Help.....

[kenzie]

ok so i was given a tank 5 fish in it... went n brought 9 more... lost 4 within 2days. started reading up on wots happening... i set tank up 3 days ago.. i have a heater, filter, air stones plants ect.. the pump/filter is new.. so no bacteria yet... tested water and have high chlorine so added correct softners ect.. my readings are still sky high... no nitrite or nitrate which is good?? the ph level is shy high for acid how do i drop this... also ive read you need to add amonia.. (thought you didnt want amonia) how do i do this.. so i have lights bubbles nice fish which are dying... what products do i need 2 buy n how do i fix my cycle..???

 

[CherryDanio]

I'm sure the experienced members (listen too them!!) will give you more in depth advice. DO NOT ADD AMMONIA! You add ammonia for a fishless cycle, your fish are already putting ammonia in the tank so you are doing a fish in cycle. You won't have nitrite or nitrate yet as you won't have the bacteria in your filter which breaks ammonia down into these substances. I'm sure the more experienced members are going to want to know your exact water readings, tank size and what you have put in it so it might be an idea to post those. Sorry you've lost fish Hope everything gets sorted. I would reccomend doing a water change ASAP (don't forget to dechlorinate the water).

Edited to say just realised the tank already had fish in it. Have you put a new filter in with it or is it the one it came with? If it is the old one it may be that the 9 new fish overloaded the filter and it couldn't cope with the extra waste.

 

[kbekll]

water change asap as you are going throught a cycle or at least a mini cycle

then that should help with the ph (depending what is comming out of the tap) you will be needing to do the water changes daily to keep the fish healthy

 

[rewlyn]

ok so i was given a tank 5 fish in it... went n brought 9 more... lost 4 within 2days. started reading up on wots happening... i set tank up 3 days ago.. i have a heater, filter, air stones plants ect.. the pump/filter is new.. so no bacteria yet... tested water and have high chlorine so added correct softners ect.. my readings are still sky high... no nitrite or nitrate which is good?? the ph level is shy high for acid how do i drop this... also ive read you need to add amonia.. (thought you didnt want amonia) how do i do this.. so i have lights bubbles nice fish which are dying... what products do i need 2 buy n how do i fix my cycle..???

DO NOT add ammonia, the fish already produce it you will have to do 2-3 water changes a day, get a brand new bucket from a shop i use a nappy/daiper bucket, what sort of test kit do you have, what size is your tank, what filter are you using, and what type of fish you got?

im currently doing a "fish-in" cycle, so i can help and what products are you using

 

[fatheadminnow]

Ahhhh...rewlyn to the rescue!

Yeah, rewlyn will know a lot from his current fish-in cycle.

Here is what you want to do:

Like stated above, fish produce Ammonia by passing water through their gills.

Also, poo that is left in the tank, and left over fish food in the tank will also produce ammonia, therefore these should be removed form the tank by using a Gravel Vac to siphon this out.

A gravel vac should be used every water change.

1. Water change water change, and more water changes is what you are going to be doing every day for the next 3-4 weeks straight minimum.

When Ammonia is present in your tank, by the fish, Autotrophic bacteria start to colonize in our filters to process the Ammonia. These Autotrophic bacteria feed of off Ammonia. When Ammonia begins to be processed by these bacteria, the Ammonia is turned into NitrIte.

Now, another type of Bacteria in our filters begin to colonize. These bacteria process NitrIte into NitrAte.

There are no bacteria that Process NitrAte, therefore nitrAte must be taken out by weekly water changes. However, weekly water changes is what you do once you fish-in cycle is complete.

2. If you have an Ammonia reading above .25 ppm and fish are exposed to this, this can give the fish permanent gill damage.

Also, if you have a NitrIte reading over .25 ppm and fish are exposed to this, this can give the fish permanent nerve damage.

NitrAte starts to become harmful to fish if it is up near 50+ ppm.

So WATER CHANGES MUST be performed every day to keep the Ammonia and/or NitrIte at or below .25 ppm.

3. After a while you will start to notice that your Ammonia and/or NitrIte is not rising that high that fast anymore, and this is because you are colonizing bacteria in your filter to process the Ammonia and NitrIte.

At this time you will notice that your NitrAte level is slowly rising. This is good.

Once your Ammonia and NitrIte stay at zero for an entire week WITHOUT you doing any water changes, you can consider yourself cycled!

At this point, which will usually be 4-6 weeks after you started the cycling process, you will have to perform weekly 10-20% water changes to keep your NitrAte down.

Hope this helps a little.

EDIT: Having a pH above 7.0 is perfectly fine. Actually a pH of 8.4 is optimal for the beneficial bacteria to grow in our filters.

-FHM

 

[rewlyn]

could not have put it any better myself

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, nice post by FHM there.

As said, performing large water changes (with good water changing technique) is urgent in your situation. When you do a water change, you remove water from the tank with a device that's both a siphon and a "gravel cleaner." This is usually a clear hose with a larger clear cylinder that's the end that stirs up the gravel. They come in different sizes for different tanks. Most people buy one to use with a large bucket but there are even types that can stretch down the hall to a tub and then serve double-duty to refill the tank from the bathroom or kitchen faucet. The replacement tap water needs to be "conditioned" by simply adding a product (like Seachem Prime or API StressCoat) to remove chlorine/chloramine. The replacement water should also be roughly temperature matched to the tank (you can just use your hand to estimate.)

Performing large water changes without knowing what you've accomplished in terms of the toxins (ammonia and nitrite(NO2)) gets old really fast. To know what you're doing you need a freshwater test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. There is also another good kit, the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit. Both of these are kits that use liquid-reagents and test tubes, not paper strips. Paper strip based tests are basically useless for what you need.

Once you get your kit you should post up your tap and tank water results for all the tests for the members to see and comment on. These tests will help you figure out a a pattern of percentages and frequencies of water changes that will keep your tank healthy for your fish during the month or more that FHM has mentioned above.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kenzie]

Yes, nice post by FHM there.

As said, performing large water changes (with good water changing technique) is urgent in your situation. When you do a water change, you remove water from the tank with a device that's both a siphon and a "gravel cleaner." This is usually a clear hose with a larger clear cylinder that's the end that stirs up the gravel. They come in different sizes for different tanks. Most people buy one to use with a large bucket but there are even types that can stretch down the hall to a tub and then serve double-duty to refill the tank from the bathroom or kitchen faucet. The replacement tap water needs to be "conditioned" by simply adding a product (like Seachem Prime or API StressCoat) to remove chlorine/chloramine. The replacement water should also be roughly temperature matched to the tank (you can just use your hand to estimate.)

Performing large water changes without knowing what you've accomplished in terms of the toxins (ammonia and nitrite(NO2)) gets old really fast. To know what you're doing you need a freshwater test kit. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. There is also another good kit, the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit. Both of these are kits that use liquid-reagents and test tubes, not paper strips. Paper strip based tests are basically useless for what you need.

Once you get your kit you should post up your tap and tank water results for all the tests for the members to see and comment on. These tests will help you figure out a a pattern of percentages and frequencies of water changes that will keep your tank healthy for your fish during the month or more that FHM has mentioned above.

~~waterdrop~~

Thanx so much for all ur help evry1... i have a gravel cleaner and ill go get a proper testing kit now as was using those rubbish paper strips.... tank size 71L new fluval 3 pump... so ill do my best 2 save the rest of my lil babies!!!! wot percentage water change should i do.. i have a neon tetra 2 mollies.. a barb sucker. a guppy, 2 black widow?? and 2 wormy like things that will get stripes eventually!!!

 

[fatheadminnow]

The amount of water you change is going to depend on the level of Ammonia and/or NitrIte present in your tank.

To be on the safe side for now, since you don't have a test kit yet, I would do around a 40% water change.

-FHM

 

[rewlyn]

The amount of water you change is going to depend on the level of Ammonia and/or NitrIte present in your tank.

To be on the safe side for now, since you don't have a test kit yet, I would do around a 40% water change.

-FHM

when you get your test kit do an ammonia reading first then do 1 water change, if it drops by half eg: from 4ppm to 2ppm i would do another w/c
and test again, technically it should be about 1ppm, if you got the time do 1 more.

if you dont have time once you get your api master test kit i would do 1 w/c then test, check reading if it drops by half you should be able to do 75% water changes try to do 2 a day if possible, it wiil consume a lot of your time and money, if you know someone who is able to hold your fish for a while then i would take them out and do a fishless. and please if your lfs trys to sell you anything extra dont take it cause they are ment to know but dont they are just after your money i just had an argument with mine because im learning to much for him to scam me, trust me they dont like it.

if your curios about the products he trys to sell you take a note of what the product is and post it up in here and 1 of us will be able to let you know if it works or not

good luck and hope to here from you soon

AND REMEMBER "DONT GIVE UP", ive been in this cycle for about 4 weeks now and are startng to get somewhere

 

[kenzie]

all looks good... ive been doing my water changes n levels r all good... but my lil babies now have white spot!!!i raised the tank temp by a few degrees as stated on here n ive brought sum treatment 4 em.(WATERLIFE PROTOZIN) ive done a waterchange and added dosage 2 tank... it says do 4 3 days then again on day 6.. should i do water changes inbetween treatment 2 keep my levels sorted or is curing white spot priority over my levels 4 a week

 

[waterdrop]

Try to find one of oldman47's posts and he's got a good link about whitespot/ich. Also either he or Wilder can probably help you with the juggling of curing the ich while also doing the cycling.

~~waterdrop~~
(you probably have another thread on this by now but happened to see this one)