Urgent Urgent Help Needed!

Hi Guys so im going to give you a basic break down of the history of my setup and what i need help with.
 
I bought a 4ft tank with angel fish and a few other fish. very mature tank (jewel)
 
didnt like angel fish or tank so sold it.
 
Bought a used marine tank. took all substrate out and cleaned completely out. 
 
Filled with treated tap water. added old filter till new external arrived. 
 
bought nutrafin cycle. new filter arrived.
 
setup new filter. squeezed old filter media into new filter and added the nutrafin cycle. 
 
went to local pet store and stupidly listened to him when he told me i can add fish straight away. I added a large number of fish including sword tails, mollys, platys, dwarf guppies, bala, rainbow shark, neon tetra, rum nose, one discus, corydora, fighters.
 
first few weeks went fine then fish started showing up dead. blamed on sharks so seperated them. then they died. seperated dwarf guarami but fish still died.
 
contacted professional fish store bought test kit, water conditioner and api cycle. water tested in store. ammonia, nitrite and nitrate of the scale.
 
done daily water changes lately of 25% (a total of 70%) new water added. 
 
improvement in ammonia levels but not nitrite or nitrate. more fish died
 
(this all happened in a month)
 
i know that i should never have added fish without cycling the tank properly but sadly anything for a sale.
 
the picture attached is of the latest test today (26th july) after about 3 days of water changes and adding cycle.
 
at my whits end and dont know what to do. i know i have to keep up with the water changes but planning on buying Nitra Zorb to absorb ammonia nitrite and nitrates, is this ok? 
 
 

I wouldn't add any chemical filter media; that'll starve your bacteria, and they'll die off.
 
At the moment, huge water changes are your best friend; ideally you want ammonia and nitrite to be less than 0.25ppm at all times. As the fish are producing ammonia all the time (and what bacteria you have doing the same with nitrite), in real terms that means doing as many water changes as necessary to reduce them to zero.

fluttermoth said:

I wouldn't add any chemical filter media; that'll starve your bacteria, and they'll die off.
 

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surely if i got ammonia nitrite to 0 and nitrate low enough, even via using chemical filter media, that would be best? As I said, ive been doing lots of water change, and adding a full bottle of cycle so far in a few days. just dont want to lose any more fish (12 so far)

Another thing is your stocking is wrong. The tank is too big for bettas/fighters. Tankmates are incompatible.

The problem is, 25% changes aren't making enough of a dent, at those levels, and successive small water changes are less effective than fewer, larger ones (obvious, if you think about it; on your second water change, some of that is new water that you've just put in).
 
 
Drain the tank right down, leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright (don't forget to switch your heater and filter off first!) before refilling, making sure your new water is  temperature matched and dechlorinated.

How many gallons is the tank?
 
You have made a few missteps which have compounded the problem. Your description is not really helpful as it provides too little  information. There is no time line information at all, no test kit readings. You are asking for advice which is really hard to give without this information.
 
Cycle is not going to help. I won't go into details as to why. But the thing it helps with least is nitrite, it probably helped with ammonia. So here are your 3 best options right now:
 
1. Find Dr Tim's One and Only or Tetra Safe Start. Both should have the right bacteria. If you can find either one, you need to buy double the amount needed for what ever size tank you have. Before using either one read their instructions, including those on their respective sites. You will need to do a huge wc before adding either product for sure. You should not add either product to a tank unless ammonia is clearly under 6.5ppm on an API kit and you have to do further diluted tests if it test at 5 ppm on the the API kits to be sure it is under the equivalent of 16 ppm. Adding live plants can also help.
 
2. Find local fish keepers, maybe there are some members here, and stores willing to donate to you media and/or gravel from cycled tanks. You need a bunch of this for it to matter. Adding live plants can also help.
 
3. Rehome as many of the fish as possible. The store should, but may not, take some or all back especially if you ask for credit not a refund. Local folks from this site may offer to care for some or take some permanently. The ideal here is to have 0 fish and finish up the cycle w/o fish. You can probably finish it with way less fish, but some may die. Here you can opt for the endless water change route though. Adding live plants can also help.
 
I hope you got test readings you can report from right before you did any big water change advised above. If so please post them along with a time line and other information about your water parameters.
 
Given what information you have provided it may not be possible to keep levels anywhere near as low as advised above and ever get the tank cycled for the load you have. there may be too many fish for that. However, if your ammonia is low enough there are other options for dealing with nitrite, but to know where this really is means having to do diluted test before you did any of the above advised water changes. Was your nitrite 5, 6, 7 10, 20 ppm?  If it said 5 it means at least 5 but it could be higher. It really matters how high.
 
If you have already done a huge water change or two, there is now no way to know where things really stood. In light of that I would as soon as possible implement #1 or #2 above. If you can't get any help in the form of bacteria that way, you must implement #3. If you can only get some help re adding bacteria, then you must rehome some fish. Start with the biggest ones first.

DerpPH said:

Another thing is your stocking is wrong. The tank is too big for bettas/fighters. Tankmates are incompatible.

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It's a myth that bettas don't do well in bigger tanks, they quite like all the space. I know mine did in the 55G.

Ninjouzata said:

 

Another thing is your stocking is wrong. The tank is too big for bettas/fighters. Tankmates are incompatible.

Click to expand...

It's a myth that bettas don't do well in bigger tanks, they quite like all the space. I know mine did in the 55G.
 

Click to expand...

 
+1
Some Bettas will get stressed from being in a large tank (they think of it as their territory) but most won't.

My Betta "Bob" really didn't like being in a big tank and when I say big I mean just 125 litres, he'd just hide behind the plants all day (but he was only put in there while I was upgrading his tank from a 320 Aquaone to a Qubie40) best bet would be to rehome your fish asap either taking them back to your lfs or in a properly matured tank somewhere, until you get your tank correctly cycled.

Try purchasing Seachem Prime - It makes the Ammonia/Nitrite harmless for up to 48 hours after addition to the tank but doesn't stop the beneficial bacteria from feeding on it as normal, so there is no loss in progress with the fish in cycle.

fluttermoth said:

The problem is, 25% changes aren't making enough of a dent, at those levels, and successive small water changes are less effective than fewer, larger ones (obvious, if you think about it; on your second water change, some of that is new water that you've just put in).
 
 
Drain the tank right down, leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright (don't forget to switch your heater and filter off first!) before refilling, making sure your new water is  temperature matched and dechlorinated.

Click to expand...

 
I done a 80% water change today. 
 
I then added tap conditioner to water and filled the tank. I added nutrafin cycle again. I then bought nitra-zorb and added it into the filter to stop fish loss and reduce the levels.

TwoTankAmin said:

How many gallons is the tank? - the tank is 190 litres.
 
 
 
 
2. Find local fish keepers, maybe there are some members here, and stores willing to donate to you media and/or gravel from cycled tanks. You need a bunch of this for it to matter. Adding live plants can also help.
I have tried and none are willing to do so, they just try and make me buy cycle. 
 
3. Rehome as many of the fish as possible. The store should, but may not, take some or all back especially if you ask for credit not a refund. Local folks from this site may offer to care for some or take some permanently. The ideal here is to have 0 fish and finish up the cycle w/o fish. You can probably finish it with way less fish, but some may die. Here you can opt for the endless water change route though. Adding live plants can also help.
 
if the readings are a nightmare by wednesday the 31st, ill be taking them out and into the store for a credit note.
 
I hope you got test readings you can report from right before you did any big water change advised above. If so please post them along with a time line and other information about your water parameters.
 
when i got my kit the test reading were as follows.
 
last week ammonia 4ppm 
                  nitrite 5ppm or above
                  nitrate 80ppm or above
 
today (27th)  after an 80% water change
                  ammonia 0ppm or 0.25ppm
                   nitrite 5ppm or slightly below
                   nitrate 80ppm or slightly below
 
 
If you have already done a huge water change or two, there is now no way to know where things really stood. In light of that I would as soon as possible implement #1 or #2 above. If you can't get any help in the form of bacteria that way, you must implement #3. If you can only get some help re adding bacteria, then you must rehome some fish. Start with the biggest ones first.

Click to expand...

Sophie said:

Try purchasing Seachem Prime - It makes the Ammonia/Nitrite harmless for up to 48 hours after addition to the tank but doesn't stop the beneficial bacteria from feeding on it as normal, so there is no loss in progress with the fish in cycle.

Click to expand...

 
i bought seachem prime from the t*** who sold me lots of fish.. and found out it doesnt last 

You have too many fish, don't wait. Your problem is not ammonia, it is nitrite. If you read 5 ppm after an 80% water change it means you had 5 times that before the change. Do you see any signs your fish are gasping at the surface. Ammonia would have been 1.25 ppm pre-water change.
 
There is a good reason reason I suggested you not bother with the Cycle. The nitrite oxidizing bacteria in cycle are Nitrobacter winogradsky. The bacteria in fw tanks that handle nitrite oxidation are Nitrospira. Nitrobacter belong in waste water treatment plants in high levels of nitrite. They do not last in the lower levels of nitrite typical in tanks. I also believe they are in the water not the bio-film.
 
It seems you have your own ideas on how to deal with things since you have not to followed any of the suggestions I offered. Rather than confuse things, I will back off and let you listen to whatever source of advice you are currently following.

TwoTankAmin said:

You have too many fish, don't wait. Your problem is not ammonia, it is nitrite. If you read 5 ppm after an 80% water change it means you had 5 times that before the change. Do you see any signs your fish are gasping at the surface. Ammonia would have been 1.25 ppm pre-water change.
 
There is a good reason reason I suggested you not bother with the Cycle. The nitrite oxidizing bacteria in cycle are Nitrobacter winogradsky. The bacteria in fw tanks that handle nitrite oxidation are Nitrospira. Nitrobacter belong in waste water treatment plants in high levels of nitrite. They do not last in the lower levels of nitrite typical in tanks. I also believe they are in the water not the bio-film.
 
It seems you have your own ideas on how to deal with things since you have not to followed any of the suggestions I offered. Rather than confuse things, I will back off and let you listen to whatever source of advice you are currently following.

Click to expand...

i apologise if it seems i do not want to listen or get your help. im merely trying to grasp the best way of doing this by asking questions also.
 
as an update nitrazorb was removed and nutrafin cycle and prime stopped. I collected a large amount of mature filter media and filled my filter, the spare media was then squeezed into the inside of the tank.
 
prior to doing this i done a 40ltr change