Help trouble after changing my water and cleaning tank

So i just got my 55 gallon tank 3 weeks ago, checked my water level this weekend and ammonia was up made the mistake of taking out too much water and one of my angelfish have died already i think it took out too much of the good bacteria they had in. Reason i cleaned the tank was the ammonia was at .5 and 1 so i thought i needed to clean it. Any suggestions how to properly change the water without my fish being so stressed? i took out like 60% i think of the water thought it would flush the ammonia out.

Removing that much water is fine. The bacteria lives on surfaces, not in the actual water
Seeing as your tank is only 3 weeks old I doubt its fully cycled yet.

Could you post the exact test results?
What is your stocking?

I would suggest you pick up a bottle of Tetra SafeStart Plus to help your cycle. You should also look into picking up some fast growing floating plants like hornwort or anacharis to absorb the ammonia and do water changes when ever ammonia shows up until your tank is fully cycled.

JuiceBox52 said:

Removing that much water is fine. The bacteria lives on surfaces, not in the actual water
Seeing as your tank is only 3 weeks old I doubt its fully cycled yet.

Could you post the exact test results?
What is your stocking?

Click to expand...

Yeah but the gravel i bought was this porous clay gravel for Flourite that gets the water brown easy if you so much as rub it when you are cleaning it, so it usually leaves little brown residue on the sides of the glass and i cleaned it with a scrubbing pad i bought at the pet store so maybe i removed some bacteria from there. Two of the angelfish are sideways on the gravel but still breathing they're clearly dying and two of my baby bala sharks died like withing 20 minutes(should have waited till tank was ready) I feel like i possibly didn't let it cycle long enough before changing the water maybe? before todays cleaning the 3 angelfish were so lively and swimming and eating. I had 3 angelfish(1 left so far but keeps coming up to surface), 2 little bala sharks died and then i have these i will post pics below i dont remember the names but they said they were compatible with these angelfish . You can see that one angelfish keeps hanging out on the surface more.

PH- between 7.2-7.6 (seems like)


Nitrate o2 seemed perfect



Nitrate o3 both of them seemed great as well



Ammonia still a little up but lighter(slightly darker before i took out water and cleaned gravel)

So an immediate 75% water change. Something is poisoning them and you need to get it out asap. You already did a water change but dont worry about that it needs another

Are you dechlorinating the water?

JuiceBox52 said:

So an immediate 75% water change. Something is poisoning them and you need to get it out asap. You already did a water change but dont worry about that

Are you dechlorinating the water?

Click to expand...

Yes i used Aqueon water conditioner same brand as my filter the Aqueon 75. Let me show you a full pic of tank. The black one that was laying down tried to swim just now ((. I also added when i cleaned the tank Microbe-lift Nite out II the starter bacteria to remove ammonia and nitrate.

Do a 75% water change. The angel at the top looks like its gasping

JuiceBox52 said:

Do a 75% water change. The angel at the top looks like its gasping

Click to expand...

Yeah i wish i would have never even tried to clean the gravel and take out the water how frustrating they were perfect before, same plants, wood everything. The moment we finished removing the water cleaning gravel all three were always at the surface, looks like one of the little dark ones are dying too smh. IF i do 75% wont that kill more of the good bacteria? so incredibly frustrated rt now. Thank you so much

Anon_05 said:

Yeah i wish i would have never even tried to clean the gravel and take out the water how frustrating they were perfect before, same plants, wood everything. The moment we finished removing the water cleaning gravel all three were always at the surface, looks like one of the little dark ones are dying too smh. IF i do 75% wont that kill more of the good bacteria? so incredibly frustrated rt now.

Click to expand...

Dont worry about the bacteria right now, if the tank is only 3 weeks old there wouldn't be much to begin with. Just get those toxins out. The sooner the better, your fish are dying.


What kind of wood do you have? Some kinds are toxic

JuiceBox52 said:

Dont worry about the bacteria right now, if the tank is only 3 weeks old there wouldn't be much to begin with. Just get those toxins out. The sooner the better, your fish are dying.


What kind of wood do you have? Some kinds are toxic

Click to expand...

I believe it's a fake wood like some of the decorations they had at the fish store, the plants are real.

Anon_05 said:

I believe it's a fake wood like some of the decorations they had at the fish store, the plants are real.

Click to expand...

Okay. That's good.

The fish need a giant water change ASAP or they will all die

If you're going to do a fish-in cycle, then you're going to need to do daily water changes of around 25%-50%. You can something like Prime to help detoxify ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

JuiceBox52 said:

Okay. That's good.

The fish need a giant water change ASAP or they will all die

Click to expand...

So remove 75% of the water out and then when i add the new 75% put the required amount of conditioner again for that amount of new tap water? and leave the gravel alone correct? just remove the water?

Anon_05 said:

So remove 75% of the water out and then when i add the new 75% put the required amount of conditioner again for that amount of new tap water? and leave the gravel alone correct? just remove the water?

Click to expand...

Yes. You could vaccum the gravel if you want to though it wouldnt hurt

Crispii said:

If you're going to do a fish-in cycle, then you're going to need to do daily water changes of around 25%-50%. You can something like Prime to help detoxify ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.

Click to expand...

Im sorry what's a fish in cycle? sorry im a noob