Brand new at this...please be gentle

[Steviesmommy]

Hi! Let me start out by saying I have been Googling fish tank problems and reading answers on this page for days, so I thought I'd try it out. I am really struggling. I was very undereducated about everything, and I know that so please be gentle. Santa brought my 8 year old son a tank and all the equipment for a 5 gallon tank for Christmas. He loves fish and it was all he asked for. So I read about everything that guppies would need in a fish tank and bought it. Heater, bubbler, filters, etc. We set the tank up...everything was good. Added Tetra safe start and let the tank run for 3 or 4 days then we added 3 guppies and 1 neon tetra. Now that I know that was not nearly long enough I feel horrible. I also mistakenly thought my son would listen to me and not feed the fish unless I told him to. Big mistake. Not even a week in and the ammonia levels spiked and the fish got really sick. The first vacuuming I discovered all the food in the gravel and knew what he was doing. I did several partial water changes and bought API water conditioner to help lower the ammonia. Unfortunately we lost a guppy. It took a few days, but we got it down. For a couple of days the tank was doing good. The fish were swimming and seemed happy. I did the weekly vaccum and replaced the water I took out adding Tetra bacteria cleaner and API water conditioner. We use RO water in our house and I always made sure it was 78 degrees before I put it in the tank. Next day the tank looked like I poured a little milk in it. I googled it and a lot of things said little water changes. So I did that. Nothing. Fish seemed sicker. I added some API stress+ into the tank because of something I read which I can't remember right now unfortunately. The tetra seemed fine but the other 2 guppies were struggling. Then I read that slime coat was bad and probably suffocating the fish. Partial water change again. Then one got very swollen and just sat on the gravel on the bottom. Dopsy was what Google told me that was and to add a tiny bit of Epsom salt to the tank. Did that and the guppy died that night. There is no detectable ammonia. No nitrites no nitrates. I did another water change because I am dumb and shouldn't have done the salt thing. Water is still cloudy. Guppy is on top of water all day. Tetra is on the bottom hiding. No swimming at all unless we feed them. The water is very acidic and hard. Everything else is in the ideal color on the testing strips. I have no idea what to do! Please help!! Oh and we got the fish at Petsmart. I can neither confirm nor deny the girl that helped us knows anything about fish tho.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF

Don't beat yourself up over this, many of us started out the same as you...first rule in fishkeeping: Never trust the advice of pet shop employees, they are there to make $, not give good advice, which they rarely do.

You are most likely in the midst of a fish-in cycle, read about it here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

You need a GOOD QUALITY water test kit, get one of these ASAP, if you don't have one already: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

DO NOT add anything besides water conditioner when doing water changes, all of those chemicals just complicate matters

The API Tap Water conditioner is fine, just be sure to read the directions carefully...the dosage is different depending on if your tap water is treated with chlorine, or chloramine...your water supplier should be able to tell you which one

For now, get that test kit, test ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte, and follow the directions in the Fish-In cycling sticky I posted above

Hard water is fine for guppies, but not tetras, do not buy any more tetras

I would immediately do a LARGE water change, treat with the conditioner, and match the tap temp to the tank temp as closely as possible

We'll help you get things sorted out...good luck

 

[Slaphppy7]

And, hide the food from your son! Overfeeding causes water quality to go bad quickly

 

[GaryE]

I think @Slaphppy7 misread. You say you use RO water. That is the opposite of hard, and unless you mix in minerals, it will kill guppies. You can't run a tank with 100% RO.

The API test kit is popular - you would need a more important kit - one that measures hardness until you can get that worked out. Your water company, or last set of well tests should be able to give you that if you don't want to do it yourself.

It's a fish in cycle, and can be handled with time. That's hard with a little kid, who will want results. Do regular water changes. If you can get the hardness of your tap, you can mix tap and RO to come up with a safe level. That sounds complicated, but RO should be 0 ppm, and you would want 120ppm plus for guppies. So if you have 240 from the tap, aou calculate the mix each time.

In a 5 gallon cycling., I would do 2 or 3 one gallon changes a week for the next 6 weeks, and drop back to 2 gallons once a week from then on in.

I haven't had such a stressful disaster since I first started fishkeeping, but a lot of us go threough that when it's all new. You're in good company, if that's any consolation.

 

[Slaphppy7]

I think @Slaphppy7 misread. You say you use RO water. That is the opposite of hard, and unless you mix in minerals, it will kill guppies. You can't run a tank with 100% RO.

The API test kit is popular - you would need a more important kit - one that measures hardness until you can get that worked out. Your water company, or last set of well tests should be able to give you that if you don't want to do it yourself.

It's a fish in cycle, and can be handled with time. That's hard with a little kid, who will want results. Do regular water changes. If you can get the hardness of your tap, you can mix tap and RO to come up with a safe level. That sounds complicated, but RO should be 0 ppm, and you would want 120ppm plus for guppies. So if you have 240 from the tap, aou calculate the mix each time.

In a 5 gallon cycling., I would do 2 or 3 one gallon changes a week for the next 6 weeks, and drop back to 2 gallons once a week from then on in.

I haven't had such a stressful disaster since I first started fishkeeping, but a lot of us go threough that when it's all new. You're in good company, if that's any consolation.

Correct, saw this and assumed, my mistake: "The water is very acidic and hard."

 

[sharkweek178]

Is there any chance you could return that neon tetra? They need to be in a shoal of 10 or more and there just isn't space for that in your tank.

 

[sharkweek178]

We've all made mistakes starting out.

 

[GaryE]

We've all made mistakes starting out.

Starting out??? I still make them sometimes, after decades. We all do.

But please bear in mind - when I was little, I wanted a tank, and I've now had more than 50 years of great pleasure triggered by my parents buying a tank.

 

[sharkweek178]

Starting out??? I still make them sometimes, after decades. We all do.

That's true. For example, last week I found out that 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean the same thing.

 

[Steviesmommy]

And, hide the food from your son! Overfeeding causes water quality to go bad quickly

Oh I did don't worry about that

 

[Steviesmommy]

Is there any chance you could return that neon tetra? They need to be in a shoal of 10 or more and there just isn't space for that in your tank.

Really? Guess you guys were right...never trust a pet store employee! She even gave us a whole speech about schooling and how tetras and guppies get along!

 

[Steviesmommy]

Correct, saw this and assumed, my mistake: "The water is very acidic and hard."

It is 100% RO water, but after I was told to add salt it became very hard. The ph was always on the low side but it's bad now. I bought some API ph powder that is supposed to keep it at 7.0...again from the pet store. Should I use it?

 

[sharkweek178]

Really? Guess you guys were right...never trust a pet store employee! She even gave us a whole speech about schooling and how tetras and guppies get along!

They might get along, but that's not the same thing as schooling. They need to be with a group of their own species. I suspect she thought that simply being in a group of fish of any species was the same thing. I once encountered a big box store employee who thought that.

 

[Slaphppy7]

They might get along, but that's not the same thing as schooling. They need to be with a group of their own species. I suspect she thought that simply being in a group of fish of any species was the same thing. I once encountered a big box store employee who thought that.

Most importantly, tetras are soft water fish, whereas guppies thrive in hard water...again, for the nth time, a pet store employee gave poor advice about proper fishkeeping...the majority always have, and always will

@Steviesmommy , have a look here about the safe way to remineralize RO water for aquariums, is RO water the only available tap water you have access to in the home? @GaryE suggestion above, mixing regular tap with RO may be cheaper and easier, though: https://aquariumsphere.com/how-to-remineralize-ro-water-aquarium/

I've no experience with the API powder, it may work fine, as well

 

[Steviesmommy]

Most importantly, tetras are soft water fish, whereas guppies thrive in hard water...again, for the nth time, a pet store employee gave poor advice about proper fishkeeping...the majority always have, and always will

@Steviesmommy , have a look here about the safe way to remineralize RO water for aquariums, is RO water the only available tap water you have access to in the home? @GaryE suggestion above, mixing regular tap with RO may be cheaper and easier, though: https://aquariumsphere.com/how-to-remineralize-ro-water-aquarium/

I've no experience with the API powder, it may work fine, as well

I can use tap water. I just thought RO would be better because we have horrible well water with a softner. Another stupid move by mom! So if I do a large water change and use regular tap water - is that going to be ok? I was told not to make big changes like that, but then again I was told a lot of conflicting info...

I just don't want to kill the fish that are left. My son is already upset enough. Also will the large water change get rid of the cloudy water? The fish have to be miserable in there. doh