Fish dead-need help

[ferari2010]

Hi,
This is my first post.I bought my 55 gallon hexagonal fish tank 3 weeks ago and cycled it with nutrafin cycle and conditioner and waited almost 2 weeks before i added 2 sunburst platys,2 guppies,2 micky mouse platys,and 2 bleeding heart tetras.Well they all looked good,playful,eating well,but yesterday the one of the sunburst platy just died(it was eating well and didnt look sick)but the guppies and micky mouse platy was terribly harrasing both the platys.
Then I tested the water ( i have the mardel master kit),i am little confused too with it cos the nitrite and nitrate level always showing mid pink and the ammonia is looking yellow as its suppose to be.I dont know whats wrong,i am changing water every week,yesterday after the platy died i changed 50% of the water.
Now my question is why the guppies and micky mouse platy is chasing the sunburst(is it normal,i checked the fin it looks male to me),they are not suppose to be together?
Also how can i test my water accurately and what can be done to reduce the nitrite,nitrate and ammonia level in it,what product should be used when water changing?
Please help cos i am very new and i really dont want to get discouraged when my fish dies like this.
Thanks
Ferari

[Pleco380]

Welcome to the AC forum! What are the numbers you got on the water test? I am unfamiliar with that test kit so I'm not sure about colours. I've never had luck with platies. The tank may not be fully cycled and most likely isn't. If I were you, I'd eventually add more bleeding heart tetras.

[Brhino]

Hello and welcome to the AC!

Nutrafin cycle and other similar products are meant to help cycle with fish, but they cannot cycle the tank by itself before you add fish. It did nothing for your tank before you put fish in. You have fish in the tank, so now is the time to use it. Continue to do so if you've stopped.

I'm not familiar with your test kit. Can you tell us the actually numerical values represented by the colors you're seeing? Also, paper strips are generally regarded as less accurate than liquid test kits. If you've got a little money to spare, I definitely recommend picking up a liquid test kit like the AP Freshwater master kit.

When doing water changes you should be adding water conditioner always, and your nutrafin cycle so long as the tank is cycling. If you can tell us your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate values, we can tell you how that's coming.

Livebearers will generally intermix and chase each other even if they're not the same species. Do you know how many males and females you have? Ideally you'll either have all the same gender or 2 or more females per male. If you only have a few females they'll get stressed out by all the males chasing them, and the males will stress each other out competing for the female.

[ferari2010]

I actually dont know the number,its just paper strip to match color from the strip.I will have to get the liquid kit to get some accurate number i believe.

[Cliff]

Welcome to the forum.

You got some good advise from Brhino

There also is a free E-book that you can down load which is a really good referance (link below). You might find it helpful.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/ebook.html