, and I had the same problem as you. Had a tank that was set up and cycled good water parameters and got guppies a few times from different spots and they kept dying, finally accidentally got a pregnant one and it gave birth before it died and now I've got a small guppy colony going. I think especially with guppies you're just gonna have to play the lotto or try and find a store that quarantines their fish and monitors them like aquarium coop does. Also your ph seems good but I'd probably get som crushed coral or wonder shells to add some minerals to the water as guppies like hard water, you can even use cuttle bone altho I'm not sure how much it would help but I do use that for my snails and crayfish.

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Livebearers generally like harder water. If you tested the GH and it was low, that could certainly have been a contributing factor for their fate, unfortunately. Also, like WIll Billy mentioned, low KH can result in PH swings, which could also be a contributing factor.

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