Lost 5 guppies in brand new tank - what to do next

[Fishfunn]

04/27 1:00 p.m. EST- Finished setting up tank, undergravel filter, Marina S10 HOB filter, heater, thermometer, and did one ghost feeding.
Added one capful of Seachem Prime, one capful of Seachem Stability

04/28 1:00 p.m. EST - Dosed with 25 drops of Prime (eye dropper bottle) and half capful of stability. Added 5 small guppies, left light off for 3 hours.

Sorry to hear about your fish. FYI, even though you are adding Stabilty, it still takes at least 3-4 weeks to cycle a tank for the biological filter to grow all the necessary bacteria for breaking down ammonia and nitrites to 0 ppm. So you never add fish to a tank until the biological filtration is properly cycled and verified to be working using a liquid test kit. Ammonia and nitrites both have to be measured to 0 ppm. I find test strips to be too inaccurate to be precise.

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

Also, Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrites but only temporarily for 48 hours; then you would have to add it again. If you have a working biological filter, it would break down your ammonia quickly without having to add more doses of Prime.

 

[JCinPA]

Thanks for the reply, but you're a little behind this situation.

I have 6 guppies in the tank after using Tetra Safestart, now on Day 9 since then. Zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and nitrate may be coming off the floor. All fish are healthy and happy, water is still a little bacterial-cloudy. Things progressing just fine now.

I learned that Tetra Safestart and Dr. Tim's One and Only (identical products) are better than Stability, glad I found it.

 

[JCinPA]

Oh, my! I forgot to close this thread out! Many thanks for all the helpful suggestions along the way. This was an incredible learning experience, unfortunately at the expense of the first 5 guppies.

Anyway, the tank is completely cycled now, contains 4 guppies, 2 endlers, and 1 Sunset thick-lipped gourami (trichogaster labiosa). They are all healthy and happy. The Gourami went in Wednesday night and he got instantly comfortable, probably because the guppies made him feel secure.

Thread closed. Now I have to start on a larger tank, since that gourami is going to outgrow this one in a few months. Dr. Tim's fishless cycle this time, lol.