I have a new fluval tank with 125 litre capacity, im using sand as a substrate. I used the nutrafin mini master test kit and I Have a PH of 6.5 no nitrate no nitrite and amonia as of yet. Id left the water in my tank for one week running with a fluval 3+ filter with the air supply on its max. I have done nothing else to the water as I was told the chlorine will come out the water after a week by the LFS. I added 5 lemon tetras and a java fern on bogwood to start my tank cycling slowly. Within 24 hours their activity has rapidly reduced, at first it looked like typical breeding behaviour, so I went to bed thinking they were sorting the pecking order out, now they are very lazy and lathargic two have died. They decseased flicked around on their backs in sharp motions while travelling round the tank in the current.

Note: The water is not completley clear its slightly hazey in the tank one shop said it was the substrate in the water and I could add fish at this stage, the other shop said it may be bacteria and it would die of quickly, this shop sold me the tetras and said it was ok to go ahead and cycle.

Can some one tell me what I have done wrong please? And how should I restart ?

Firstly if you dont add ammonia to the water it takes around 30 days to a tank to cycle.

After a few days the ammonia will rocket (naturally) and this is lethal to fish, Tetra's are not a best first fish, but lemons are slightly hardier then others.

The best thing is to feed slightly now and watch the ammonia and nitrite reading's when both of these are 0 (4 weeks after 1st setting up usually) once this has happened you safe to add 6 small fish or a couple larger fish at a time.

Adding fish slowly help the bacteria grow to the new bio-load on the tank and keep thing more stable.

You are fish-in cycling. This is so much trouble, you will wish you had found out about fishless before buying your fish - I certainly did! If your LFS will allow you to, return the fish and start again, go check out one of the threads on fishless cycling. Start up a new topic on the beginners section, ask as many questions as you need to, you will get plenty of help here!
If however you keep the fish, this is what you need to do. Firstly, you need a master test kit for the water, API are great. You need to test your ammonia level EVERY day. Every time it shos higher than 1, do a large water change to reduce it. You need your ammonia to stay less than 1, and really anything about 0 is still toxic to the fish. Once the ammonia levels are droppping, you need to start testing your nitrite level too. Again, if it is above 1, panic stations. Water change. You need to continue with this until both youe ammonia and nitrite are at nil. When this happens, and they stay at this level for a few days with no water change, you are cycled. But be aware - the lenght of time this takes can vary. My tank took 2 MONTHS! This is because a few weeks in, we got whitespot, and half of my fish died. The meds used to cure the others wiped out the filter bacteria, so it all had to start again. Then a few weeks later, I forgot to turn my filter back on after a water change. It was off for about 6 hours, and caused a mini cycle, so that slowed things down more. At one point I was doing 2 water changes a day, 50% a time, just to keep the ammo levels down to a safe(ish) level. It was very tiring and I wish to hell I had found this site earlier and fishless cycled. So please think very hard about how you will now proceed.
There is a way to make this process a little easier. If you can get some mature filter media from someone who already has a cycled tank, this will speed things up. All you need is a lit of their filter sponge or whatever, and pop it into your filter snug against your sponge. The bacteria from the donated sponge will start to grow on yours. If you do this, make sure you bag the donated media up in some tank water, as you would a fish, and get it to your tank ASAP. There are people on here who are willing to donate media to you, go check out the pinned thread!
If you decide to fishless cycle, then rehome the fish and get to Boots or somewhere and buy a bottle of ammonia. It must be pure ammonia. If when you shake the bottle, it froths, then you cannot use it. Go to a chemist and ask for the pure stuff. Then get back on the forum and do a little reading, then off you go! The fishless cycle should take approx 21 days, in which time you can research the fish you would like, and start buying some nice decorations for the tank
Good luck, whichever method you choose!

hi there, sadly youre experiencing something a lot of beginner fishkeepers get, firstly, don't trust the fish shops advice, secondly cycling with fish is no fun.

have a read of this topic which should explain it all for you http://www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...eady-have-fish/

Why is most LFS still give out useless advice? In a recent copy of PFK, they reported that 96% of LFS in the UK recommend fish-in cycling methods!
Roughly half the information they give on fish is incorrect, especially fish sizes, aggression and the size of tank required.
It just goes to show that you really need to research everything so much before you even start.

look at the employee's and the industry

they pay minimum wage or thereabout, meaning they employ mostly teenagers or (i don't mean this in a derogitary way at all) those with less education or ability. every fish store employee is not going to be a biologist with detailed knowledge of water chemistry and several different species and we shouldn't expect them to be. you get the occasional store set up by people who love the hobby and the occasional concientious employee, but when you put it into perspective we shouldn't expect every employee to be good.

this is why forums like this are so good, you've got vets, vetinary nurses, contributors to some of the leading fishkeeping magazines, fishkeeping authors, not to mention the wealth of people with several years experience keeping all different species. of course this is a better resource than a shop full of teenagers just making some pocket money

You still think the employer would give them a handbook or direct them to a good source of info. Shame really because at the end of the day, it's only the fish who suffer.

it is a shame, but then the owners are usually well up to speed on fishkeeping practices of 20 years ago, old water, aquarium salts and fish in cycles.

The old story, isn't it?. Newbie buys fish - fish die - back to the shop for more fish - fish die - back for some more plus ''ah, you'll need a bottle of this, and this, oh you'd best get some of this, too..........''. Great for short-term custom until the newbie thinks ''Sod this, it's too much trouble'' and that's another person lost to the hobby. If only (some) shops would take a long-term view.
I had great advice when I was setting up my tank; Mick at Pet City (just a normal pet shop) in Leeds actually stopped me buying certain fish. He's never put me wrong, what he doesn't know really isn't worth knowing, so when I changed from an internal filter to a fab Tetratec EX700 external just over a year ago, I went and spent my money with him. I could have got it a good £25 cheaper online, but I've had a damn sight more than £25 worth of good advice from him, so I was happy to do it.

I was told that barbs where peacful fish. Within 3 days they where in a small holding tank and within 2 weeks they where in there own new 120l tank. They would go for the fins of my other fish making them dart in shock.