Problems With New Tank, Ill Fish!

[helen1207]

Sorry if this is posted to the wrong forum but still new to all this. Ok heres my problem.
I got an Aqua One 20 litre tank 5-6 weeks ago it has a heater and a filter that came with it. On the advice of the lfs i set up the tank, added my stress coat and stress zyme and a week later got 5 neon tetras for it. (i have had 2 tropical fish tanks before and never had any problems with disease or any dying) Anyway a week later i noticed the fish had what looked like cotton wool sprouting from their mouths!
I rushed to the lfs and told them, they gave me some aquarium salt and a bottle of myxazin. I put 1.5 level teaspoons of salt in and started on a 5 day course of myxazin. (taking out the carbon filter)
After the course they were no better, i did a 25% water change and a few days later started another 5 day course. (This was lfs advice)
No change, fish still no better so they gave me some protozin to try. Ileft it a week between the 2 meds, did another 25% water change and started using the protozin. At the moment ive put in days 1,2 and 3, day 6 is on wed BUT they are still no better.
During all this i got a tetra test kit for NO-2 Nitrite as recommended by lfs, they said the water would go from yellow to red then back down to yellow.It stayed on yellow so i stupidly presumed it was ok!
Today i purchased API master test kit and have the results here; P.H 6.0 AMMONIA 4.0ppm!!! NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm
Ialso did GH and KH but not sure of the results as no colour chart to compare but the results were (i think) GH 89.5ppm KH 143.2ppm ???
What should i do?? the ammonia is way to high so water changes but every day? continue with the protozin?
I also purchased a bottle of Pimafix and a bottle of Melafix..should i use these? are they safe to use together or with the other med?
Any advice would be appreciated as i dont want to loose these fish i also know now after being on this forum that the poor fish should not have been added straight away but i thought the lfs knew what they were doing! Thanks in advance Helen.

 

[Assaye]

Sorry if this is posted to the wrong forum but still new to all this. Ok heres my problem.
I got an Aqua One 20 litre tank 5-6 weeks ago it has a heater and a filter that came with it. On the advice of the lfs i set up the tank, added my stress coat and stress zyme and a week later got 5 neon tetras for it. (i have had 2 tropical fish tanks before and never had any problems with disease or any dying) Anyway a week later i noticed the fish had what looked like cotton wool sprouting from their mouths!
I rushed to the lfs and told them, they gave me some aquarium salt and a bottle of myxazin. I put 1.5 level teaspoons of salt in and started on a 5 day course of myxazin. (taking out the carbon filter)
After the course they were no better, i did a 25% water change and a few days later started another 5 day course. (This was lfs advice)
No change, fish still no better so they gave me some protozin to try. Ileft it a week between the 2 meds, did another 25% water change and started using the protozin. At the moment ive put in days 1,2 and 3, day 6 is on wed BUT they are still no better.
During all this i got a tetra test kit for NO-2 Nitrite as recommended by lfs, they said the water would go from yellow to red then back down to yellow.It stayed on yellow so i stupidly presumed it was ok!
Today i purchased API master test kit and have the results here; P.H 6.0 AMMONIA 4.0ppm!!! NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm
Ialso did GH and KH but not sure of the results as no colour chart to compare but the results were (i think) GH 89.5ppm KH 143.2ppm ???
What should i do?? the ammonia is way to high so water changes but every day? continue with the protozin?
I also purchased a bottle of Pimafix and a bottle of Melafix..should i use these? are they safe to use together or with the other med?
Any advice would be appreciated as i dont want to loose these fish i also know now after being on this forum that the poor fish should not have been added straight away but i thought the lfs knew what they were doing! Thanks in advance Helen.

Stop with the treatments for now. I very much doubt they'll work if the ammonia is that high - the fish just won't recover if the water is that toxic. Plus the medication will stress the fish and might make things worse at this stage.

Start on those large water changes. Your first goal is to get the ammonia as close to xero as possible. That will probably require two 75% water changes with a little while in between to let the water mix in. That will get you to a safer point and will mean that you can simply test for ammonia and nitrite every day and do extra water changes as needed.

 

[helen1207]

Thanks for reading all that! I am going to do a 75% water change now! If i do another 75% later on tonight when should i do another water test? Cheers

 

[Assaye]

Thanks for reading all that! I am going to do a 75% water change now! If i do another 75% later on tonight when should i do another water test? Cheers

You can if you like but it'll take both water changes just to bring the ammonia under control. I'd test about an hour after the second water change to see how much further there is to go.

 

[helen1207]

Thanks, ive just done the first one, will do another one later and then test before bed, if the ammonia was that high would that be affecting the PH reading? If the ammonia starts to come down do you recommend water changes every day till it stabalises? cheers for the advice

 

[Assaye]

Thanks, ive just done the first one, will do another one later and then test before bed, if the ammonia was that high would that be affecting the PH reading? If the ammonia starts to come down do you recommend water changes every day till it stabalises? cheers for the advice

Ammonia can affect pH yes. You can expect the pH to swing around a little bit.

Keep with with the water changes - the only rule is to do a water change whenever the levels get higher than zero!

 

[helen1207]

cheers, i will do the water change later and test ammonia again before bed. i will put readings on here again tomorrow and see what the ph is again.thanks

 

[helen1207]

ok so ive done 2 75% water changes today with about an hour inbetween to get the ammonia down. The last water change was an hour ago so ive done the tests again; results are PH 6.6 AMMONIA 1.0ppm NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm.
So the PH is coming up which i presume is ok, the ammonia is coming down but still not at a good level. So the question is should i now leave it till tomorrow afternoon (i work till the afternoon) then do more water changes or do i need to do another one tonight? any advice greatly appreciated!

 

[drobbyb]

If you did 2 75% water changes and still have 1.0 ppm ammonia, you need to increase the amount of water changed. Change as much as you can, down to where the fish have trouble swimming. Don't worry about the huge water changes, they are less stress than the ammonia! With a small tank like that, your ammonia is going to build up fast. You will probably need to do a large water change more than twice daily.

 

[helen1207]

Thanks for replying I will do another large 80-90% water change when i get home tomorrow then test again an hour or so later. I will post results again tomorrow!

 

[Assaye]

Just to say - you're doing great. Get as many water changes in as you can and don't be scared of lots of big ones.

I know how demoralising this is. I started out with 5 tetras in a 14 litre tank (on advice from the lfs) and the first couple of weeks were so heartbreaking and demoralising. It does get better and now I have 8 tanks and some gorgeous fish that are breeding. It's so worth it!

 

[helen1207]

Thanks...I was getting a bit stressed yesterday! So nice to have some propper advice from people who know what there doing through experience! I did have a 3 ft tank about 3 yrs ago and it ran like a dream, bad as it may sound I never tested the water for anything! Just did my water changes and maintenence and had no I'll fish or any die! It ran for about 2 years, I'm now considering myself very lucky to not have had any problems. This time seams such hard work, it was such a shock to realise the water was'nt ok when the other test I was using said it was fine! Anyway I will do another large water change when I get home then re test jater and post results! Thanks again for the advice it's greatly appreciated by me and my fish! )

 

[helen1207]

Ok so ive done a 80-85% water change at 4.30 this afternoon and just re tested, the results are PH 6.8 AMMONIA 0.25ppm NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm also tried the water hardness test again think the resulte are KH 71.6 and GH 71.6 but this may be fiction cos no colour chart to compare these! Temp is 27.
This morning really thought one wasnt going to last the day, he was looking really pale (more than usual with the light being off) and none of them came out to eat but tonight there swimming about, the water is crystal and their colour looks amazing!
So the ammonia has to come down to 0ppm so should i do another large 80-85% water change tonight/tomorrow or only do 50%?
The other question i have is if the fish have been in here for 5-6 weeks do you think the tank is still cycling? ie will the nitrite level have already gone up then down or should i still expect to see this happening especially if the PH level has been 6.0? will this have stalled the cycle?
Sorry for all the questions but after looking at all the posts on 'fishless cycling' im presuming the same things will/should happen.

 

[Twinklecaz]

Some people's tanks do cycle that quickly so you might be lucky but I'd keep testing a lot for a while just in case3

 

[helen1207]

Ok so heres an update on the tank, i've just done another 80% water change at 5pm and the tank readings are PH 6.6 AMMONIA 0.25ppm (i think? it may be 0 but hard to say exactly) NITRITE 0ppm NITRATE 0ppm TEMP 26.
The tap water PH is 7.0-7.2. Basically this is the same as yesterdays readings.
So question is should i do another one tonight or leave it till tomorrow?
Also the fish still have this 'stuff' on them, one has a patch of discolouration on its body and 3 have white fluff/growth on their mouths so is there any point in medicating them or leave them and carry on with water changes?
Thanks