Current Strength?

[Rorie]

In my new hospital tank, there is a small filter stuck to the glass - sucks in from the bottom and spits out the water from the top. It has a slider on the side which i assume to be a power control. I mention this as its different from my filter in my main tank which is above the aquarium.

i cycled the tank, and today put in 3 glowlight tetras - they were tiny. At around 7pm one was on the bottom, on its side struggling to swim. So i turned the filter power switch (or what i assumed to be a power switch) down to half way in case that was causing the issue. Either way I assumed it would die. It is now near 1am and i got home to find two dead and the third hanging around the bottom!

So i wonder if it was maybe the fish that were ill all along. Maybe being so small the transition from shop to my tank stressed them to death? Or maybe it is something to do with my filter being to strong for the little fish? I do have a fake, silk, plant which doesnt seem so sway about, and also a couple rocks and ornaments they can hide in. The filter was sold with the tank from P@H....can a filter be to powerful? There is no white water or anything nearly as abrupt as that!

Help please, as i dont think the third will make it through the night!

BTW, i guess if the last one dies, i should do a 100% water change and cycle again for a week(?) before adding new fish to my quarantine tank?

 

[Rorie]

Got up this morning and the third has died too! Advise please?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Have you had a "cycle log" thread running in the forum? We need more info about your test kit type; how much ammonia you were adding; how long you cycled the tank for etc.

After a week of "double zeros" for ammonia and nitrite readings, once the tank had cycled, how much water change did you do?

Did you come straight home with the fish?

Give us a reasonably detailed account of how you acclimitized your new fish from the bag to your tank, including rough time intervals.

 

[Rorie]

The tank is new, so i cycled it for 8 days and added in bacteria on the 1st and 7th days. I tested the water on day 8 and got the double zero results. I did not do a water change as i have never heard of doing that after cycling the tank....

Yup, i came straight home as i always do with my new fish, and added them in exactly the same way - add the bag to water to get same temp, then add a bit of water, then a bit more etc etc

When you ask about adding ammonia...is that the bacteria stuff, or am i missing a link?

 

[Harlequins]

I'm afraid bottle 'bacteria' isn't much use... they stats would show zeros until you put either fish or an ammonia source in the tank.

A tank wont be cycled in 8 days...unless you've put in mature media in to the new filter.

Have a read in the beginners section and it will explain the cycling process.

Having the fish in for less than 24 hrs i wouldn't have thought would have built up enough ammonia to kill them have you tested the water since?

 

[Mo1959]

Hi Rorie. What NOTG is referring to is the method of fishless cycling recommended nowadays when setting up a new tank. The bottled bacteria is not really considered very reliable so most of us now use ammonia to cycle new tanks. There is a thread of here telling you all about it but the jist is that you firstly need a good test kit (API freshwater master test kit) and a bottle of ammonia (from boots, homebase, etc) There is also a calculator on here telling you how much ammonia to add for your size of tank to bring it up to the required reading of around 5ppm. I recommend you read the appropriate thread on here as it is too long for me to write it all out again in this post. It will take longer than the week you mention in your thread but will be worth it in the end as you will be able to virtually fully stock your tank, hopefully without the fish deaths you have suffered.

 

[Rorie]

Thanks for the replies. My first tank (main one) is running great from day one after i followed the set up step by step. I did the same with this one some six months later, but obviously it has not worked so well!

I will have a look into this ammonia. I do have the API test kit that i use for my main tank which showed results that were all clear.

I have now emptied the water out the tank in case there was an illness (i read to do that on here somewhere) and will fill it back up once giving everything other than the filter a clean under tap water.

Should i assume that i just need an extra week (with the ammonia) or should i start from scratch?

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

• "Fishless Cycling" involves adding ammonia (found at places like Boots) to make a concentration of 4 or 5ppm (parts per million) to the tank. This level is kept constant by daily additions, after using a test kit.
• As the naturally occuring bacteria process (and multiply if there is planety of food) this ammonia, they produce another fish toxic chemical, nitrite.
• Nitrite is then processed by another bacteria, which often takes longer to colonise a new tank, turning it into relatively safe (upto 300mg/l with the exception of relatively few sensitive fish) nitrate.
• When the ammonia you added the day before gives a zero reading, plus a reading of zero for nitrite is observed, your tank now has a colony of the correct bacteria neede for the survival of your fish... It is now "cycled."

Another thing worth asking at this stage is did you use a de-chlorinating product like Nutrafin Aquaplus?

 

[Rorie]

• "Fishless Cycling" involves adding ammonia (found at places like Boots) to make a concentration of 4 or 5ppm (parts per million) to the tank. This level is kept constant by daily additions, after using a test kit.
• As the naturally occuring bacteria process (and multiply if there is planety of food) this ammonia, they produce another fish toxic chemical, nitrite.
• Nitrite is then processed by another bacteria, which often takes longer to colonise a new tank, turning it into relatively safe (upto 300mg/l with the exception of relatively few sensitive fish) nitrate.
• When the ammonia you added the day before gives a zero reading, plus a reading of zero for nitrite is observed, your tank now has a colony of the correct bacteria neede for the survival of your fish... It is now "cycled."

Another thing worth asking at this stage is did you use a de-chlorinating product like Nurafin Aquaplus?

That makes sense I will try that method instead (or do i do it with?) the bacteria adding method - it does make more sense

Yeh i treated all the water before adding it to the tank. A simple mistake to make i guess, but i have always remembered that stage