Fish Dying

[the biffster]

here is the link again
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/58-beginner-questions/
the other link
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/141946-cycling-resource-center/

 

[moochy13]

changing the water makes no difference to the cycle. all the bacteria are in the filter. leave the water in, any ammonia left in will help to cycle your tank now. and read that link, like all those other people said. basically, you need ammonia to cycle your tank. fish poo = ammonia, but its also poison which is what killed your fish. you will need bottled ammonia to put in your tank to replicate fish poo, this will encourage bacteria growth in your filter, eventually the number of bacteria will be enough to cancel the ammonia out. but read that link.

 

[Skins]

Hello, and welcome to TFF.
Sorry to read about your fish losses, but don't give up there are many experienced members on the forum to help you. If you click on the link in Biffsters post(post16)there you will find a thread named cycling resource centre, which you will find some sound advice.

Skins.
P.S keep us all posted.

 

[the biffster]

Hello, and welcome to TFF.
Sorry to read about your fish losses, but don't give up there are many experienced members on the forum to help you. If you click on the link in Bifsters post(post16)there you will find a thread named cycling resource centre, which you will find some sound advice.

Skins.
P.S keep us all posted.

i put them both up skins

 

[Skins]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

 

[Haydos]

Hello,
I set up a new fish tank almost a month ago. slowly I began to intruduce new fish to my aquarium as recomended at the pet store. After 3 weeks I had a total fo 5 Buenos Aires Tetras, 2 Dwarf Gouramis and 3 dalmation mollies. Last week we found out that we had ick/ich on my tank and began a treatment with ick clear, increased temperature to 83F and performed 10 to 25% water changes with new treatment but it did not work because my fish began to die. first all the buenos aires tetras, followed by the dwarf gouramis and today one of my dalmation mollies died.
Now here is one of my questions. why most of my fish had no fins by the time they died? was that also caused by the ick? please advise before I try to buy new fish.
Thanks


This unfortunately happened to me about 3 weeks ago. I bought 2 silver sharks and within the next 24 hours I noticed white-spot on one of them. I treated the tank adding white-spot control and turned the temperature up to 30 degrees. Within the next day it whiped out 2 angel fish, both silver sharks, 2 clown loaches and a catfish. So i was only left with 2 glass catfishes and 1 angelfish. However I did notice that some of the fins became rotten and had worn away before they died. I then did a 20% water change and left the temperature on 30% and cycled the tank then bought some new fish 3 weeks later when the tank established and settled down and they are all well

11/13/10
GH 0
KH 80
PH 8.5
NO2 5
NO3 40
Am 0.5

 

[gzuleta4071]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

Hi,
I am following all the advise from the cycling resource centre and I hope I'll do better next time. The only thing that I was asking was about the salt I added to my tank after I found out that ick was killing all my fish, along with the ammonia I assume.
What I needed to know is, Do I need to replace all water to remove the salt on it or just keep doing 10 to 25% water changes while I wait for the tank to cycle?

 

[mbsqw1d]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

Hi,
I am following all the advise from the cycling resource centre and I hope I'll do better next time. The only thing that I was asking was about the salt I added to my tank after I found out that ick was killing all my fish, along with the ammonia I assume.
What I needed to know is, Do I need to replace all water to remove the salt on it or just keep doing 10 to 25% water changes while I wait for the tank to cycle?

do you have any fish left?

If you do have fish left, then have whatever treatment in the water that the fish requires...
If you do not have any fish left, then the salt will not be a problem as far as cycling your tank goes. As long as you don't add anymore salt, then eventually after your water changes, the salt will go.

The Ick would have finished your fish off yes. The fish would have been stressed due to the Ammonia and in no fit state to fight off the Ick.

 

[gzuleta4071]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

Hi,
I am following all the advise from the cycling resource centre and I hope I'll do better next time. The only thing that I was asking was about the salt I added to my tank after I found out that ick was killing all my fish, along with the ammonia I assume.
What I needed to know is, Do I need to replace all water to remove the salt on it or just keep doing 10 to 25% water changes while I wait for the tank to cycle?

do you have any fish left?

If you do have fish left, then have whatever treatment in the water that the fish requires...
If you do not have any fish left, then the salt will not be a problem as far as cycling your tank goes. As long as you don't add anymore salt, then eventually after your water changes, the salt will go.

The Ick would have finished your fish off yes. The fish would have been stressed due to the Ammonia and in no fit state to fight off the Ick.

No I don't have any fish left. they all died. That's what I am trying a fresh start.

 

[Haydos]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

Hi,
I am following all the advise from the cycling resource centre and I hope I'll do better next time. The only thing that I was asking was about the salt I added to my tank after I found out that ick was killing all my fish, along with the ammonia I assume.
What I needed to know is, Do I need to replace all water to remove the salt on it or just keep doing 10 to 25% water changes while I wait for the tank to cycle?

I don't think it's a good idea to change all of the water if you still have fish in the tank. However if you don't have any fish in the tank I would personally change all of the water and give the tank a good clean but I am no expert it's just something I would do

 

[gzuleta4071]

So you did biffster, I should have gone to specsavers lol

Hi,
I am following all the advise from the cycling resource centre and I hope I'll do better next time. The only thing that I was asking was about the salt I added to my tank after I found out that ick was killing all my fish, along with the ammonia I assume.
What I needed to know is, Do I need to replace all water to remove the salt on it or just keep doing 10 to 25% water changes while I wait for the tank to cycle?

I don't think it's a good idea to change all of the water if you still have fish in the tank. However if you don't have any fish in the tank I would personally change all of the water and give the tank a good clean but I am no expert it's just something I would do

These are my last readings...

Am GH KH PH NO2 NO3 Water change
13-Nov 0.5 0 80 -8.5 -5 40 none
14-Nov 3.0 0 80 -7 -5 80 none
15-Nov 3.0 0 80 -6.5 -10 80 none
15-Nov 3.0 0 40 -6.5 -5 80 25%
16-Nov 0.5 0 40 -6.5 -10 80 none
17-Nov 0.25 0 40 -7 -0 0 75% Introduced a new fish to my tank (firemouth cichlid)
18-Nov 0.5 0 0 -6 -1 20 none
19-Nov 0.25 0 40 -6 -1 20 none
20-Nov 0.25 30 0 -6 -1 40 none
22-Nov 0 30 0 -6 -3 40 none
23-Nov 0.25 0 0 -6 -1 40 none
24-Nov 0.25 30 0 -6 -0.5 40 none
25-Nov 0 30 0 -6 -0.5 20 none
26-Nov 0 30 0 -6 -0.5 20 none

On Nov. 17 a friend gave me a fish that he had on one of his friend's fish tank and I am wondering when will be the best time for me to bring some company for my lonely firemouth cichlid.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi gzuleta, not sure if this is still an active thread but it looks to me like there is one fish left in this tank but the tank has not finished it's fish-in cycle (it is still showing signs of the nitrite spike I believe) so you wouldn't want to add any fish to this tank.

I may have missed it but I could never determine in this thread what type of testing kit you are using. That usually matters to us because testing kits basically go from marginal to worse and its the paper strip ones that are "worse" lol.

Its also not clear to me whether the white-spot/ich has been fully dealt with. If not, a thread in the "emergencies" section may be in order to find the details of wrapping up that episode so that it will not return and this should be resolved prior to beginning to restock the tank. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[gzuleta4071]

Hi gzuleta, not sure if this is still an active thread but it looks to me like there is one fish left in this tank but the tank has not finished it's fish-in cycle (it is still showing signs of the nitrite spike I believe) so you wouldn't want to add any fish to this tank.

I may have missed it but I could never determine in this thread what type of testing kit you are using. That usually matters to us because testing kits basically go from marginal to worse and its the paper strip ones that are "worse" lol.

Its also not clear to me whether the white-spot/ich has been fully dealt with. If not, a thread in the "emergencies" section may be in order to find the details of wrapping up that episode so that it will not return and this should be resolved prior to beginning to restock the tank. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~

Hello Waterdrop and thank you for answering.
Yes, the ich problem was totally solved. and the testing kit I've been using is an API 5 in 1 aquarium test strips. (Below I have included the last readings wich are not showing to much changes lately). As I said before on nov 17 a friend gave me a firemouth cichlid and like a week later this friend brought me a Blood Parrot cichlid because he was going from fresh water aquarium to salt water. Last week I bought a 55 water tank wich I'll be using for my cichlids since they need a bigger tank. and I am planning on using the same water I have in my 30 gal plus the same filtration system since that tank seems to be almost fully cycled. because it's been running for almost a month already. Do you think that this will be ok? because I don't think my two fish like the small tank too much and I did not feel like refusing to accept them from my friend.

Date Am GH KH PH NO2 NO3

2-Dec 0.5 0 40 6.5 0 20
3-Dec 0.5 30 0 6 0 20
5-Dec 0.25 0 0 6 0 20

Best Regards
gzuleta



Dec. 6th.
I took some of my water to the LFS for testing and they told me that the water on my fish tank is good. NO2 and NO3 levels are ideal. The only thing is that my PH is a little low but according to them still ok for my ciclhids.

 

[waterdrop]

One of the first things I learned on this forum is that paper strip tests are pretty much worthless. Nearly all of our members have a jar of them sitting around from before they knew this but have since begun using a liquid-reagent test kit. Paper strips are worse than useless, they lead to wrong decisions. It's not that the world of liquid test kits is great - they can have some inconsistent behavior themselves, but in general we've had orders of magnitude better results with liquid test kits. The top kits we see used here are the Salifert kits, the API kits and the Nutrafin kits. Most of us in the beginners section like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit.

Another thing we've discussed in the forum are the problems with getting our readings from our LFS (local fish shop.) Of course, sometimes a good shop will have plenty of experience in using test kits, will use a good type of kit right in front of you and give you numerical results. Unfortunately, a surprising amount of the time that is not the case. One of the most common things we see are tests performed perhaps in a back room or not in front of the customer and then a verbal "result" of "fine" being offered. This is quite useless, as a judgement has been rendered rather than data communicated. Real numbers move us a step closer to a truth we can work with.

You have been thrown directly in to a situation of trying to care for two potentially large fish (firemouth 6 inches, parrot 10 inches) without yet having a working biofilter. If the strips are to be believed at all (which they should not be,) they are saying the tank is simply not cycled yet. Whatever container the cichlid and parrot are in will probably need very large water changes (with conditioner and rough temperature matching) on perhaps a daily basis (at least until a liquid test kit is obtained so that you could know what the water changes are accomplishing.) (If any of the members see that I've interpreted the posts incorrectly, please help out, I may have missed something here!)

~~waterdrop~~