I'm so peeved right now. We have fish that keep dying. We've kept tropicals for the past 14 years - so we don't consider ourselves beginners. Since we moved almost a year ago now to a different town - one that has a seriously alarming chlorine level, we have trouble keeping fish.
Our really expensive fish kept dying one by one so now we've come down in price to basic fish.

Tank: 4 foot, holds around 210 litres
Temp: 26 degrees Celcius
Ph: is right
Water: has the right amount of dechlorinator in it (checked with petshop owner)
Food: tropical food - we don't over feed them

At the moment I have got left: 2 bala sharks, 1 tiger barb (1 died) , moonlight guarmi (1 died), orange algae eater, red nose tetras (1 died) , blue neon (5 died) and a group of 6 guppies. They didn't died over night. This has gone on over several weeks. One fish at a time. Or even two fish over night. I can't work it out. Can anyone suggest anything??

You said the chlorine is high if so try using a dechlorinator after water changes. this would bring the chlorine and chloramine levels down.

There must be something else going on with the water that you just haven't seen yet. One thing is, make sure it's chlorine and not chloramine. For now, I'll assume you already know for sure. If not and you are not sure how to find out, we can go into that later. Meanwhile, there are the other usual tests you could try one by one... ph yeah, but how about GH and KH? Not to mention the old Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. Changing something always brings about a change elsewhere and it might not be where you expect it. It might not even make sense till you hit on the right thing. Do you have a planted tank? Use CO2? That's enough for a start. Looking forward to seeing your readings. Compare those against what your fish would be accustomed to.

[Edit:] I was just thinking... I take it there was no warning before the fish died that something was wrong with them or that there was nothing outwardly wrong with the fish that you could see afteward. I wonder if you could describe their behavior and the amount of time that passed before they actually died. That might provide a clue as to the cause.

I think its chloramine because if there is water in the tank and you are doing a water change there isn't enough chlorine going in to make it a problem. Remember chlorine in a 25% to 35% water change evaporates too fast to be significant specially if you are are using dechlorinator.

If it is as CC's suspects, it may only be a matter of changing the water conditioner.

You could try using RO water and adding trace back in...

There are some diseases that show little to no symptoms prior to death... but I think you probably run a clean tank, so I'm going to assume that's probably not what's going on... but that might be one thing to check out if using RO water doesn't work.

If they die regularly every week to two weeks, then you could try buying some distilled water to do a couple of water changes with (make sure you add trace elements), and see if they continue to die. If not, then invest in an RO filter... or if you wanted to get an RO filter anyway, then this would be a waste.

This problem has been going on ever since we moved here. All of our original fish died shortly after we moved, we came from an area in the outback where chlorine wasn't an issue.

The petshop owner has tested our water from our tank via samples on many occasions for us. Mainly just to re assure us. He tests the ph levels with a digital tester. He said there wasn't a test that would show up chlorine. The chlorine neutrilizer we use is called "chlorine neutral" by aristopet - QLD. Dosage is 1 drop per litre but we double that - as per instructed by petshop owner.

Water changes are every 2 to 3 weeks and we remove a 1/4 of the tank water.
We syphon out the water into 10 litre buckets so we know exactly how much water comes out. Then we fill 10 litre buckets with water and add 20 drops of chlorine neutrilizer (equals 2.5ml medicine measure cup). We add a thermometer to make sure tank water is the same temp as buckets - 26 DC. Add water back to tank slowly so not to disturb fish. Fish are fine for days after the water changes. After all water is added we wait maybe 20 mins and then test the Ph of the whole tank, using Wardley's Junior PH water test kit. We've been told to keep the Ph around 6.6 - 7, mildly acidic is fine or neutral (so I've been told?).
If the Ph is too high or too low then we add small doses of either " Aquarium Science pH DOWN" or "Aquarium Science pH UP" depending on the pH test result - add 1/2 teaspoon to a cup of water, dissolve it then blend it through the tank. Leave it for an hour and then re test.

I went to the petshop today and I was talking to the owner's son. He keeps salt water and fresh water fish at home. I told him that we were still having probs and he said that "maybe we were babying the tank too much and that we should test the pH every 5 weeks or so rather then everyweek or two weeks. And that as far as he could tell we were doing everything right. He said if we do find the tank is too acidicy then we should take out one bucket of water and then add a treated fresh bucket of water. And more or less ignore the tank". So I don't know.
Where we previously lived we barely ever tested the pH - when we did it was always perfect.
I hope you can help...We are starting to feel really disheartened by all of this. Maybe it's too hard to keep fish here. It would be a shame if we stopped keeping fish because we find them really enjoyable!

Thanks for your help everyone!!

How quickly does your pH change, either up or down, and by how much (when it does)? Perhaps your water there is too soft, thus allowing the pH to shift much more readily.

pH doesn't change very quickly and the fish show no signs of distress. When you add the pH UP or pH Down the water changes accordingly very quickly.
When the fish die sometimes it happens at night when we are asleep or it's during the day and even then they don't look sick.

My 2 bala sharks and a guarmi have outlived probably a dozen fish over the past few months.

I bought a RO/DI system soley for my tank(s) and It's made all the diff in the world, I would get one IMHO

So you use the chemical pH up and pH down to change your pH levels? Why are you adjusting the waters pH? It is better to just leave the pH alone as a constant pH level is better than adjusting it up and down.

What is the pH of water straight out of the tap? Does it fluctuate? By how much?

I only adjust pH if it needs it. If the water is too high or too low. I don't check it everyday.

Hi leema,

I live 3 hrs away from you. Maybe our water is the same. I just tested our tap water and the pH level on the chart was 7.4 (that's as high as it goes on the chart) the petshop guy has said that the pH reading he gets from the taps at his shop (on his digital machine) are 9.1 and up. :(

Have you had your water tested? Do you have test results on your tap water as well as your aquarium water? Like the exact pH, gh, kh, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.. if you haven't checked those, you may have excessive ammonia or nitrite in your tap water. The pH might be quite different from your old tap water.

I water goes off the chat at 7.4 here, too. ;) But it goes up to 7.8ish.

So... you adjust the pH of water IN your tank? That doesn't sound so good... I'd be adjusting it in buckets before going into the tank.

Do you use any kind of chemical filtration, ie zeolite, carbon etc?

PH up or down chemicals can be removed by filter media. Therefore, your ph may be great when you change the water, but then it will gradually be removed by filter media.

I know that the Jungle Laboratories brand of ph altering chemicals can be buffered out.

You can buy a high range ph test kit. I use one that is made by ap. If you must lower your ph, I would do some research on some of the natural methods such as putting a little peat moss in your filter. Maybe someone on the board uses this method and can tell you about it.

My ph is 8.1 and I don't try to alter it and have never had any problems. Fluctuating ph can easily kill fish.

I would look into some natural methods if your tap water is 9.1

Good Luck!

Sorry my mistake.......I treat the water in buckets before I put them in the tank. That way each bucket has the right amount of neutralizer in it.
Sorry I worded it wrong,,,

:D Thanks Leema for pointing it out.

Also yesterday I bought 6 tetras and a new guarmi and they are doing fine....so far. According to the petshop guy my pH is good...so I'm going to leave it alone and see how things go!! :D

Ok I've got the solution... since your pH out of the tap is so high, you could keep african cichlids with no problems. :D

In your case, an aragonite substrate might actually lower your pH... :lol:

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Anyway, in my tanks, I have 2 methods for adjusting my pH... in my cichlid tank, I use aragonite substrate, which naturally adjusts the water's pH and hardness to what it should be.

In the feeder fish tank, I used to have to lower the pH because my tap water comes out at about 8.5... I lower the pH by running some of the tank water through a britta pitcher filter, and returning it to the tank. This lowers the pH to 6.5 out of the pitcher, but unfortunately it also softens the water which makes the pH very unstable, so I add calcium carbonate to harden the water, which in turn raises the pH just a tad... so I end up with pH 7 when it's returned back to the tank.

However, now I have eco-complete substrate in there, which stabilizes my pH where I want it (7.0-7.5).

Any status Coastrunner?

All good..no casualties in over a week :D

kewl. Keeping fingers crossed for luck and check in again next week.

As I read this, What I see and maybe missed, was the acclimation period to the new water invironment.