yea it seems to be

2 days death free now lost a lot of fish but that's the sad part

the hardest part was convincing the other half that not feeding them for a few days wasn't going to kill them 

I literally had to hide the fish food lol

oh well time to fix the check valve on the big 1300 ltr tank now while theres room in the 6 footer for the 3 fish still left in the big tank

I really do think part of the problem was he put too many fish in the six footer at once

and though things were fine for a while it was too much for the filtration

on the bright side I get to say I told you so lol

well first day in two weeks ive got up to find no dead fish and none have died today

they do look better but the red jewels look more like white jewels so they are stressed

did a 20% water change last night cause testing detected low lvl amonia  so far so good

not many left but at least i didnt lose em all 

gotta be grateful for the small things

yea theres no sign of wite spot or bloat  though there is one bristlenose in there that doesn't look too healthy his colours are funky an so are his bristles but all the rest of the fish look fine 

the clown loach was looking and actg normal yesterday this morning he was dead in the tank

still a few cichlids gulping though and the red ewels have lost their colour like hey are stressed

no new fish have been added for ages and last water change was almost a week ago parameters are still good and this morning one of the loaches is dead I'm shattered 

its so frustrating ive just lost my cobalt blue as well its crazy they just keep dying even though the parameters are good now and its days later

that's almost every cichlid in my tank I'm just waiting for the last few cichlids to die now as well

it does my head in cause every other fish in that tank is fine even the clown loaches are fine and they are usually the most sensitive fish in the tank

it hasn't ruined it for me completely but it makes me nervous to invest more time and money for it to happen again

u have pretty much summed up my last two weeks except I would find traumatic to watch a more accurate description

I agree it must of been a nitrate spike and now have a testing timetable on my white board so I never forget to keep an eye on the water parameters again it was heartbreaking to watch and not be able to do anything for my poor fish I almost reluctant to start again as I don't ever want to experience that again

I want to thank u all for ur help and info that's given me a better understanding of whats going on and why

I will take ur advise and test the tap water I alwayws thought cause I used the seachem prime when I did a change all would be fine apparently not

but treat it how what more can i do ive used seachem prime, put aquarium salt in and done a 50 percent change the parameters are good and they are still dying

i just had the water tested at city farmers down the road

the ph is 8

the amonia is about 0.1

nitrite is 0

nitrate .05

the water parameters are fine it5s almost a 700 litre tank so it shouldn't have any major chemical fluctuations but I'm still losing cichlids 

as for circulation and air there is a 60cm bubble stone an internal that turns 2.5k litres an hr that's sucking in oxygen as well

and two canister filters one does 2k litre an hour the other 2.2k there is plenty of circulation and oxygen in the tank

its very frustrating the ph was at 6 before i did the water change then went up to about 7 

i got it at 8 now

one thing ive noticed when these fish are dying their colours get really intense for abou 12 hrs before hand 

the frontosa has gone almost black and now its struggling to the point the plecco's are circling for the carcass

used some ph up to buff it

and what sort of containment issue more info please

the tanks been running for a fdew months now the low nitates is maybe a combination of 50 percent change yesterday and the sea chem prime and it prob isnt 0 but its closer to 0 than 5

everything was fine fish been in there a while then bang they started dying

I know the ph is low for cichlids and its only the cichlids that are dying

I'm trying to bring up the ph gradually

thats the weird thing ive moved some of these fish into another tank thats fine and they still die i just cant work out whats causing it

its really doing my head in

there is a 60cm bubble stone in there as well as an internal that pumps oxygen theres a lot of surface agitation

im hoping to get my water tested tomorrow ive tested it pet city tested it only seemed to be the ph out a bit

might go to morley tomoz and get them to test it for me

Please fill out as much as possible below and give us a description of what is wrong with your fish.

Type of fish: CICHLIDS FULUS AND PEACOCKS
Symptoms:  THEY SEEM TO BE GASPING 
Other tank mates: COBALTS PICTUS FRONTOSA LOACHES PLECOS
Tank size / capacity: 600+LT
Type of Food fed: CICHLID GOLD
Feeding frequency/amount: DAILY WHAT THEY CAN EAT IN A FEW MINS
Substrate: SAND
Type of filtration: 2 EXTERNAL 1 INTERNAL 
Frequency of filter cleans: FORTNIGHTLY
Frequency and % volume of water changes: WEEKLY 25%
Last water change: YESTERDAY
PH: 8
KH:
GH:
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Ammonia:0
Phosphate:
Water temp:27
Medications used recently to date: NONE 
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc: NOTHING

APART FROM THE ONES THAT ARE IDLING AND GASPING THERE ARE SOME OTHERS THAT SEEM OK BUT ARE FLICKING AROUND IN THE SAND

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO EVERYTHING WAS FINE AND THEN THEY STARTED DYING

ok  i had a ggogle it does look like that and it makes sense whats the best way to keep the ammonia lvls down 

hmmm how come come the new fish had a black mark the day after i put it in

im gonna test the water 

will try get pics n post them tomorrow 

i thought of that but the thing is they get the same food in both tanks but its only happening in one

i use the hikari algae wafer and im pretty sure the sinking pellets are hikari too but will double check

Type of fish: clown loaches and various Malawi cichlids and peacoks
Symptoms: black smudgy spots appearing on their body
Other tank mates:
Tank size / capacity: 680 litres
Type of Food fed: algae pellets , floating and sinking cichlid pellets
Feeding frequency/amount: feed daily only what they can eat in a minute or two
Substrate: sand 
Type of filtration: 2 ext canister filters
Frequency of filter cleans: rotated 1 per fortnight
Frequency and % volume of water changes: weekly  25%
Last water change: 4 days ago 
PH:
KH:
GH:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
Ammonia:
Phosphate:
Water temp: 26 degrees
Medications used recently to date: none 
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc:  filter is about a month or so old and just added 2 princess cichlids one of which now has a black spot too

its really weird ive noticed a lot of my fish are getting these smudge ink looking black spots and they aren't small spots either well some are lol

apart from the spots they are fine they are all acting normal eating and breeding as usual 

none of them are flicking around or look sick though I do have one red jewel that has a gill sticking out looking kinda injured but she did that a few weeks ago

and is perfectly fine except for looking kinda deformed 

any advice would be greatly appreciated ive googled till my fingers hurt but cant find an answer

the most affected are the loaches and they didn't have the spots  when they were in the big 1300 ltre tank

cheers peeps

if it was just a case of changing the filter i would of thought to do that but in my excitement of getting a new cannister filter for a tank that was already cycled and set up with internal filters, my brain switched off and i just didnt think.

Thanks everyone for ur help im pleased to say thanx to ur awesome advice my tank is now crystal clear and my fish are very happy

can u use coral media in a freshwater tank cannister?

I kind of ruled the food out as I also have a 1300 litre tank running on a sump and use the same food in both tanks

and the bacterial thing due to it needing to cycle again cause of the new filter makes sense cause it was fine before I changed the filter

I should of known better and put the media in the sump for a week before I set the new filter up

hindsight is an amazing thing lol

i did lose one or two fish for no apparent reason and i didnt use pre recycled media so i think ur on to something i will give it a try thanx

substrate is sand, its relatively newly estabilished a few months old

feed them cichlid pellets and algea pellets 

filter as those baki balls things, course sponge, ammonia pad ceramic noodles and a uv light

and its not what id call milky its not particles either unless they are microscopic

its like looking thru a haze kinbda

ive just put a new bioprow 2200 uvf external cannister filter on my 600 litre (approx) tank and i just havent been able to clear up the cloud in the tank

there are quite a few fish in there a couple of plecos, 3 bristlenoses, about 6 fulu's, a yellow belly albert and a variety of peackocks and a couple of clown loaches should

i drop another filter on it or is there something ive done wrong. suggestions please.

Ellie