Water Chemistry Gone Badly Wrong

[fishyyboy20]

Hi all new to the forum so forgive me if there is a post else where relating to this.

i not long ago was giving a 23L fish tank of a relative of mine and i got it up and running and did a fishless cycle, i followed some guides on a few websites, and got my water chemistry to

pH - 7.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm

it stayed these levels for about 4-5 weeks

my granparents decided to go buy 4 Sunset Platys without me knowing and put them in my tank while i was at college.
3 days befor the fish got put into my tank the levels where the same as above.
they seemed fine for days untill i woke up this morning and found one of the platys dead

i used my API Master Kit and the levels are

pH - 7.6 could be higher as i did not do the Hig Range pH test
Ammonia - 4.0ppm
Nitrite - between 2.0-5.0ppm (my chart jumps from 2.0 to 5.0 dont know if they all do this or not )
Nitrate - between 40ppm and 80ppm

what the hell happened and what do i need to do to quickly get my levels down?

 

[Louiseness]

Hi all new to the forum so forgive me if there is a post else where relating to this.

i not long ago was giving a 23L fish tank of a relative of mine and i got it up and running and did a fishless cycle, i followed some guides on a few websites, and got my water chemistry to

pH - 7.2
Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 0ppm

it stayed these levels for about 4-5 weeks

my granparents decided to go buy 4 Sunset Platys without me knowing and put them in my tank while i was at college.
3 days befor the fish got put into my tank the levels where the same as above.
they seemed fine for days untill i woke up this morning and found one of the platys dead

i used my API Master Kit and the levels are

pH - 7.6 could be higher as i did not do the Hig Range pH test
Ammonia - 4.0ppm
Nitrite - between 2.0-5.0ppm (my chart jumps from 2.0 to 5.0 dont know if they all do this or not )
Nitrate - between 40ppm and 80ppm

what the hell happened and what do i need to do to quickly get my levels down?

First thing you need to do is a massive water change. Literally only leave enough water so the fish can swim upright. Then test your water, and if the levels are still high (anything over 0.25 for ammonia and nitrite), do another change. Keep doing it until the levels are lowered.

How did you fishless cycle? And when you say the levels 'stayed that way for 4 or 5 weeks', what was happening to the tank in that time? Was it empty or...?

 

[XeroTolerance]

Did you keep adding ammonia into the tank during the 4-5 weeks? If not, than all of the bacteria is dead and your probably going to need to do a fish-in cycle. Of course you could always return the platys and start again from scratch.

 

[fishyyboy20]

First thing you need to do is a massive water change. Literally only leave enough water so the fish can swim upright. Then test your water, and if the levels are still high (anything over 0.25 for ammonia and nitrite), do another change. Keep doing it until the levels are lowered.

How did you fishless cycle? And when you say the levels 'stayed that way for 4 or 5 weeks', what was happening to the tank in that time? Was it empty or...?

for my fishless cycle i mainly followed the instructions from this website http/www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm and one or two other websites but they were basically the same information

added water to the tank using a bottle of declorinator and adding 10ml of ammonia on day 1,2 and 3 as per instructions on the bottle a believe it was a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle?

the tank was just left to run with my 3 stage filter i think its foam sponge, biomax? and carbon? following the instructions from the site above and adding one or 2 plastic plants and a piece of driftwood which was presoaked for 4 weeks then soaked again for another week after it was giving to me. i was also told to put some API Stress Zyme+ biological filtration booster with live bactria to speed up the development of the biological filter.

have i done anything wrong?

Did you keep adding ammonia into the tank during the 4-5 weeks? If not, than all of the bacteria is dead and your probably going to need to do a fish-in cycle. Of course you could always return the platys and start again from scratch.

i did for about the first week 2 weeks then i had none left of the bottle but the relative i got it from said i should need to put any more in was that wrong?

 

[Louiseness]

for my fishless cycle i mainly followed the instructions from this website http/www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm and one or two other websites but they were basically the same information

added water to the tank using a bottle of declorinator and adding 10ml of ammonia on day 1,2 and 3 as per instructions on the bottle a believe it was a bottle of Nutrafin Cycle?

the tank was just left to run with my 3 stage filter i think its foam sponge, biomax? and carbon? following the instructions from the site above and adding one or 2 plastic plants and a piece of driftwood which was presoaked for 4 weeks then soaked again for another week after it was giving to me. i was also told to put some API Stress Zyme+ biological filtration booster with live bactria to speed up the development of the biological filter.

have i done anything wrong?

Did you keep adding ammonia into the tank during the 4-5 weeks? If not, than all of the bacteria is dead and your probably going to need to do a fish-in cycle. Of course you could always return the platys and start again from scratch.

i did for about the first week 2 weeks then i had none left of the bottle but the relative i got it from said i should need to put any more in was that wrong?

I'm not sure if your tank was ever cycled because you need to add ammonia constantly throughout the cycle, which can last a month or so - not just for three days. But regardless, leaving it to 'run' with no ammonia source means the bacteria you've built up have nothing to feed off so they will die. So basically you're back to an uncycled tank

You can either do a fish-in cycle with your platies or as someone else said, return them and try again.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Yeah, the bacteria constantly need to be being fed. They could maybe go 2-3 days without any ammonia in the tank. Anymore time than that they probably starved.

 

[Jinty McGinty]

Nutrafin Cycle is not Ammonia - It's bacteria in a bottle which people on here will tell you is worthless.

You are, as said, now in Fish-in Cycle and will have to do daily water changes for a few months now.

P.S your platy probably died because of the huge amount of Ammonia in the tank.

 

[fishyyboy20]

right so what do i need to do now

all my tank has now is the filter media, 1 moss ball, java moss on driftwood, 2 plastic plants and a cave. i have plenty of food a bottle of the API Stress Zyme+, Water Declorinator, API Master Kit and the 3 sunset platies.

do i need to go out and buy anything to put in the tank or anything because if i do i can quickly go now while my local shop is still open

and yeah i gathered that it died from the ammonia because i understand its poisonous to the fish?

 

[Louiseness]

right so what do i need to do now

all my tank has now is the filter media, 1 moss ball, java moss on driftwood, 2 plastic plants and a cave. i have plenty of food a bottle of the API Stress Zyme+, Water Declorinator, API Master Kit and the 3 sunset platies.

do i need to go out and buy anything to put in the tank or anything because if i do i can quickly go now while my local shop is still open

No, you don't need anything else. You need to be doing massive water changes as I said previously, to get your ammonia levels down. Use whatever amount of dechlorinator your bottle reccommends for each change.

Test you water daily with your test kit for ammonia and nitrate, and if it's anything over 0.25, change about half the water. You'll get there in the end

 

[XeroTolerance]

Right now you can either decide to return the fish and do a fishless cycle, or your could keep the fish in at do a fish-in cycle. I do not have the link for the tutorial so hopefully someone else can supply that.

Good luck.

 

[Jinty McGinty]

You don't need anything else. You could try and see if someone has some mature media they can send you to put into your filter. There is a section where people are listed who can. You need to go to the beginners section and read up on the fish-in cycle and keep up large daily water changers according to your test results.

 

[XeroTolerance]

Also make sure to do water changes if you see any signs of ammonia and nitrite above .25 .

 

[fishyyboy20]

so let me get this strait so i can go strait off and get it done
so because i have mass amounts of ammonia etc in my tank i should do a massive water change? say about what 75% of the water? should i add some more of the Stress Zyme+ Bacteria Booster? and do the water changes every say.... 2-3 days? or everyday? and then the ammonia and everything left in the tank will be sorted out by the bacteria and the filter? and in time it will drop?

 

[Louiseness]

so let me get this strait so i can go strait off and get it done
so because i have mass amounts of ammonia etc in my tank i should do a massive water change? say about what 75% of the water? should i add some more of the Stress Zyme+ Bacteria Booster? and do the water changes every say.... 2-3 days? or everyday? and then the ammonia and everything left in the tank will be sorted out by the bacteria and the filter? and in time it will drop?

Yep, go straight off and do a big water change, 75% is great. It will help the fish out because levels of ammonia like that are poisonous to them.

I wouldn't add any more bottled bacteria, it just doesn't work in my opinion.

You need to be testing that water EVERY day. If your tests show any more than 0.25 ppm ammonia or nitrite do a change, probably about 50% would be good.

And yes, after a period of time, probably a few weeks, you will see your levels drop to 0 ppm for both and all will be well

 

[Overload]

so let me get this strait so i can go strait off and get it done
so because i have mass amounts of ammonia etc in my tank i should do a massive water change? say about what 75% of the water? should i add some more of the Stress Zyme+ Bacteria Booster? and do the water changes every say.... 2-3 days? or everyday? and then the ammonia and everything left in the tank will be sorted out by the bacteria and the filter? and in time it will drop?

Read http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/224306-fish-in-cycling/ that should explain the process