help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[teknikz]

i started a new tank about 5 weeks ago. i generally thought that the guy in the aquarium place would have told me the do's and dont's but he didnt. i ended up with a filter that was too small.....which then led to masses of nitrite due to the amout of fish that i had and the fact that the filter was far too small.....so after losing a lot of my fish i re-homed the ones left for a couple of weeks and started my aquarium again from scratch

i now have an under gravel filter and a decent sized power filter (the 1's with the sponge).....and i left the tank to run for 8 days and added maturity fluid to the water b4 adding my remaining 6 fish.....1 ram, 1 gourami, 1 glowlight, 1 neon, 2 black neons.

i tested water for nitrite n it was fairly low...so i was quite happy...today...which is the 10th day of my new tank setup...i added 3 live plants.....some rainbow rock and a resin root thingy....plus 2 fighters of different sex.......then i tested the water again and the nitrite is high again...it was very low just 2 days ago

can any1 help me and tell me what is going on.....i've already spent a couple of hundred ponds over what i expected to pay due to ppl not knowing what they are talking about

please help me....im desperate.........email me at [email protected]
thank

 

[dolphin]

Hi Teknike

What is going on is your tank/filters are still building up the nitrifing bacteria that it needs to deal with the waste from your fish.

You should not add any more fish for at least two more weeks.

It will take a few more weeks for the nitrite level to drop to 0, and then you should be ok.

Dolphin

 

[teknikz]

awwwww thanx dolphin......ive been panicking like mad......ive already lost a lot of fish....dont want to lose anymore....right...no more fishies for me....thanx for takin the time to read all that dolphin

 

[dolphin]

Hi Teknikz

No problem at all.

Fishkeeping is easy if you get good info in the first place. Some LFS are just in it for the money. Try find one that cares about the fish that they sell.

There are always people here who will be happy to help.

Dolphin

pm me if you need any more info about setting up a tank

 

[codpiece]

where in the uk are u teknikz

 

[teknikz]

Skelmersdale, lancs.....near wigan

 

[Jht]

hmmm i live in Oldham in lancs i do not know if were close but a garden center called Gordon Riggs is the best place to go.

 

[snotirl]

well i live in Ireland so i cant give u any help!!!

 

[wherryj]

I have found that Cycle tends to help (it's a product with supposedly dormant nitrifying bacteria that supposedly activate in the presence of ammonia). I know that these products are often unreliable (dead bacteria in the bottle), but this one seems to have worked for me.

I'd also consider getting some sort of ammonia locker. I've used Prime since it locks the ammonia and detoxifies nitrite and nitrate by complexing it. This supposedly allows the bacteria to still access the nitrogen products so it doesn't slow the cycling of the tank.

The use of so many supposedly's is because I can't really verify the truth of these statements, and I realize that there is a lot of "snake oil" out there.

These two products seem to have worked for my 55 gallon tank. I have only had a "mystery death" of one green tiger barb, and the murders of three oto's by the tank inhabitants since starting it 4 to 5 months ago. This even with my wife overstocking it from day 1 (we started with 2 tiger barbs, 2 green barbs, 2 neon rosey barbs, 2 rainbow sharks-all in the 2.5 to 3 inch range). This loss was about 1.5 months in, and when tank chemistry was running perfect levels.