Sort Of... Messed Up! Help?

[robertson92]

Hi, here's my story in a nutshell. Had a fully cycled tank going on for about 2 years with about 6-8 fish in it. Brother decided he didnt want his tank anymore, i offered to take his 8 or so fish. Put them all in at once (mistake #1). A couple of days later funnily enough, my filter broke, and I had to get a new one. Got a new filter and didnt transfer filter media bacteria or squeeze the sponge into a new filter, like a git.

Its two weeks on, and I have probably been overfeeding.

So now I have a somewhat uncycled fishtank that is probably overcrowded. I had a couple of clown loach deaths (both came out, swimming like crazy at all orientations, and then instantly paralyzed, didnt move, and died in a couple of hours). What do I do? I know i messed up, but help would be appreciated.

 

[fluttermoth]

You need to do a few massive water changes. Leave just enough water for the fish to swim upright before refilling with temperature matched, dechlorinated water. Do that every day until you can test the water.

Then you need test kits (liquid or tablet based, nor the paper strip type) for both ammonia and nitrite. You'll need to test daily and do enough water changes that neither of those two goes above 0.25ppm.