Guppies Are Staying Near Top Of Tank And Refuse To Go Deeper

[Typhlodew]

having read this I feel someone needs to be blunt so I'll be bad cop here.
 
Allowing fish to sit in water that contains any nitrite or ammonia is the equivilent of me forcing you to sit in a bath of acid. That's how serious this is. The fish going to the surface is their way of telling you "hey! let me out of this water it's burning me". Ammonia and nitrite will cause serious perminant damage to your fishes skin and internal organs. You took responsibility for these animals when you bought them and to allow them to sit in poor conditions is animal cruelty.
You need to keep ammonia and nitrite at zero and if this means changing water 3 times a day then that is the responsibility you took on. Adding this and that won't make much difference. There is no bacteria in your filter system to use up the ammonia and nitrite the fish are creating let alone what is coming from food etc. Bacteria doesn't magic itself out of thin air, nor does it come in a bottle from the pet store. Bacteria is formed in the filter, that is the filters purpose, and this takes time ... not just a few days. It can take weeks.
 
You really do need to read the information that has been linked for you. It is useful and helpful information.

I completely agree and I will do what ever it takes to keep these fish in their top condition. The guppies are improving and they have been diving deeper into the tank and staying down there longer and longer. After the initial spike of ammonia it has been steadily going down the nitrite seems to be going up as well. I will post my water parameters here in a few minutes. 

 

[Typhlodew]

Current Water Parameters: Ammonia: .5ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate 5.0ppm. It has been two weeks since I first began the tank cycling. 

 

[Typhlodew]

One of my guppies just suicided in the filter intake.

 What does this mean for the rest of them?

 

[OldMan47]

Your guppies are stressed and need lots of big water changes to survive. If you want to have your fish survive, go flush all of your chemicals except the dechlorinator and the nitrogen testing chemicals and do massive water changes. In a 10 gallon tank you will do at least 8 or 9 gallons a day until the water begins to control properly without your intervention. Do not dump any more silly bacterial soup into your tank, it does no good. Do not make the mistake I was making 30 years ago and try to adjust the pH of your water. The change in pH is a lot harder on the fish than simply living outside the "ideal" pH for them. With plenty of fresh clean water the fish will do fine but you may have to do those changes for a couple of months to save them. 

 

[NickAu]

 
Do not make the mistake I was making 30 years ago and try to adjust the pH of your water. The change in pH is a lot harder on the fish than simply living outside the "ideal" pH for them

+1
 
I think products like PH down are rubbish at best and deadly to fish in inexperienced hands.

 

[Typhlodew]

 

 
Do not make the mistake I was making 30 years ago and try to adjust the pH of your water. The change in pH is a lot harder on the fish than simply living outside the "ideal" pH for them

+1
 
I think products like PH down are rubbish at best and deadly to fish in inexperienced hands.
 

 

Your guppies are stressed and need lots of big water changes to survive. If you want to have your fish survive, go flush all of your chemicals except the dechlorinator and the nitrogen testing chemicals and do massive water changes. In a 10 gallon tank you will do at least 8 or 9 gallons a day until the water begins to control properly without your intervention. Do not dump any more silly bacterial soup into your tank, it does no good. Do not make the mistake I was making 30 years ago and try to adjust the pH of your water. The change in pH is a lot harder on the fish than simply living outside the "ideal" pH for them. With plenty of fresh clean water the fish will do fine but you may have to do those changes for a couple of months to save them. 

Ok, thank you. I will do exactly as you say. Hope this works! 
The thing that worries me however, is that the water changes seem to stress out the fish even more. Is this normal, I will do the 8 gallon water change tomorrow but this concerns me. Your thoughts are very appreciated. Thanks.

 

[OldMan47]

Yes, huge water changes are stressful but swimming in poison is even more so.

 

[Typhlodew]

My remaining guppies are have started acting pretty much normal as far as I can tell right now. They are beginning to frequent the midrange and bottom of the tank, while still retreating to the surface at random. My gourami is sticking to one side of the tank and the guppies are on the other. Is this normal? I think it is. I will post my water parameters in a few minutes.

 

[OldMan47]

Gouramis and guppies seldom swim together so don't worry about that.

 

[Typhlodew]

Water Parameters:  ammonia .50, nitrite 0.0-.25ppm, nitrates 5.0-10ppm (for nitrites and nitrates the colors were sort of in between) I also believe that the 50% water change stressed out that one guppy to the point that it tried to hide in the filter. My gourami also seems to be overly interested in it's reflection.

 

[OldMan47]

If you want to minimize the stress of a water change, try something like this when adding water back in.

 

[Typhlodew]

Oh, thats a great idea! Thanks for the input. I'll try it tomorrow.

 

[Typhlodew]

Awright just did the water change and water parameters are; Ammonia .25ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, and Nitrate 5ppm. So should I keep doing the 80% water changes each day. All of my fish are swimming around perfectly naturally, they swim through all of the layers of the tank.

 

[jag51186]

Test daily and use the levels to decide. If you get ammonia or nitrites, do a water change. 0.25 isn't awful, but we really want it at zero so I would do another smaller water change today to knock that down to zero, could probably do a 50%.

So, you really just need to test your parameters daily, if not twice daily, and base whether or not you do a water change on that.

 

[Typhlodew]

Test daily and use the levels to decide. If you get ammonia or nitrites, do a water change. 0.25 isn't awful, but we really want it at zero so I would do another smaller water change today to knock that down to zero, could probably do a 50%.

So, you really just need to test your parameters daily, if not twice daily, and base whether or not you do a water change on that.

I mean, this was a great improvement from this morning, as I was Ammonia 2.0, and Nitrite .25. My Nitrates have stayed the same ever since I got the tank, though. I'll let my fish recover before I do another change.