General Emergency :(

[alex:)]

Hey all, hanging my head in shame whilst posting this.
I used to have coldwater fish in a 300l tank when I was a wee nipper and last week I thought why not and got myself a mini 30l tank from pets at home in a spree! I didnt mind too much about prices ect so I went ahead and bit the bullet.

I spent about £70 including 2 bags of black sand gravel a big heater and the tank with light, conditioner and rena filter.

anyway...

being me and not reading anything about it other than guesstimating I filled up my tank, threw the sand in - placed the filter in and heater, threw in the conditioner and gave it 3days.

the water went clear and I got my first fish.

3x bristlenose's (inch long)

so these lil dudes looked happy enough so a couple of days later I bought a fighting fish with 9 neon tetra.


Ok so all is well but... the water started getting a little bit cloudy a couple of days later

this was probobly due to me over feeding them and not cleaning it fast enough so i thought maybe get a couple of plants to help oxygenate it...

anyway plants in and a couple of days later i notice a few leaves have gone really soft and well dead... so i remove these leaves and keep out hope that the plants will live... anyway today i noticed the same thing again so ive taken all the plants out and binned them.

anyway - sorry my main point.


yesterday we did a shoot in the room with the fish (im a film maker) and we had a whole bunch of 500watt lights on- briefly reading on the net that light promotes algie groth... doh.

so as it stands from a series of dieing plants, unwashed gravel, food not being netted away quick enough my tank is very very cloudy white and it smells bad.


the fish seem happy enough (apart from my fighting fish has eaten 7 of the neon tetra... which i dont understand as at the shop he was in with them?)

basically the question is

what is the quickest and most effective way to get out of this mess, i bought some accu-clear today but it doesnt seemed to have worked yet (if it will ever)

would it be best getting a plastic bucket - wapping the fish in there for a bit and getting bottled water and condition it quickly?


also- im not sure if my filter is too good, it doesnt make any air bubbles and doesnt seem to clean much at all... any recommendations and if you guys think an airpump is a good idea can you point me in the way of a cheap one!

also uv light.. sounds good but not a clue where or how it will fit under the tanks hood.

sorry for writing an essay, and sorry for probobly making lots of you shake your head at me in shame!

help me

 

[billy0510]

first of all is your tank cycled? From the sounds of it only being a week old its prob not.

in my opinion i would do a large water change maybe 40- 50%.

test your water parameters

also- I'm not sure if my filter is too good, it doesn't make any air bubbles and doesn't seem to clean much at all...

Your filter wont actually take the cloudiness out of the water. Your filter works in two ways Mechanical (Removes large debris) and Biological (removes ammonia and nitrites) Sometimes Chemical with the use of carbon, this can help with cloudiness.

There are many great posts in the new to the hobby section i would recommend checking these out.

being me and not reading anything about it other than guesstimating I filled up my tank, threw the sand in - placed the filter in and heater, threw in the conditioner and gave it 3 days

All u did here i waste three days You need to cycle your tank.

One more bit of advice;

it happens to most everyone i call it the new fish master syndrome.
When you buy a tank,fish, plants, snails, shrimp,crab,Dritwood, pink and blue gravel, etc. all i one day and hope to have a beautiful underwater adventure.

1 slow down
2 slow down
3 read
4 read

don't worry its happened to me TWICE
Best of luck

 

[Spooky76]

You need to read up on cycling your tank. Unfortunately, many people think owning fish is no different to cats, dogs and hamsters. Problem is its alot more complicated, fish live in a completely different environment to us and in a way its alot more complex as we as owners have to take on the job of mother nature.

You need to understand the cycling process, its the most fundemental part of fishkeeping. Once you understand that the chances of you kiling your fish reduce by about 90% I would say.

Cycling the tank take time and effort, you cant do it by adding chemicals to your tank, it just needs some help from you. Daily 30% water changes roughly. Buy a water testing kit, its worth every penny.

If you still dont understand just post and someone will point you in the right direction.

 

[Amerce]

Quick note, if you want a planted tank then do that and let the tank mature with the plants in before you even think of adding fish.

Once your tank and plants have stabilised and the water parameters are OK (get a water test kit from your local pet shop) then you can start to add fish gradually.

The betta whilst being kept with tetra's in a pet shop would have been OK (how do you know he didn't kill some of them in the shop?) is not a good idea, they are quick and usually brightly coloured, they would either nip the betta or the betta would kill them.

1. Read up on cycling a tank
2. check up that the filtration is adequate to sustain fish and plants
3. whilst your tank is cycling, read up on fish to find a fish you like and can live in the environment you have created
4. ask yourself -how many fish and what size will your tank take, do I want big fish, small fish or medium sized fish ?
5. once your tank has stabilised go out and buy the fish you have read up about and know you can keep, but do it gradually don't go out and buy 6 fish of diff. species and plonk them in the tank expect them to get on or survive cause your filter may not be able to cope with a sudden population explosion (you could buy 6 tetra's in one go as they are so small).

Read all the pinned topics on this forum about cycling a tank, there are many people who can help you and provide you with mature media to put into your filter to help (what filter do you have by the way?).

If you want a planted tank there is a section on this site to assist you, some people will even assist in providing you with plants suitable for the sort of setup you want.

When you are ready for fish ask on the forum, people on here keep a wide variety of fish and can advise on their suitability for your tank.

Don't let all of the above put you off, it is fun keeping fish, but hard work initially. Once the new tank syndrome has worn off you will only need to do fairly simple maintenance on the tank and it is great watching your little world develop.

All in all just enjoy and ask for help, people will always help a fishkeeper in need.

 

[alex:)]

ok its been two days and now it looks like mould has grown (white fluffy layer) on the bottom and in the filter... do you think this is actually the cloudy whiteness after its condense due to the anti cloudy stuff ive been putting in? either way it looks as if im going to have to empty the tank fully and get new gravel and all new water... what would the best and quickest / safest way to do this with little trouble to the fishes?

 

[Mikaila31]

OK, you really need to slow down. Have you read anything about cycling yet? If not you really need to or else you are going to have constant problems at the rate you are going. Do you have a liquid test kit and gravel vacuum? If not you need to pick them up ASAP. You want a test kit that can measure Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate, and PH. Test you tank and tell us the results. You should also do a 50% water change with the gravel vac. You can clean the filter in a bucket of tank water, but do not replace any of the sponges. Clean them the best you can and put them back in the filter, replacing them will just make things worse.

Also your betta(fighting fish) should be in a tank by itself. They are very aggressive and will attack other fish. Also your neons most likely died as a result of the ammonia that is going to be present in your tank.