New Tank

[Ladeek]

Hey need some help I've just started out with tropical fish and its not going well have lost seven fish in 3 days did everything the way I was told by pet shop set the tank up with cold water and put in heater and air filter, let the temperature come up to 25 degrees over 4 days did a nitrate test which at first came back pink and the next day was clear. Gig done water start and added the reccomended amount drops tested the ph level and it was 7.5. So added the fish and since th fish have been in the water has gone very cloudy?? And they are all swimming around at the top of the tank? Almost like they can't breathe?

 

[DanRaggyy]

Have You Got An Oxygen Pipe In The Tank ?

 

[Ladeek]

No just an sit filter

Air filter I mean

 

[RyanV]

Please for the sake of your fish, cycle the tank first, you can find all the information here - http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/

 

[Ladeek]

My nitrite was 0.0ng when I put fish in and ph was 7.5 yet fish are dying and have cloudy wstee

Water

 

[techen]

My nitrite was 0.0ng when I put fish in and ph was 7.5 yet fish are dying and have cloudy wstee

Water

There dying because you never cycled your tank. A member gave you a link to this, PLEASE READ IT. For the sake of the fish, There dying due to high ammonia levels that the filter can't handle.

Daily water changes are needed, 50% every single day.

What fish do you have left?

 

[Tuxyu3]

My nitrite was 0.0ng when I put fish in

Of course it was, where would any waste come from? There was probably no ammonia or nitrate before you added fish either. The fish are now producing waste that is poisoning them, you will need to return them and do a fishless cycle before adding fish or do a fish-in cycle.

techen said 50% water changes but if there are plenty of fish in the tank you will need to do larger ones with temperature matched and dechlorinated water, possibly multiple times a day.

 

[seeley82]

You aint the first and you wont be the last to do the, the furst thing to do when taking up the hobby is read up as much as you can or you run the high risk of watching the fish you just spent your money on going to fishy hevan. The amount of fish you put in at any one time will wipe them out quick as your filter can not cope with the amount of waste being produced. There is loads of info with in this site to help you along the way. Like the other guys say large daily W/C needed until the filter matures and when adding fish do it little by little.
Keep happy

 

[Ladeek]

Hey I did read the information provided, but still finding it a bit confusung, I wish the fish sho would have explained a lil better! I have seven fish left there was 14, so even though the nitrite levels and ph levels are ok it's also ammonia levels to worry about. Is this why the water is cloudy and they are all swimming at the top of the tank? I can't take the fish back now so if any one would be willing to tell me step by step what I need to do now it would be greatly appreciated

 

[Ladeek]

And I always wanted fish but had never really looked into and then my husband thought it would be a great idea to just come home with it all as an early Xmas present!

 

[KCB]

There is actually a lot more to starting up a fish tank than most people think, but you have come to the right place for advice . If you can't rehome the fish then you will have to do a fish-in cycle.

See your fish poop and this produces ammonia. Ammonia is highly toxic to fish, so you need bacteria that 'eat' ammonia to build up in your filter. This bacteria will then convert ammonia into nitrIte, less harmful than ammonia but still toxic to fish. Another type of bacteria will build up and this converts nitrIte into nitrAte. Nitrate is only harmful in high doses and this is why we change a good amount of the tank water every week.

Your fish are gasping because they are suffering from ammonia poisoning (which damages the gills, the equivalent of human lungs).

So here is a step-by-step guide for you.
1. Buy an API master test kit, the liquid kind. This is to test your water for said ammonia and nitrItes.
2. If you can't get the test kit immediately, keep doing large water changes every day until you do (50-90%). Make sure you temperature match and dechlorinate the water first.
3. When you get the test kit, test your water. If the levels are above zero, keep doing large water changes until it is at 0.
4. Depending on how stocked your tank is, you will need to test your water once to twice a day (or more if you are heavily overstocked).
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 everyday until you regularly receive zero readings.

A lot of pet shops will not tell you this information as they want you to buy a tank from them, and then when the fish die all the time they want you to keep buying fish from them. It's a story that you see often on this forum unfortunately .

Can you tell us what breeds of fish you have in your tank and how many litres your tank is? This will give us an idea of how stocked your tank is.

 

[Ladeek]

Hey thank you very much really helpfull and explains a lot for me as I didn't really understand and your explanation as to why the fish are gasping was great I have a 60litre tank which has one guppy, one Molly two bottom feeders and 4 neons x

 

[Ladeek]

Wow thank you soooo much my fish are swimming around the tank normally I changed about 60% of the water

 

[DreamertK]

I was in your same position, and I can attest that you need to do 50% (at least) changes every single day. I did that for a few weeks before all of my levels reached 0. It was back breaking work for me, but now my gourami are happy and living in a clean environment.

I would also advise the purchase of the master kit. For 20$ you get 100 tests (a few months worth), while the test strips cost 10$ and only do 4 tests and are less accurate. It's a steal!

For the first two or so weeks, just focus on ammonia (NH3) testing. All animals produce ammonia from breaking down proteins they eat, us humans convert the ammonia into urea (a less toxic form) and pee it out. The fish just pass it through their gills because in their natural environment, the water is going to be changing all the time to remove it so they don't need to worry about it. When they're confined in a fish tank, the ammonia just stays in the water with the fish and never gets removed. Ammonia is a particularly reactive molecule, which is why it's dangerous to humans and fish. However bacteria will feed off the ammonia in the fish tank and turn it into nitrite (NO2) for food. This bacteria is what you want to grow in your fish tank so that you don't have to manually remove the NH3 yourself! The second half of your cycle is where the bacteria is producing a lot of NO2 from the NH3, which may be less toxic than NH3 it's still a reactive chemical that will hurt the fish. So when you get 0 NH3, start testing for NO2 only. You probably wont need the NH3 test very much at this point. After another few weeks, the NO2 should drop down to 0 and nitrate (NO3) will start showing up on your test. NO3 is a lot less reactive and a lot less toxic, so fish can generally tolerate quite a bit of it in the water. At this point your cycle is over and you made it through the worst of times with your tank! At this point you can stop changing the water every day and just change once a week. If you purchase a lot of plants for the tank, its possible you may not even get 20ppm of NO3 in the tank (plus fish love plants), but it's still beneficial for the fish to get that weekly water change.

Tips:

• Dont allow NH3/NO2 levels to get above .05/.5ppm if you can help it. Do an immediate water change or multiple changes to reduce the levels as the fish will not survive for very long in this environment.
• You can just focus on testing NH3 until it reaches 0 again, then start testing just for NO2 until it reaches 0, and then test for NO3. You dont need to test for everything every time unless you have another fish loss or have general inquiry about the tank.
• Dont buy that bacteria in the bottle stuff, it's a waste of money.
• If you have a friend that has a fish tank, try getting some filter media off of them. Unfortunately bacteria is not stored that much in gravel or water. If you do this, then those bacteria will multiply and get you through the cycle!
• Always dechlorinate the water before putting new water into the tank. Usually tap water contains chlorine, which kills bacteria (including the ones you want in the tank). And try to put water in the tank that is close to the temperature of the tank water. The fish appreciate consistency.
• Dont add anymore fish until the tank is cycled.

Good luck!

 

[the_lock_man]

Tips:

• Dont allow NH3/NO2 levels to get above .05/.5ppm if you can help it. Do an immediate water change or multiple changes to reduce the levels as the fish will not survive for very long in this environment.

Make that 0.25ppm.

Other than that, I can't argue with any of the advice you've received thus far. Good luck.