Help! I Need Advice

[joanne_464]

Hi all im completely new to this site, joined for advice today..

I used to keep fish years ago and enjoyed it however i moved house and couldnt take the tank with me so i gave up. Last month i bought a new one, a 125 litre tank.

But iv kinda messed up..

I bought the tank which came with heater, filter, water treatment etc, took it home, set it up and left it running for a week with nothing in it as this is what i was told to do by the people in the store. she said to leave it running for a week then i can buy some fish.. so this is what i did.. i didnt get them all at once but i bought -

2 Silver Sharks (small)
1 Plec
2 Dwarf Gourami's
and was advised against buying an eel..

Then about a week later i bought -

2 Pangasius Cats
2 Yoyo Loach
1 African Clawed Frog

Then not too long after i bought a Siamese Fighter (male)

However I noticed that my water was looking cloudy quickly, then i noticed that the female gourami seemed to have a fungal infection, then i noticed some whitespot.. so i ttok a water sample to the fish store and found out that my nitrate or nitrite (not sure which one said now after reading articles on this site) and other bad things were 'through the roof' as she put it. so she recommened some whitespot treatment, and some bacteria to put in a stocking and put in my filter. i bought both of these and did as she said and also did a 50% water change before doing all of the above.

My whitespot treatment is working as it is slowing going and the fungal infection on my gourami has also gone, however when i got home after work the other night i found both of my pangasius cats were dead

Now i dont know what to do iv left everything as she said and added my treatment and im going back on friday with another sample.. What do you all think do you have any advice for me ?

Also do i continue doing weekly water changes with my bacteria in and treatments being put in ?

Please help...

Joanne

 

[gaz gun man]

hi Joanne, unfortunately, what the LFS has told you is wrong, leaving a tank for a week will do absolutely nothing for it, you need to build up bacteria in your filter which changes the fish waste into harmless nitrates.


what is/are the bacteria in a stocking you had given to you? I'm hoping you were given matured media for your filter which will speed up the cycling process.

Im not very experienced at fish keeping myself, however I can tell you that the silver sharks will get very, very large (too large for your tank) and I highly reccomend you take back the siamese fighter as they prefer a tank by themselves and can be agressive toward other colourful fish, confusing them for their own species.

someone else will be along soon im sure to give better advice about the species you have.

Instead of relying on the shop to test your water, get yourself a liquid kit so you can test your own water at home - by posting the results here you'll get much better advice to cure you're problem.

Also dont, whatever you do wash or rinse your filter in anything except dirty tank water, otherwise the bacteria you have been given (assuming its matured media) will die and you'll be back to square one and never make any progress.

Be prepaired to do water changes everyday, until you have enough beneficial bacteria in your filter its going to be the only way to keep the fish alive.

 

[minxfishy]

Hi Joanne, unfortunately and not your fault you were given the naff advice that a lot of LFS give out. Running the tank/filter for a week does absolutely nothing in help to cycle the tank.

Firstly you need to do large 50% water changes daily to get the ammonia and nitrIte down to 0.25ppm or lower (preferably 0) for the fish to be healthy. You may need to do these 2/3x a day if the levels are very high.

You need a good liquid based test kit, an API freshwater master test kit/Nutrafin mini test kit are the ones recommended mostly on this site. As soon as you can too.

Have a good read thru the beginners resource centre, follow this link: http/www.fishforums.net/content/New-to-t...ease-Read-Here/ in it is a guide to fish-in cycling written by one of our experienced members Miss Wiggle, which will guide you thru the steps you need to do to get the filter cycled.

The silver sharks (bala) need to re-homed or taken back to the store as they require a minimum of a 6ft tank and prefer to be in shoals.

The pang cats - well they get absolutely huge and unfortunate as it was for them to die, its a good thing you no longer have them.

The whitespot and fungus are probably due to stress and bad water conditions that the fish are currently in and will be easier to treat once the beneficial bacteria have grown enough for the tank to cycle.

For now, do the 50% water change, temp matching the water being returned to the tank to that of the tank water and dechlorinate it, then have a good read thur those articles.

 

[tyyrlym]

Step one, buy a test kit. Unless your fish shop is right next door and you don't mind daily visits for them to test the water for you I'd buy a liquid test kit. This will let you monitor your water quality on your own. Don't worry about it being tough, all it takes to use a kit is either X number of drops of regent into a test tube or one tablet from the foil pack. Wait a few then compare the color to a chart, easy.

Step 2, water changes. The fastest way to remove pollutants from the water is to just remove them. Remove 50% of the water from your tank and replace it with dechlorinated tap water. The dechlorination is very important. Use your test kit to monitor your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. If either ammonia or nitrite exceed 0.25 parts per million then do a 50% water change. If nitrates exceed 40 ppm, do a water change. Right now you can expect to be doing them regularly, probably daily.

Step 3, feed less. The more you feed the fish the more waste they produce and the more ammonia they create. Reduce your feedings to once a day and sparingly at that. Don't worry about the fish, they'll be just fine even on less food. Better they're a little hungry and you get the pollutants under control than they have full bellies and suffocate in their own waste.

Step 4, vacuum. Uneaten food and fish poop collecting in the substrate, gravel, will decay and release more pollutants into the water. If you have a gravel vac use it to suck as much of that out of the substrate as you can. If you don't have one, buy one and use it.

Step 5, wait. Unfortunately your tank is cycling, building up a stock of bacteria that can convert dangerous ammonia and nitrite into less harmful nitrate that you can remove with water changes. It's going to take some time for these bacteria to build up in numbers so that they can keep your ammonia and nitrite levels at zero. Until they do get to that point it is up to you to monitor your water daily and do a water change anytime the pollutants get to dangerous levels. The bacteria your LFS recommended may or may not help. It depends on what kind it is and how it was stored, can you specify what it is she recommended?

Now, after all that some more general questions.

1. What temperature is the tank? Do you have a thermometer so you can keep track of it? If its too hot or cold it can impact the health of the fish.
2. What type of filter do you have? Make and model is great.
3. Is your tank near a window and receiving direct sunlight? If it is high nitrate levels combined with direct sunlight could be resulting in an algae bloom which could cloud your water.
4. What do you feed the fish?

I also hate to be the bearer of bad news but your sharks are going to get far too big for your tank. They'll grow to be 12" easy and are very active swimmers. Your tank doesn't have enough room for them once they are full grown and they will grow quickly. The plec could also grow to similar sizes depending on the variety. Was it called a common plec at the store? If you don't know a picture could help ID it. Clawed frogs are also another animal that will grow large. Unfortunately the loaches and the gouramis are really the only fish that you have a good chance of being able to keep long term in that size tank. You might want to speak to the LFS about returning the sharks, plec (maybe), and frog.