Newbie With Enormous Troubles

[platypuss]

I purchased a biube as I have never kept fish before. I followed all the instructions and waited 28 days before adding fish. I was told at the pet shop 2 platys and 7 neon tetras would be ok to put it. They seemed to settle in fine and the next couple of days had baby platys. Now here comes the bad news - 1 neon died yesterday, looked very pale and since then several of the fish including the platys had white spot. I went to the pet shop bought water test kit, first aid kit for the biube and carried out water test and a partial water change.

results: amonia 1
Nitrate 1
nitrite 0.5
ph 7

Now the platy has died and the rest of the neons have started looking pale and are hardly moving at all and a lot of the baby platys had got into the filter and died.

Am I going to lose them all or is there anything else I can do?

Help

 

[hogan53]

change half of the water straight away add conditioner first, the filters in these orbs are not that great add another quarter tomorrow,

 

[platypuss]

change half of the water straight away add conditioner first, the filters in these orbs are not that great add another quarter tomorrow,

Thank you for replying straight away hogan. I followed the 'first aid' filter instructions and have to add another packet of white powder after 7 days then replace the filter a further 7 days after that. I have not got any water conditioner - is there one that you recommend or shall I use the sachet out of the new filter kit?

Thanks again for your help and any further help would be much appreciated.

 

[hogan53]

i have a orb but i modified it to run on a external filter i have never lost any fish its been running a couple of years since i changed it to a external.
hope this helps you need to get the nitrite to zero and also ammonia use ammo lock2 hope this helps you.
hogan

 

[hogan53]

also you need to treat for white spot what is the firts aid for setting up ?

 

[platypuss]

The first aid kit is made for the biube by reef one and is supposed to treat most fish problems ( ie stress, wounds, ulcers, white spot, or gill and skin parasitic attacks - it has a complete new filter with 2 sachets of water treatment. I changed the existing filter with the first aid one and added one sachet of water treatment, next week i have to change a third of the water then add the 2nd sachet then after a further 7 days remove filter and replace with a standard filter. This is working out quite expensive. I also need advice as to when and what fish I will be able to add. I have plastic plants in at the moment and the cermaic stones in the base. I am sorry I may sound thick or stupid but I am an absolute novice. It was easier bringing up two teenage boys.

Once again thanks for all your help and advice - perhaps I should have started with gold fish!!!!

 

[hogan53]

Amm lock2 is a water conditioner ie it removes Chlorine/Chloramine and detoxifies fish waste also it will detoxify 3.0ppm of ammonia instantly.
to a non toxic form to help the filter.

 

[Sibelius]

Stress coat, or the Tetra Aquasafe are the two best water conditioners. I use stress coat. Never add water that hasn't been dechlorinated water to any fish tank. Good luck with your rescue operation. If you have one, move the fish to another aquarium, although I presume this is your first tank.

 

[platypuss]

One of the neons is covered in white spots and looks very unhealthy - would it be worth taking him/her out of the tank - and you are right I do not have another tank to put it in. The platy has just eaten one of the babies - I feed them two flakes a day and they still look for food - I do not want to overfeed them - should I give them more?

 

[hogan53]

i would not clean or remove the filter or change it for a least 8 weeks thats how long it can take for it to mature in one of these orbs, ask your LFS can you have some of there mature sponge out of a filter and add it to yours, cut it up if needed or add it to a small internal filter run by a air pump.

 

[Sibelius]

Don't worry about the platy eating his/her young. They are known to. Don't feed more than absolutely necessary.

 

[hogan53]

platys are big eaters give some food, little but often, you need to get a whitespot treatment aswell.

 

[platypuss]

On the first aid kit instructions it says do not leave it for than 7 days and must be replaced with a standard cartridge but on the full instructions it tells you to leave in for 21 days - I am confused!! - it is supposed to treat white spot - or did you mean add a further treatment for whitespot?

 

[hogan53]

i would leave the neon if you have no place to put it ,a water change may stave off the outbreak. do you have dechlorinator Is that what the sachet is?or is that for maturing the filter Ammo lock will save you money.

 

[platypuss]

The sachet is 'according to the pack' is a treatment for the illnesses - I have lost faith in these products as they condradict instructions on the pack to the printed instructions inside. I do have a new filter which contains stress coat/ zyme sachets. I will not be able to get to a pet store until tomorrow night but I could use the sachets if that might help