Need Some Help?

[simplysim]

Hi

I'm new and can i say i am so pleased i found this site, I really need your help, we got out 30L fish tank 4 weeks ago (tropical) we did everything the shop told us to do, we first introduced 4 hardy fish 2 weeks after having the tank empty for 2 weeks.. then the week after we introduced 8 fish (last Sunday) since then everyday a fish has died. We took a water sample into the shop which they tested and said it was fine but has said we should change the filter and change the water, problem i have now is yesterday we noticed one of our fish has had babies but it only look like one has survived so now im a little worried about changing the water incase we kill the baby..... can anyone advise me or give me some thought on why our fish are dying, and what should i do about changing the filter and water?

Thanks in advance

Simone

 

[rabbut]

HUM....Sounds distinctly like NTS (New Tank Symdrome) coupled with overstocking to me. This is besically where you don't do anything to build up a bacterial colonie in your filter before adding fish to the tank. This leads to ammonia and/or nitrite skikes which poison the fish to death I should create a new tearm on here, BSAS (Bad Shop Advise Symdrome) to cover the number of times this has happened...

OK, can you get waterstats for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH, in numbers, so that we can see where your filter is in it's cycle? Please don't accept "it's fine" when you get the water tested at the LFS, as they often say that when ammonia and/or nitrite are raised, and that would mean that they realy aren't fine. Ammonia and nitrite need to be zero at all times when the filter is mature, leading onto the next point...

When the shop advised you to change the filters, exactly what were you told to change, and did you do this. Please don't ruh to do as they surgested at this point if you haven't already, as it may well put you in a worse situation Filter media rarely needs replacing, and when it does, you must never do it all at one, or you will remove the filter bacteria that your fish rely on to survive and your ammonia and nitrite levels will raise to angerous levels again...

Waterchanges are going to be the order of the day here, 50% daily waterchanges should be what you are doing untill you have a liquid regent based test kit to keep track of levels for yourself. A liquid based test kit is probibly the most important tool to any serious aquarist, and I'd highly recomend getting one. Test strips are useless, and work out more expencive than liquid kits long-term also

Stocking, will be a major stumbling block. We recomend a stocking on one inch of fish per gallon of water. A 30l tank holds about 6.6g, so 6.6inches of fish is your maximum You had 12 fish in there after your second visuit, so unless they were tiny fish of 1/2 an inch adult size, you were masively overstocked and it is likely the filter (even if the tank was mature) was able to cope. The situation gets worse if it is a Biorb style tank, with limited surface area and frankly as s**t filter system that would struggle with a light bio-load... The inch per gallon rule was arranged arround small fish in a rectangular shaped tank with a power filter...

It doen't look entirely your fault, as the LFS has apparently given poor advise, even by LFS advise standords

Best of luck sorting this mess out , and to TFF
Rabbut

 

[simplysim]

HUM....Sounds distinctly like NTS (New Tank Symdrome) coupled with overstocking to me. This is besically where you don't do anything to build up a bacterial colonie in your filter before adding fish to the tank. This leads to ammonia and/or nitrite skikes which poison the fish to death I should create a new tearm on here, BSAS (Bad Shop Advise Symdrome) to cover the number of times this has happened...

OK, can you get waterstats for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH, in numbers, so that we can see where your filter is in it's cycle? Please don't accept "it's fine" when you get the water tested at the LFS, as they often say that when ammonia and/or nitrite are raised, and that would mean that they realy aren't fine. Ammonia and nitrite need to be zero at all times when the filter is mature, leading onto the next point...

When the shop advised you to change the filters, exactly what were you told to change, and did you do this. Please don't ruh to do as they surgested at this point if you haven't already, as it may well put you in a worse situation Filter media rarely needs replacing, and when it does, you must never do it all at one, or you will remove the filter bacteria that your fish rely on to survive and your ammonia and nitrite levels will raise to angerous levels again...

Waterchanges are going to be the order of the day here, 50% daily waterchanges should be what you are doing untill you have a liquid regent based test kit to keep track of levels for yourself. A liquid based test kit is probibly the most important tool to any serious aquarist, and I'd highly recomend getting one. Test strips are useless, and work out more expencive than liquid kits long-term also

Stocking, will be a major stumbling block. We recomend a stocking on one inch of fish per gallon of water. A 30l tank holds about 6.6g, so 6.6inches of fish is your maximum You had 12 fish in there after your second visuit, so unless they were tiny fish of 1/2 an inch adult size, you were masively overstocked and it is likely the filter (even if the tank was mature) was able to cope. The situation gets worse if it is a Biorb style tank, with limited surface area and frankly as s**t filter system that would struggle with a light bio-load... The inch per gallon rule was arranged arround small fish in a rectangular shaped tank with a power filter...

It doen't look entirely your fault, as the LFS has apparently given poor advise, even by LFS advise standords

Best of luck sorting this mess out , and to TFF
Rabbut

 

[shelaghfishface]

is it a biorb by any chance ? if so to get even 4 fish to live in there with success would take 4 months+ ( each takes 28 to allow the filter to catch up)