Newb

[the gagsy]

Do not add any ammonia to a tank with fish in it unless you are holding the net in your hand to remove all the fish that it kills instantly.

Ammonia is the stuff you are trying to get rid of by cycling a tank. the fish produce ammonia by eating the food they get and then eliminating their wastes. That is why the advice you got to hold back on feeding somewhat but don't let the fish starve. Ammonia is useful in an empty tank to simulate having fish in there, the bacteria won't know the difference.
Where you are right now means big and frequent water changes just to try to keep some of your fish alive. When you get a good technique going on water testing you may be able to do only daily water changes. Until you start reading safe levels I would do at least twice daily water changes of at least 25% of the water. The test kit will be easier to read when you are closer to reasonable levels of pollutants in the water. After you get that going, you can start to look around for a way to rehome some of the surplus fish. As others have said, you are not just overstocked but have incompatible fish.
A sumersible heater should be under the water, adjusting thingy and all. It will probably have a water line on the outer tube that should always be below the water line, even during water changes unless you unplug it.
I have used the Jungle Start Right product. It is a decent dechlorinator. Right now I am using the seachem Prime because although its slightly more expensive per bottle, it treats many times more water so its much cheaper to use. You use drops of it instead of capfuls for small quantities of water like 10 gallons. It takes a capful to treat 50 gallons instead. For me, 50 gallons is not an unusually large amount for a normal Saturday but I have more than one tank.

Man you dunno much about this hobby, considering you read up on it you missd all the important bits, just putting all them fish in tank and adding new ones you are asking for trouble. the most important part of setting up a tank is the begining you have to cycle it properly, which will normally take between 5 to 6 weeks then do your water tests thats important, you generally cycle tank with a few hardy fish do your water tests then build it up slowly put loads of fish in and you will put to much of a strain on your bacteria in filters, once its set up and happy, then you can add your other fish and then only when you have had them in qurentine tank for at least 2 weeks, dont stick to rules and net result dead fish and empty wallet. one other thing is before you populate your tank, have a good idea of what you want in it, when i started i looked around LFS for weeks deciding on setup and fish, then set it up and put them fish in slowly after cycling. stick to them rules and you wont go far wrong, i have had my tanks running for years now with some of my original fish still in them and old and happy as anything.(this was intended for original post not oldman 47)

 

[silas313]

thanks for help i got new tank today to get cycling and i am about to get couple filters. I got a 55 gal. Is this Ammonia good to do the cycling? I did the "shake and bubble=no* But also i dunno the incrediates weather or not its good to use. Says. Clear ammonia as title its from walmart. Ot says incredients ammonium hydroxide and surfactant. can i use this for cycling new tank? and on side it says no phosphorus. Is this good ammonia to do cycling with if not ill keep looking around. Thanks on help so far guys appreciate and i know i messed up also any links to understanding api test kits iam ordering them in mail off a site. I was wondering if i could read about em before i get em to understand em sense iam confused with my ghetto stripes ty

 

[Ace Of Spades]

Nice work on the 55 gal, me and the fish thank you

 

[OldMan47]

Silas313, Surfactant is another fancy word for soap. You definitely do not want any soap in a fish tank.

 

[silas313]

Darn on the soap! I ll just throw it away now no use in cleaning with it I hate the smell. Anyways an update i did 1/3 water change and i put water back in using 5 gal buckets after i added the proper usage of stress coat and temp is right. Also i was dumb and bought temp thingys that only started at 94 or so so i had to go back few times. Also i added my air pump and sense i keep having issues wit it raising from in the tank i just got it stickin 1 in in on side of water of tank. hopfully that be good and hopfully fish will get better and so will the tank.. i just keep up on water changes and adding the stress coat. Also wat exactly do u guys mean by not cleaning out good bacteria out of a filter and in the old water. i know not to clean it in new water.. but u need to get the scum off the sides. and so wat.. the inside has good stuff or wat? i got HOB normal ghetto filter under power... atm

 

[OldMan47]

To avoid removing the good bacteria, when you do a partial water change, rinse out the filter elements in the old tank water. If you throw away the old filter elements, you would be throwing away the good bacteria. If you scrub everything on the inside of the filter with anything at all, you are scrubbing away the surface coating of bacteria too. As far as keeping the tank looking clean, you can remove the scum and algae from the glass with a scraper, I use a magnetic thing where my hands stay on the outside and the scrubbing pad is on the inside. After cleaning off the glass, use a gravel vacuum to clean off the surface of the gravel. That is all you should need to do to make the tank look nice. The water changes are not for appearance, they are for the fishes health. They will sometimes help keep things looking nice but without them you won't have any fish to look at anyway. You need some source of ammonia in the water to cycle a new tank. It can be pure ammonia like you can get at a hardware store or it can be decaying fish food which smells just wonderful or a decaying shrimp which smells as good as the decaying fish food or it can even be very hardy fish that you don't care about. The reason you need to not care about them is that you are going to make them live in poisonous water that will harm them no matter how careful you are.

 

[silas313]

thanks for reply so i do water change then i clean filter pad into tank water? let crap go in there? then put back into filter? And i use sphyon to suck up rocks got alot of bad stuff out. so last nite i did 1/3 water change and added air pump which they go freakin nuts at swimming around now like i said kinda worried cause so fast swimming but i think its just lil happier with that air pump tube making oxygen into water. ALso i added melafix to tank for fish fin torn . Wat is this no carbon thing i read about where carbon takes medcine out so take out filter? i took filter out of water added the melafix then let it sit 10 minutes then put filter back into the filteration device. is that good or no? lol i gotta learn about that black carbon stuff and how usefull is it.

also i did 1/3 water change sunday u think tuesday another good day to do 1/3 water change and is stress coat api good for taking chlroine out and is aqua safe good too for this? many people say yes and no but i think it does so i use stress coat for now...

 

[waterdrop]

Silas,

Stress Coat is fine for taking the chlorine/chloramine out of the tap water, that is what I and many others use. Read the directions carefully and use at least the required amount. As said above, using more in your case would be ok too.

The -most important thing- you need to do are those water changes. Twice daily 25% (or the 1/3 like you are doing) is more important right now than anything else. Its a lot of fuss, with dechlor and temp matching, but its more important than these other things you are worrying about like meds and carbon. Listen to oldman46, he knows what he's talking about.

So you will be doing water changes more frequently than filter squeeze-outs, in fact, while you are trying to get the filter to cycle you don't want to squeeze out filter sponges any more than you have to. Others can advise best filter clean frequency for you, but lets say they say every two weeks: what you'll do is siphon one of your 25% water changes out of the tank into a bucket and then squeeze out the filter material in that bucket of aquarium water. You do it gently to lose the big particles but preserve the bacteria in the sponge. If it were tap water it would kill the precious bacteria.

The -next- most important thing for you is the liquid test kit you've ordered (and you may need eye dropper to get water level right in test tube). When it gets in you need to start being more regular about measurements of ammonia, nitrite and pH, (probably daily for now) which you can report here so people can help with your problem. A good way to practice with your new kit will be to measure your tap water and report that too. You may need a little kitchen timer to help with the tests. I have one that hangs around my neck, so I can do other things while the color develops in the test tube.

I guess you are still looking for good ammonia to use to cycle your new 55G? You are on the right track: no soap (ie. no foaming when shaken, only bubbles), no color, no perfume. When you get it home and test it with a few gallons it will take some experiments to figure out the right number of drops to get your ppm right - it just needs to be between 4ppm and 8ppm, hopefully 5-6ppm but may be hard to judge so just do your best and don't stress about it. (All of this assumes you have figured out and installed filtration for the new tank, right?)

good luck again

 

[silas313]

thank you for help just for now today iam going to being doing a water change again.