Confused

MR-T

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Bunbury West Australia
Hey Guys,
Very confused... started a tropical fish tank about 6 weeks ago now for my daughter, got some mixed and confusing advice from pet store staff and this is what has happened to date:

Started tank with 3 guppies, 2 of which died within a couple of days, went and got 2 more was given some ammo lock thats when the tank turned cloudy and we lost another one after approx 2 weeks no water changes (was told not to change the water for the first 6 weeks?) anyway have since changed the filter from a type that hangs over the side of the tank to a submersible which also blows air, cleaned up the tank did some water changes and within a week or so the tank was cleaner and the fish seemed happy enough. We left them for approx 3 weeks just the two remaining guppies and then introuduced some new fish with live plants (4 plants, 2 mollies (one which was pregnant, had 10 babies) 1 tetra I think and 2 algea eaters) doing weekly water changes andd everything looks ok up until the last few days the algea eaters are laying pretty much dormant on the bottom of the tank and the other fish are eating ok but look to me like they have a dull glaze over their body, specially the female molly which is gold around the bottom of its mouth.

The water testing i can't work out, the ammonia levels have stayed at 6, ph is ok and nitrate and nitrites are at 0... the ammonia levels seem to be constant even when running frequent water changes (3 days in a row) approx 10%

Can anyone help, as i said am confused and worried the fish are going to die
 
with a reading for amonia of 6 you need to do a few water changes to get that reading down to 0 you need to do at least a 75% water change then test again and do another water change to get the reading down to 0
you are best to try and read the stickys on cycling as these will give you a lot of info
 
with a reading for amonia of 6 you need to do a few water changes to get that reading down to 0 you need to do at least a 75% water change then test again and do another water change to get the reading down to 0
you are best to try and read the stickys on cycling as these will give you a lot of info
Thanks zoetetra, 75% far out thats alot... just confirmed it is 6.0ppm
 
When cycling a small tank with fish in it, large daily/twice daily water changes are a must.
 
you need to do more than that
for eg
50% water change at the moment only brings your ammonia down to 3ppm
so if you did two 50%water changes a day that would be better
 
you need to do more than that
for eg
50% water change at the moment only brings your ammonia down to 3ppm
so if you did two 50%water changes a day that would be better
Yeh your right, did 50% last night tested today at 3.0ppm so took out another 50% will check again tomorrow
 
Welcome to the forums MR-T,

You got some classic bad advice from the shop, just like we hear about from new members many times a month here in the beginners forum. Virtually all of your startup problems can be put down to lack of correct information, from the sound of it.

What is the make/type of your test kit? Sometimes we find that new members have picked up the paper strip type of tests and these are worse than not testing sometimes!

~~waterdrop~~
 
Cheers waterdrop... its an API kit

Your right about the conflicting advice you get from different pet stores, pretty hard to get your head around when starting out... good to have a forum like this, just to sift through common issues and opinions
 

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