Help!

[KLDay2]

Friday night we bought a 10 gal. tank with all of the accessories. We set it up and let it run for 24 hours. We then added 4 tiger barbs and a 1 red tailed shark. We had also added Proper pH 7.0 because the pH levels were reading a little high. Within half an hour the water was so cloudy you couldn't see the picture in the back. Within 5 hours all 5 of the fish were dead. We remove them and when we woke up this morning there was a layer of white milky stuff and the filter also had a good 1/4" coat of white creamy stuff on it. We have tested the ammonia levels and everything is fine. But we can't get the tank to clear. Can someone please help us?

 

[Keeper Of Cichlids]

First off a filter takes alot more than 24 hours to cycle.
They all died most likely due to ammonia poisoning.
The cloudiness is a bacteria bloom, read up on fishless cycling.

 

[fluttermoth]

What's making the water cloudy is a bacterial bloom. It will go eventually. The stuff on the filter will be a kind of fungus (we think) that likes to grow on filters and sucker pads (we don't know why, or exactly what it is, but it's very common and harmless).

I'm sorry you lost your fish; it was almost certainly ammonia though; how did you test?

You really need to 'cycle' the filter before you can safely add fish to the tank; 'cycling' means growing a colony of good bacteria that eat the ammonia produced by the fish and stops it poisoning them.

If you look in my sig, there's a link to the beginner's resource centre that has some very useful articles you might like to have a look at before you go any further

Please do post again if you need anything explained in more detail, there's always someone about who'll be happy to help you.

Again, I'm sorry for your losses; if it's any small consolation to you, tiger barbs and red tailed sharks wouldn't be suitable for a 10g tank, anyway, both species are too large and boisterous. I know that's not much to go on

 

[KLDay2]

First off a filter takes alot more than 24 hours to cycle.
They all died most likely due to ammonia poisoning.
The cloudiness is a bacteria bloom, read up on fishless cycling.

Yeah we figured it needed more than 24 hours but they told us the tiger barbs would help start the cycle and still be able to survive the bloom because its a hardy fish. And the ammonia levels never went above zero, that's why weren't sure if they cycle even started because the fish weren't in there very long before they all started dying.

 

[KLDay2]

What's making the water cloudy is a bacterial bloom. It will go eventually. The stuff on the filter will be a kind of fungus (we think) that likes to grow on filters and sucker pads (we don't know why, or exactly what it is, but it's very common and harmless).

I'm sorry you lost your fish; it was almost certainly ammonia though; how did you test?

You really need to 'cycle' the filter before you can safely add fish to the tank; 'cycling' means growing a colony of good bacteria that eat the ammonia produced by the fish and stops it poisoning them.

If you look in my sig, there's a link to the beginner's resource centre that has some very useful articles you might like to have a look at before you go any further

Please do post again if you need anything explained in more detail, there's always someone about who'll be happy to help you.

Again, I'm sorry for your losses; if it's any small consolation to you, tiger barbs and red tailed sharks wouldn't be suitable for a 10g tank, anyway, both species are too large and boisterous. I know that's not much to go on

It's almost like the white stuff isn't growing on the filter, its just what is being filtered out of the tank. Every few hours we have to rinse the filter off because it gets covered clogged.
We did the home test kit for the ammonia with the drops where you compare the color and we also took a water sample into the store where they tested all the different levels and they said everything was perfect, just that the pH level was a little high. They also said not to worry about that because its hard to change the pH level when you live in town because of the city water. They also said since the tiger barbs are a small fish and wouldn't get any bigger than an inch then they would be fine?

 

[Aqua Tom]

Welcome to the forum, sorry about your loss.

Ok lesson learnt here. LFS are out to make money, they do this by selling you fish. You buy some fish, they die, you go to the shop, bad luck they say, better buy some more fish & so on.
We are not here to make money from you, just here to give good honest advice.

Please read the bigineers section, its full of helpfull advice about cycling your tank & stocking it with fish. There is a handy link in my signature.

Please dont feel too downhearted, we all make mistakes & I did exactly the same as you when I started in the hobby.


Tom

 

[KLDay2]

Welcome to the forum, sorry about your loss.

Ok lesson learnt here. LFS are out to make money, they do this by selling you fish. You buy some fish, they die, you go to the shop, bad luck they say, better buy some more fish & so on.
We are not here to make money from you, just here to give good honest advice.

Please read the bigineers section, its full of helpfull advice about cycling your tank & stocking it with fish. There is a handy link in my signature.

Please dont feel too downhearted, we all make mistakes & I did exactly the same as you when I started in the hobby.


Tom

Luckily they havea a two week return policy, so we haven't lost any money in fish, I just don't want to see my son upset again by us adding more fish and him having to watch them die.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Welcome to the forum, sorry about your loss.

Ok lesson learnt here. LFS are out to make money, they do this by selling you fish. You buy some fish, they die, you go to the shop, bad luck they say, better buy some more fish & so on.
We are not here to make money from you, just here to give good honest advice.

Please read the bigineers section, its full of helpfull advice about cycling your tank & stocking it with fish. There is a handy link in my signature.

Please dont feel too downhearted, we all make mistakes & I did exactly the same as you when I started in the hobby.


Tom

Luckily they havea a two week return policy, so we haven't lost any money in fish, I just don't want to see my son upset again by us adding more fish and him having to watch them die.

Great attitude. So my advice is to go down the fishless cycle route, no fish deaths but a bit of a wait untill you can actualy put fish in the tank. The method is in the beginners section. Just spend an hour or so having a read up it will save you a lot of grief later on.

Tom

 

[KLDay2]

Welcome to the forum, sorry about your loss.

Ok lesson learnt here. LFS are out to make money, they do this by selling you fish. You buy some fish, they die, you go to the shop, bad luck they say, better buy some more fish & so on.
We are not here to make money from you, just here to give good honest advice.

Please read the bigineers section, its full of helpfull advice about cycling your tank & stocking it with fish. There is a handy link in my signature.

Please dont feel too downhearted, we all make mistakes & I did exactly the same as you when I started in the hobby.


Tom

Luckily they havea a two week return policy, so we haven't lost any money in fish, I just don't want to see my son upset again by us adding more fish and him having to watch them die.

Great attitude. So my advice is to go down the fishless cycle route, no fish deaths but a bit of a wait untill you can actualy put fish in the tank. The method is in the beginners section. Just spend an hour or so having a read up it will save you a lot of grief later on.

Tom

Thank you!

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd just like to add; get your son involved in the fishless cycle. It's easier for kids to uinderstand why you can't have fish yet if they know exactly what's going on.

Depending on his age, you might not be able to let him help actually do the testing, but kids of any age can help you read the colour chart for the results, and maybe make a chart to colour in of how things are progressing.

My kids love helping with water tests; makes them feel like scientists, playing around with test tubes

 

[Aqua Tom]

I'd just like to add; get your son involved in the fishless cycle. It's easier for kids to uinderstand why you can't have fish yet if they know exactly what's going on.

Depending on his age, you might not be able to let him help actually do the testing, but kids of any age can help you read the colour chart for the results, and maybe make a chart to colour in of how things are progressing.

My kids love helping with water tests; makes them feel like scientists, playing around with test tubes

Good call, my eldest daughter (4 year old) loves helping with my testing.


Tom

 

[suffolk_eagle]

Hi,
I'm new to the site & was searching for an answer to cloudy, almost milky looking water.
I assume from what's been said here, it must be a bacteria bloom.

Will this clear after a day or so or longer?

I have no fish at the moment & the tank has been running since Saturday.

Great site by the way & it's a god-send to have the expertise at hand in what can be a minefield of information.

Cheers,
Andy.

 

[fluttermoth]

Hi Andy, to the forum.

Yes, it'll be a bacterial bloom (not the same bacteria as we want in our filter, unfortunately!) and will go away on it's own.

If you're going to be doing a fishless cycle, with ammonia, it'll be long gone by the time you're ready for fish!

As you're new to the hobby, you might like to have a look at the articles in our beginner's resource centre (the link is in my sig)

 

[suffolk_eagle]

Hi Andy, to the forum.

Yes, it'll be a bacterial bloom (not the same bacteria as we want in our filter, unfortunately!) and will go away on it's own.

If you're going to be doing a fishless cycle, with ammonia, it'll be long gone by the time you're ready for fish!

As you're new to the hobby, you might like to have a look at the articles in our beginner's resource centre (the link is in my sig)

Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated.
Can you buy a filter start product which encourages the good bacteria, like the ones used for pond filters?

Thanks again

 

[fluttermoth]

You can, but there's very little evidence that they work, and most of don't have much faith in them.

If you have a healthy pond filter, you can take some media (sponge, or whatever's inside there) and add that to your tank's filter, that would give a more or less instantly cycled tank; you would need to either add fish, or feed the tank with ammonia very soon though, or the bacteria would die off.