Hi Newbie

[lee-barber]

hi my name is lee and i have only been keeping fish for a few weeks now all was going ok until i added a tretra exturnal filter and my fish have started dying i have lost five so far and there are a few more that look unwell i had my water test yesturday and my local aquatic centre and all the test came out ok the woman said that the water is fine, my nitrate are low between 0 and 1 and my ph level is approx 7.5 i added some bacteria to the filter which looks like little back ball, i have just tested my water again and all levels are the same as yesturday except my ph level has drop to 7.0 can anyone help as i don't want to loose any more fish i all so feed then twice a day as i was recommed in a mag i have please help

lee

 

[discus dreamer]

Hi Lee
have a look at the advice on the pinned topics on cycling your tank, this could be what is going wrong. You haven't said what the fish are or how soon you added them to the tank.
I hope you get something sorted out but it's hard to say what could be wrong without more details. For example, are you adding water treatment to the water before adding it to the tank? It could be something as simple as chlorine that is poisoning the fish if you don't add this.
good luck
DD

 

[lee-barber]

Hi Lee
have a look at the advice on the pinned topics on cycling your tank, this could be what is going wrong. You haven't said what the fish are or how soon you added them to the tank.
I hope you get something sorted out but it's hard to say what could be wrong without more details. For example, are you adding water treatment to the water before adding it to the tank? It could be something as simple as chlorine that is poisoning the fish if you don't add this.
good luck
DD

hi i have tiger burbs, mollys' silver sharks' and a pleco i have been treat fresh water be fore adding to the tank i have bee using aqua plus to get rid of chlorine it's mainly my tiger burbs that are dying i had the tank set up and running for 7 days and then had the water tested before adding fish and the test came back ok and i was told i could add fish i ask the woman how many can i keep and she said go and pick the one you want and i will tell you when thats enough i add pick 8 fish to go in my 90 liter tank and she said that would be fine but not to add any more about a week which i did then i added some more tiger burbs that were green in colour do you think i should go and do a part water change

 

[rabbut]

hi i have tiger burbs, mollys' silver sharks' and a pleco i have been treat fresh water be fore adding to the tank i have bee using aqua plus to get rid of chlorine it's mainly my tiger burbs that are dying i had the tank set up and running for 7 days and then had the water tested before adding fish and the test came back ok and i was told i could add fish i ask the woman how many can i keep and she said go and pick the one you want and i will tell you when thats enough i add pick 8 fish to go in my 90 liter tank and she said that would be fine but not to add any more about a week which i did then i added some more tiger burbs that were green in colour do you think i should go and do a part water change

You are going to need to get yourself a test kit. Your tank is going through a process called cycling (developing the nitrogen cycle), where ammonia (highly toxic) is brocken down into nitrate (only toxic in large ammounts). This is done by bactira in your filters, that have to be built up over time, to allow the tank to keep your fish healthy. Untill you get a test kit, you need to be doing 50% water changes twice a day, to keep the ammonia down, while the bactiria build up to deal with the ammonia. These bactiria will break the ammonia down into nitrite. Nitrite is still toxic to fish, at any leavle that is detectable. Nitrite is eventualy brocken down into nitrate, by another set of bactiria, to comlete the nitrogen cycle in the aquarium.
Cycling with fish, as you are doing at the moment, is very hard work. At the end though, the results of your labors will be very rewarding. Next time you cycle a tank, it may be worth doing a fishless cycle. I'll try to get you a link to the fishless cycling thread soon.
For now, 50% waterchanges twice a day untill you get your test kit. Once you have your test kit, post your results on here, so we can take things from there. Once you have your kit, me(or another forum member) will go through the acceptable and ideal readings for your tank, and advise you on how to get your water within the acceptable range as soon as possible. You are going to need the following as soon as you can get them;
ammonia/ammonium test kit
nitrIte test kit
nitrAte test kit
pH test kit
HTH and welcome to the forum
rabbut

 

[lee-barber]

hi i have tiger burbs, mollys' silver sharks' and a pleco i have been treat fresh water be fore adding to the tank i have bee using aqua plus to get rid of chlorine it's mainly my tiger burbs that are dying i had the tank set up and running for 7 days and then had the water tested before adding fish and the test came back ok and i was told i could add fish i ask the woman how many can i keep and she said go and pick the one you want and i will tell you when thats enough i add pick 8 fish to go in my 90 liter tank and she said that would be fine but not to add any more about a week which i did then i added some more tiger burbs that were green in colour do you think i should go and do a part water change

You are going to need to get yourself a test kit. Your tank is going through a process called cycling (developing the nitrogen cycle), where ammonia (highly toxic) is brocken down into nitrate (only toxic in large ammounts). This is done by bactira in your filters, that have to be built up over time, to allow the tank to keep your fish healthy. Untill you get a test kit, you need to be doing 50% water changes twice a day, to keep the ammonia down, while the bactiria build up to deal with the ammonia. These bactiria will break the ammonia down into nitrite. Nitrite is still toxic to fish, at any leavle that is detectable. Nitrite is eventualy brocken down into nitrate, by another set of bactiria, to comlete the nitrogen cycle in the aquarium.
Cycling with fish, as you are doing at the moment, is very hard work. At the end though, the results of your labors will be very rewarding. Next time you cycle a tank, it may be worth doing a fishless cycle. I'll try to get you a link to the fishless cycling thread soon.
For now, 50% waterchanges twice a day untill you get your test kit. Once you have your test kit, post your results on here, so we can take things from there. Once you have your kit, me(or another forum member) will go through the acceptable and ideal readings for your tank, and advise you on how to get your water within the acceptable range as soon as possible. You are going to need the following as soon as you can get them;
ammonia/ammonium test kit
nitrIte test kit
nitrAte test kit
pH test kit
HTH and welcome to the forum
rabbut

hi thankyou for the advice but have already done a water test and i have also had the water tested at my local specalist and they told me the water is fine and nitrite levels are low between 0 and 1 so i don't think it's the water just woundering what is the best temp to keep my fish at and how many times should i feed them as i have been told all different thing like once a day,twice aday, and three time aday at the moment i feed them in the morning and again when i get how . also i have to black mollies and they are always laying on the bottom and only swim when i feed them and i havejust noticed that one of my white mollies is also laying there with then any idears

lee

 

[orange shark]

whats your ammonia and nitrIte needs to be at 0 all time. Your tank is deffinately still cycling

 

[Fish2u]

"i have also had the water tested at my local specalist and they told me the water is fine" - Do not trust your "local specialists" (especially if they are PetSmart employees). That is the 1st commandment of fish keeping. Test it yourself and find out. If you have ammonia and Nitrite then your water is not fine.

Temperature should be 79F (for tropical). If you have ammonia and nitrite that means your tank is cycling. Feed once in two days until you have ammonia=0, Nitrite=0

 

[stucolls]

Hi Lee, I think 90 litres is around 20gallons roughly? that would mean your grossly overstocked, if your going by the logic of 1 inch of fish per gallon which is what the majority of people recommend, and it is just that a recommendation, your silver shark will get way too big for the tank. Also, I dont know if this is right or not, but I dont think the tiger barbs and the silver shark are a good idea together? if you have a decent shoal of barbs you may be ok but it sounds a very feisty and stressful tank (experienced fish keepers please correct if im wrong as im new myself).

Also, you say you added a new external filter? were you using a different one before? because if you were, and depending how you changed filters you may have restarted the cycling process all over by killing off any existing beneficial bacteria.

Hope what I wrote is right, and more importantly helps.

Stu

 

[rabbut]

hi thankyou for the advice but have already done a water test and i have also had the water tested at my local specalist and they told me the water is fine and nitrite levels are low between 0 and 1 so i don't think it's the water just woundering what is the best temp to keep my fish at and how many times should i feed them as i have been told all different thing like once a day,twice aday, and three time aday at the moment i feed them in the morning and again when i get how . also i have to black mollies and they are always laying on the bottom and only swim when i feed them and i havejust noticed that one of my white mollies is also laying there with then any idears

lee

Hi lee.

Nitrite above 0.25ppm is dangerous short tearm, and anything detectable with a test kit is dangerous long tearm. Nitrite between 1 and 0 would consern me. I stand by what I said earlier in that the water is a fault, and recomend large dayliy water changes untill the nitrite drops to 0 on the test kits. In feuture, when you have your water tested by the local "specialists" ask for exact figures, rater than whether or not the water is ok. The majority of lfs are more interested in your money, than the health and wellbeing of your fish. There are a few exceptions, but unfortunately good aquatics advise form lfs's is rarer than it should be.

HTH
rabbut

 

[vinylman]

Hi Lee, I'm afraid that with a 20G, you'll have to lose the silver Sharks, they need much more room than you have now, never mind when they're fully grown. Also, running a tank for a week does nothing to cycle it. As has been mentioned, ask the shop to test your water again, but ask them to write the exact figures down then come back here and post them. You'll almost certainly be exposing the fish to ammonia.