debob484
New Member
Hi all!
I'm brand new here and so happy I've found this forum.
Anyway, about a month ago I wound up with a 55 gal. aquarium rescue. It was deserted in a local restraunt.
The tank was new, set up at Christmas and had 6 rather large Goldfish in it and put directly in when set up. It took my DH and myself 3 hours from start to finish to move it to my home and refill the tank. Didn't clean or change the filter media or gravel. Kept the Goldfish for a week.
So a month has gone by, during this time I gave away the Goldfish, turned up the heat and bought some tropicals. 10 Neons, 3 Guppys, 2 Small Angels and a Pleco. I've done one water change of about 30% and one of about 10%
Thus far I've lost 2 guppies, 2 Neons and 1 Angel. Absolutely no symptoms before death, just woke up and they were dead. This happened over a period of over a week. All of these fish were fine, eating, swimming and acting normal the day before they died.
I was thinking I had a water problem so I went out and bought a good test kit and here's what I've found.
PH - 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Tap water right out of the faucet: 6.0
I have a Penguin Bio Filter in the tank with two bio wheels, not sure of the model as it just came with the tank when I adopted it.
I used Stress Coat and Stress Zime when setting up the tank and Stress Coat when doing the water change.
I added 1 tsp. of salt to the water per 5 gallons over a week ago as it looked as if one of my Angels had damage and a little fungus. It cleared up but seems to be reappearing. The Angel that died looked perfect.
Yes, I know now that Pleco's shouldn't have salt in the water, just found that out. So I didn't add more salt when doing the water change.
Things sure have changed since I last had aquariums, never tested the water, used to break down my tanks and clean them with bleach (filters and all) and put my fish right back in. Bred Angel fish under those conditions and never lost any fish. Never even heard of a bio filter.
So after reading about cycling, shouldn't I have some kind of Nitrate reading after all of this time?
I'm brand new here and so happy I've found this forum.
Anyway, about a month ago I wound up with a 55 gal. aquarium rescue. It was deserted in a local restraunt.
The tank was new, set up at Christmas and had 6 rather large Goldfish in it and put directly in when set up. It took my DH and myself 3 hours from start to finish to move it to my home and refill the tank. Didn't clean or change the filter media or gravel. Kept the Goldfish for a week.
So a month has gone by, during this time I gave away the Goldfish, turned up the heat and bought some tropicals. 10 Neons, 3 Guppys, 2 Small Angels and a Pleco. I've done one water change of about 30% and one of about 10%
Thus far I've lost 2 guppies, 2 Neons and 1 Angel. Absolutely no symptoms before death, just woke up and they were dead. This happened over a period of over a week. All of these fish were fine, eating, swimming and acting normal the day before they died.
I was thinking I had a water problem so I went out and bought a good test kit and here's what I've found.
PH - 6.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
Tap water right out of the faucet: 6.0
I have a Penguin Bio Filter in the tank with two bio wheels, not sure of the model as it just came with the tank when I adopted it.
I used Stress Coat and Stress Zime when setting up the tank and Stress Coat when doing the water change.
I added 1 tsp. of salt to the water per 5 gallons over a week ago as it looked as if one of my Angels had damage and a little fungus. It cleared up but seems to be reappearing. The Angel that died looked perfect.
Yes, I know now that Pleco's shouldn't have salt in the water, just found that out. So I didn't add more salt when doing the water change.
Things sure have changed since I last had aquariums, never tested the water, used to break down my tanks and clean them with bleach (filters and all) and put my fish right back in. Bred Angel fish under those conditions and never lost any fish. Never even heard of a bio filter.
So after reading about cycling, shouldn't I have some kind of Nitrate reading after all of this time?
