Quick Help

[Katsumoto]

My father in law got a new tank for his birthday. he set everything up as it should be and almost every single fish he bought has just died rather quickly, as in the same night he introduced them. I lived there a while and had my own aquarium and none of my fish died. Ive tested his water for everything and nothing is off except the PH which is high. Could introducing them to a drastic PH kill them quickly or what? And also to try and help he bought the water conditioner stuff to eliminate chlorine and the likes. Since he has put that in the water has become very cloudy as in white cloudy. I read in a previous thread that cloudy white water is bateria bloom. That being said if thats the case here what can be done to eliminate it?

[CrazieEddie]

Hi! Welcome to the Forum! :)

Sorry for the loss of the fish, but the problem is that he setup everything including the fish all in one shot, which what it sounds like. He should have let the tank cycle for at least a month. After it is cycled, introduce a few fish to let the benificial bacteria build up slowly. Then after things stabilize, introduce more fish. Please read Guidelines for Stocking an Aquarium (http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/stockguide.shtml), which states the following:
Start with 25% of the total capacity of the aquarium in inches. Wait at least two weeks before adding more fish. Waiting three weeks is better. Do a 25% water change before you add new fish, not immediately after. Add in increments of 100% of the number of inches of fish the aquarium already contains (if you already have two inches of fish, only buy two inches more), until the tank is stocked to 90% of the total capacity. Then allow the growth of the fish you have to fill the aquarium to capacity.

How high is his pH? If it's around 8 or so, the fish should still be fine as long as the fish have been introduced slowly.

The chlorine remover always helps. I like using Stress Coat (http://www.aquariumpros.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=APH85C&Category_Code=ADcr&Product_Count=3) which also removes chlorine, but also adds additional stuff that's good for the fish.

The white cloudy water is a bacteria bloom, but would eventually go away after awhile. Just let nature take it's course.

There are also aquarium articles (http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/) and Aquarium FAQs (http://www.aquariumpros.com/faqpro/index.shtml) that contain alot of information that you could read through.

Good luck. :)