Hello All Im New And Hope You Can Help?

[pauline]

hi im pauline and ive been keeping cold water goldfish for 9years wiyh no problems. i bought a biorb tank 30ltrs a week ago with heater so i could keep tropical fish. i set it up as per instructions which said run for a week before addind fish. took a water sample to shop and it was fine got 2 fan tail guppies. were doing ok till sunday when 1 died gutted . tested my water and amonia was bad did a 30 percent water change. checked again today still high. did another change today but my fish is very sick. im adding stess coat with each change is there anything else i can do? im so dissapointed with the thing wish i got a normal tank! any advice would be greatly appreciated especially about this biorb thing! thanks

 

[lilfishie]

welcome to the forum

the reason you h ave an ammonia reading is due to your tank not being cycled (due to the rubbish advice given) but your in the rigth place now

right since you still have the 1 guppy left you need to make the decision of keeping him and going the fish in cycle route (which will be stressful for him/her) or returning it to the store and going fishless

heres the links to both to have a read through

FISH-IN CYCLE

FISHLESS CYCLE

glad to see you have an ammonia test kit though can you post the reading?

any ammonia can be deadly to fish, so do a water change (30-50%) then retest 2 hours later, if the ammonia is still showing then another water change may be a good idea

 

[pauline]

welcome to the forum

the reason you h ave an ammonia reading is due to your tank not being cycled (due to the rubbish advice given) but your in the rigth place now

right since you still have the 1 guppy left you need to make the decision of keeping him and going the fish in cycle route (which will be stressful for him/her) or returning it to the store and going fishless

heres the links to both to have a read through

FISH-IN CYCLE

FISHLESS CYCLE

glad to see you have an ammonia test kit though can you post the reading?

any ammonia can be deadly to fish, so do a water change (30-50%) then retest 2 hours later, if the ammonia is still showing then another water change may be a good idea

thanks so much its nice to know theres someone to help. my reading this afternoon was 0.8 mg/l and i changed 30. my poor fish is very sick hes dying so i dont think theyl take him back? i also got 4 neon tetras in the tank so ill have to do the fish cycle rote. would like to save the poor things if i can?

 

[Essjay]

Do you still have the cold water tank? I'm not sure on the filter in a bioorb, but is there any way you could put some filter media from the cold water tank into it? It will have the same bacteria you need for the tropical fish.

 

[Jonty]

Do you still have the cold water tank? I'm not sure on the filter in a bioorb, but is there any way you could put some filter media from the cold water tank into it? It will have the same bacteria you need for the tropical fish.

biorb filters are UGF, so no

 

[Essjay]

Fair enough. I've never had a biorb, so I wasn't sure.

 

[lil-x-me...x]

Hi, :welcome: im glad youv joined the forum, im sure you will find some good advice on your problem. the tank, as seaid above, has to be cycled for the ammonia to drop, you have fish in your biorb, which is fine, you will just have to do a fish - in cycle.

using some filter media from your other tank, if you still run it, im prosuming you are, and put it into the sponge bit of the filter, it should work but im not 100% on biorb filters but many of the people on this forum are, and run them succesfully.

heres a link to some members that have a biorb and might be able to help you out x

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=47684"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=47684[/URL] miah

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=44794 adandrews

im sure it'l be fine if you pm them.

 

[gaz gun man]

welcome to the forum

the reason you h ave an ammonia reading is due to your tank not being cycled (due to the rubbish advice given) but your in the rigth place now

right since you still have the 1 guppy left you need to make the decision of keeping him and going the fish in cycle route (which will be stressful for him/her) or returning it to the store and going fishless

heres the links to both to have a read through

FISH-IN CYCLE

FISHLESS CYCLE

glad to see you have an ammonia test kit though can you post the reading?

any ammonia can be deadly to fish, so do a water change (30-50%) then retest 2 hours later, if the ammonia is still showing then another water change may be a good idea

thanks so much its nice to know theres someone to help. my reading this afternoon was 0.8 mg/l and i changed 30. my poor fish is very sick hes dying so i dont think theyl take him back? i also got 4 neon tetras in the tank so ill have to do the fish cycle rote. would like to save the poor things if i can?

Hi Pauline,

Neon Tetras are pretty sensitive fish and I'd be very suprised if they survived a cycle, as they like a mature aquarium - so it might be best to take them back and then do a fishless cycle

 

[Cro-Baller]

hi im pauline and ive been keeping cold water goldfish for 9years wiyh no problems. i bought a biorb tank 30ltrs a week ago with heater so i could keep tropical fish. i set it up as per instructions which said run for a week before addind fish. took a water sample to shop and it was fine got 2 fan tail guppies. were doing ok till sunday when 1 died gutted . tested my water and amonia was bad did a 30 percent water change. checked again today still high. did another change today but my fish is very sick. im adding stess coat with each change is there anything else i can do? im so dissapointed with the thing wish i got a normal tank! any advice would be greatly appreciated especially about this biorb thing! thanks

Hi Pauline,

Where abouts are you? Maybe someone on here can help you with media for your filter, and temporarily re-homing your fish until your tank is cycled properly.

 

[pauline]

Hi, :welcome: im glad youv joined the forum, im sure you will find some good advice on your problem. the tank, as seaid above, has to be cycled for the ammonia to drop, you have fish in your biorb, which is fine, you will just have to do a fish - in cycle.

using some filter media from your other tank, if you still run it, im prosuming you are, and put it into the sponge bit of the filter, it should work but im not 100% on biorb filters but many of the people on this forum are, and run them succesfully.

heres a link to some members that have a biorb and might be able to help you out x

<a href="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=47684" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=47684</a> miah

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=44794"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showuser=44794[/URL] adandrews

im sure it'l be fine if you pm them.

thanks for that i did put some bacteria in from my cold water tank maybe im just a little impatient? just want to get it right i suppose. i bought a api test kit today and checked my amonia it was between 0.24 0.50 i changed 25 pecent water. am i doing the right thing and shall i keep checking it every day and change the water as needed? ive got 4 noen tetras in at the monent. thanks

Do you still have the cold water tank? I'm not sure on the filter in a bioorb, but is there any way you could put some filter media from the cold water tank into it? It will have the same bacteria you need for the tropical fish.

biorb filters are UGF, so no

sorry to be numb but whats UGF? i did put some bacteria from my other tank! is this realy bad now? what should i do? thanks

 

[pauline]

welcome to the forum

the reason you h ave an ammonia reading is due to your tank not being cycled (due to the rubbish advice given) but your in the rigth place now

right since you still have the 1 guppy left you need to make the decision of keeping him and going the fish in cycle route (which will be stressful for him/her) or returning it to the store and going fishless

heres the links to both to have a read through

FISH-IN CYCLE

FISHLESS CYCLE

glad to see you have an ammonia test kit though can you post the reading?

any ammonia can be deadly to fish, so do a water change (30-50%) then retest 2 hours later, if the ammonia is still showing then another water change may be a good idea

thanks so much its nice to know theres someone to help. my reading this afternoon was 0.8 mg/l and i changed 30. my poor fish is very sick hes dying so i dont think theyl take him back? i also got 4 neon tetras in the tank so ill have to do the fish cycle rote. would like to save the poor things if i can?

Hi Pauline,

Neon Tetras are pretty sensitive fish and I'd be very suprised if they survived a cycle, as they like a mature aquarium - so it might be best to take them back and then do a fishless cycle

hi gaz great minds eh? idid ask the shop but he said no! got an api test kit today inasted of the dip test kit. tested it again and got between 0.25 and0.50 changed the water at 25 percent. dont suppose i can do anything ele but juat keep checking? thanks

 

[gaz gun man]

He said no to what, taking the fish back? most places will take fish for free or give you a store credit.

yes you are doing the right thing with water changes, the best way fowards now (if you fish-in cycle) is to test the ammonia regularly, and do a water change if you have any (ammonia), then leave it an hour and re-test and perform another water change if needs be.

The thing with small bodies of water is that it is harder to keep the chemisty stable.

You say you added some bacteria from your cold-water set-up, what exactly did you do?

oh, and UGF stands for UnderGravel Filter

 

[pauline]

He said no to what, taking the fish back? most places will take fish for free or give you a store credit.

yes you are doing the right thing with water changes, the best way fowards now (if you fish-in cycle) is to test the ammonia regularly, and do a water change if you have any (ammonia), then leave it an hour and re-test and perform another water change if needs be.

The thing with small bodies of water is that it is harder to keep the chemisty stable.

You say you added some bacteria from your cold-water set-up, what exactly did you do?

oh, and UGF stands for UnderGravel Filter

hi gaz, oh what a numb head . i read on a web site to put my sponge in a stocking and leave it hanging for 10mins so thats what i did. wish id found you guys fist. is it bad what i did?

 

[gaz gun man]

Pauline,

No you would'nt of done any harm, but the beneficial bacteria probably did'nt have enough time to seed your new filter, either.

The traditional way of seeding new filters is to take around 20% of the old seeded filter media and swapping it with the new media in your new filter.

I dont have any experience with bi-orbs or UGF's myself. However, as jonty says - your filter is under the gravel (UGF) so it wont be possible to do that.

 

[rabbut]

It won't have done any harm, but it won't have helped much either. What you really need to do is cut a small ammount of sponge off the cold water tank's filter, and stick that into the substrate in the Biorb's substrate. Leave it there untill the Biorb is cycled (has have zero readings for Ammonia and NitrIte for at least a week without water changes) and then return it to the cold water tank

There has been a combination of bad advise from the Biorb instructions and the LFS that's got you into this mess. If the shop won't co-operate on taking the fish back, just tell them that they gave you poor advise on what fish to start cycling a tank with, as numerous other fish keepers have told you that both Guppies and Neons are in need of a mature tank (at least 6 weeks old, preferable 6 months old) to do well, so sticking them into a new tank on their advise has lead to their death. If they aren't going to take them back and offer some form of help replacing the lost Guppy, you will not be calling back and will be advising your fish keeping friends to keep away also If they remain un-co-operative, on the way out, ask why they didn't mention fish-less cycling also... Avoid an "all guns blazing" approach, but do put forward fairly loudly (no shouting mind) a strong argument as to why they were in the wrong. They should see sense soon enough

All the best
Rabbut