New Setup Not Working

[pixie clarke]

Help Needed!!

I have recently brought our son a tropical fish Tank (first One) but the fish keep dying and i don’t know what we are doing wrong, so you help would be much appreciated

Here goes
Tank is a Triangle 20L aquarium, this was brought with light built in and supplied with a 200litre/hour silent 3 stage filter (model Number PAH-21:20L) , then we brought a heater , gravel etc..

So we get it home clean it add water, filter. gravel heater, also added (fresh Start for the chorine), and tested the water (pH and Nitrite) witch both are testing fine according to the chart. few days later added some plants then added some tetra’s and guppies 5 of each, within 3 hours all the tetra’s died and the guppies are all on the top of the tank, (i know this is going to sound a bit silly) but it looked like they are gasping for air, so back to the fish shop for a air filter and air stone, which helped within 15mins of putting in the air stone the fish came down ( great we thought solved the issue)
Back to the shop again the following day to replace tetra’s (as our son was upset of losing the first lot
But unfortunately we are still losing fish, one each day (tested the water again and all fine) the only other observation I have made is the fish seem to be fighting against the current from the filter

Any help or thought / ideas would be much appreciated

Paul

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Paul and Welcome to TFF!

You are in what we call a Fish-In Cycling Situation and the members will be able to help you out. Your urgent need is to learn about and perform water changes. A gravel-cleaning-siphon (clear cylinder which allows the gravel the churn up and then fall back down, releasing debris into the water that is slowly siphoning out via the tube into a bucked or drain) is used, but even prior to that you can change water any way possible rather than wait for a proper siphon. You need to do large changes, about 75% of the water going out, or even down until they can just swim. The return tap water must first be treated with the chemical you already have which removes chlorine or chloramines (treat the water at 1.5x whatever the instructions call for but not more than 2x) and the water needs to be roughly temperature matched (your hand is good enough for this if you are reasonably careful.)

What you are doing by changing the water is removing ammonia and nitrite(NO2), both of which are deadly poisons to fish and cause them stress, which they exhibit by gasping at the surface and of course dying. What type of test kit do you have? Paper strip tests are worse than useless, they are misleading. One of the most basic things you will need is a good liquid-reagent based test kit (many of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, or the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit.)

Once you have managed your emergency water change (you can perform another one as soon as an hour after the previous) you will watch for signs of stress again over the next 12 to 24 hours and be preparted to repeat 12 or 24 hours later. As soon as you get a good test kit you will be able to -know- when changes are needed. Anway, once things have settled down, your first reading assignment is in our Beginners Resource Center. Please read the articles on The Nitrogen Cycle, The Fish-In Cycle and the Fishless Cycle.

Ideally, fish need a thing called a "working biofilter" to be fully operational prior to them being introduced to the tank environment. The biofilter usually takes a minimum of about 2 months to "grow." Until it is fully running, or "cycled" as we say, the tank as a system is not really safe for fish. Thus, we have to manually maintain the water on a daily basis, to raise the chances of keeping them alive.

We get dozens of these cases per month, so lots of the members will be able to help out and usually one or two helpers is online at any given moment. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Pixie Clarke.
As WD said, you are dealing with an uncycled filter. I have a link in my signature area to a fairly thorough treatment of the subject. WD will keep you on the right track if you follow through with his suggestions. He and I both give frequent advice to new fish keepers on the subject because so many new people find themselves in your predicament.