Please Help! Fish Dying!

[Truck]

yes use dechlorinator, and fill the kettle with cold water, boil it (make sure its cold water from the cold tap not hot) then add till you feel the tank temp is the same as the water temp, a thermometer may be useful

 

[Teuchter]

As others have said - get some de-chlorinator (Tap water conditioner) from Petsmart or wherever and prepare a large (at least 50%, preferably 75%) water change in a clean bucket (one that has not been used for anything else). Let it stand for an hour or so and get it to the same temperature as your tank. While it's standing, drain an equivilent amount of water out of your tank. As soon as you add the new water you should see your fish start to perk up.

Do this daily (or even twice a day at first) until your tank shows zero ammonia and nitrates. It may take a while, but I'd guess you are near the end of the cycling now. In the meantime, don't touch your filter or try to clean it out.

Keep us posted....

 

[rdd1952]

ANYWAYS, i got the readings. nitrate is about 40, nitrate is about 3.0 (which is high i think), hardness is 300...which i know is too hard, alkakinity is between 0 and 40. the green square is kinda green with a lil yellow in it. yellow is 0 and green is 40 so i dunno, and pH is 7.8

thanks for making me get that...now how do i fix it?? water changes?? and about how much??

Unfortunately, it looks like you bought test strips They are pretty much useless (and more expensive). The nitrite reading is extremely high. And since you got strips, you don't know yur ammonia reading which is also very toxic (especially at your pH level). Based on the 3.0 nitrite, I would suggest an immediate 50% water change and then another 2 hours later. That should lower the nitrite to about .75 (still way too high). Continue water changes as needed until the nitrite is below .25 ppm and then as needed to keep it there.

Also, as soon as you can get bck to the store, get a good liquid master test kit that will test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

 

[PiMpPiStOl]

ANYWAYS, i got the readings. nitrate is about 40, nitrate is about 3.0 (which is high i think), hardness is 300...which i know is too hard, alkakinity is between 0 and 40. the green square is kinda green with a lil yellow in it. yellow is 0 and green is 40 so i dunno, and pH is 7.8

thanks for making me get that...now how do i fix it?? water changes?? and about how much??

Unfortunately, it looks like you bought test strips They are pretty much useless (and more expensive). The nitrite reading is extremely high. And since you got strips, you don't know yur ammonia reading which is also very toxic (especially at your pH level). Based on the 3.0 nitrite, I would suggest an immediate 50% water change and then another 2 hours later. That should lower the nitrite to about .75 (still way too high). Continue water changes as needed until the nitrite is below .25 ppm and then as needed to keep it there.

Also, as soon as you can get bck to the store, get a good liquid master test kit that will test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

thats all they had was the strips. its walmart. its all i could find anyway. would they have the liquid master?

but the weird thing is, just these 2 puffers died today. the 3rd if perfectly fine. hes brighter looking too. i dunno if i bought sick fish??

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not certain if Walmart generally has the master kits or not but Petsmart and Petco should have them. If you find it online at Petsmart.com and print out the page with the price, they will honor it in the store. Most likely, you will just need to get a manager to do it for you. This is the API kit so many members, including myself, use.

a swordtail, 2 balloon bellys, and now a pea puffer

From looking at your original post, it sounded as though you have had at least 4 deaths. I doubt it was sick fish. Readings that high are definitely a problem. Since you have high nitrite, it is guaranteed that you have or at least had high ammonia which is most likely the reason for the deaths. Some fish handle it better than others but they even the ones that survive would have been effected long term in some fashion.

 

[Jimbo1984]

i dunno if i bought sick fish??

Have you not been listening to what these people have been saying?!?!

You stocked the tank too quickly, not allowing the filter time get working properly. It needs time to build up bacteria in the sponges to break down the ammonia and nitrite you are now having problems with. This can be done by adding a few small hardy fish to the tank to produce some ammonia, but more commonly by adding the ammonia that the fish would be producing out of a bottle to mimic fish being in the tank so the filter can start doing its job and no fish get exposed to toxic conditions.

Man, you didn't even know about water changes?!?!

Do some research...

 

[Jazzzz]

And don't forget to dechlorinate the water before putting it into your tank....all so make sure it's about the same temp as your tank otherwise the shock of the cold water could also kill them!!

Leanne

is there a fast way of dechlorinating? or just let it age?? and how do i make it the same temp??

do you own any dechlorinator