This is weird. At the local pet store there is one 20 gallon tank that ALWAYS sits empty. Here's the deal: The tank is a modern one with plastic and silicone, not an ancient slate and metal tank. Freshwater. No live plants. There is a thin layer of aquarium gravel in the bottom, two fabric tank plants, and there's a very good power filter hanging on the back. There are no fish.

This tank is so odd. When they test water in the tanks, that tank is ALWAYS testing so high it's at the toxic level of nitrates. They are conditioning the water with AmQuel(sp?). They do partial water changes on this tank and the toxic level drops for 2-3 days and then shoots through the roof again.

If they do put a fish in the tank, no matter what species, it is always dead in days. They remove the body, do the water change(never more than 35% at once), and in a couple of days, wham, the toxins are flying high again.

This is a stumper for me because I never have any trouble with my tank, and I'm a philistine - I never test my water. I just do common sense maintenance. And my fish are thriving. So I have no answers for them.

Any ideas? About the only things they haven't done is to completely remove the gravel, plants and tear the tank completely down and start over from scratch.

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