Just got back from the fishy store!!!

[Slaphppy7]

Not sure what your starter kit was but to be safe, get some bacteria in a bottle and pour in near the filter intakes.

The first order of business, IMO, is to get a proper testing kit, some Seachem Prime, and begin doing daily water tests and WC's as necessary (if ANY ammonia is present, for starters).

I've no idea what this "starter" kit consists of, and it doesn't matter, the basic premise here (I'm betting) is a fish-in cycle, they aren't hard to do, but they are tedious...much testing and many water changes, daily.

No need for bottled bacteria, though the "kit" probably came with some form of it...waste of money, the bacteria we need to cycle our tanks is already in our environment...free of charge.

SarahBeth, have a good look at this section of the forum: Rescuing A Fish In Cycle Gone Wild - Part I

I started out in the hobby 8 years ago, when my daughter's story with her first fish tank was very similar to yours...and I reached out to a forum like this for help...and learned about cycling with fish, because of bad advice from employees at a local pet store.

You may have been given bad advice at the store, I don't know, but it is common.

At any rate, I recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000255NCI/?tag=ff0d01-20

And this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00025694O/?tag=ff0d01-20

And follow the cycling instructions linked above

 

[SarahBeth]

The problem isn't the water. Just tested again, all parameters are good. The other fish are fine. My guess is the angelfish had an issue and were stressed. I'm calling the fish store as they haven't responded. They may have lost power during the storm and had catastrophic problems. I had coworkers with no power for 5 days.

 

[SarahBeth]

So the fish farm store we got our fish at got hit hard from the Texas snow storm last week. They lost power and lost half of their livestock. Their koi pond froze over too deep to drill holes through so they could breath and they suffocated. We are going tomorrow to get some fish and some of the basic supplies as well. Really I could get the stuff we need at Petsmart but I'd rather go help out a mom and pop shop while they struggle to get back on their feet.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

So the fish farm store we got our fish at got hit hard from the Texas snow storm last week. They lost power and lost half of their livestock. Their koi pond froze over too deep to drill holes through so they could breath and they suffocated. We are going tomorrow to get some fish and some of the basic supplies as well. Really I could get the stuff we need at Petsmart but I'd rather go help out a mom and pop shop while they struggle to get back on their feet.

That’s some good support for a local business. It’s a shame they lost that much livestock.

 

[SarahBeth]

Darnit all. Went to the fish store. Got a yoyo loach and some red fin tetras. Picked up an ammonia test. Got home and as I'm testing it my husband goes on the city website and finds out that they treat the water with something that turns into ammonia. So back to the store for some Ammo treatment. Son of a gun!!!!!

What's funny about this is I had a 20 gallon tank growing up. The neighbor gave me the tank and supplies. I used rocks from the neighbors driveway. I even went to the river bottom and caught guppies for the tank. The only thing I bought was fish food, an algae eater and a plant. Half the time I forgot to feed them. I had no idea about testing the water. But those guppies thrived. There were babies. They hid in the plant that grew like a weed and floated at the top of the tank. I did change the water occasionally. I was the worst fish keeper ever and those guppies must have been able to survive a nuclear holocaust because there was always a bunch of them. This was back in the days before the internet and the local pet store kept alligators. Yep I was young and we were all dumb.

 

[Essjay]

The water provider uses chloramine. This is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together. Water conditioners split them up and remove the chlorine part.
Many water conditioners also contain something to detoxify ammonia. This temporarily converts the ammonia to a non-toxic form, but the bacteria can still 'eat' it. After around 24 hours, the ammonia becomes toxic again, but it should have been removed by the bacteria well before it can become toxic again.


So you don't need an ammonia remover, just a water conditioner than detoxifies ammonia.

 

[Wills]

The water provider uses chloramine. This is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together. Water conditioners split them up and remove the chlorine part.
Many water conditioners also contain something to detoxify ammonia. This temporarily converts the ammonia to a non-toxic form, but the bacteria can still 'eat' it. After around 24 hours, the ammonia becomes toxic again, but it should have been removed by the bacteria well before it can become toxic again.


So you don't need an ammonia remover, just a water conditioner than detoxifies ammonia.

Seachem Prime should do the job for you

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I also use Seachem Prime. The “serving size” (as I call them) per gallon is super small, so you may have to buy a special syringe for it.

 

[Slaphppy7]

1 ml per 10G of water for the Prime, medicinal syringes work great for dosing the proper amounts, you can get them free from your pharmacy, or very cheaply at the dollar stores or Walmart.

As stated above, no need to waste $ on "ammonia removers", that's what WC's are for, until the tank is cycled. Prime keeps the water from being toxic in-between WC's, and once the tank is cycled, makes your tap water safe for weekly WC's.

 

[SarahBeth]

The water provider uses chloramine. This is an ammonia and a chlorine joined together. Water conditioners split them up and remove the chlorine part.
Many water conditioners also contain something to detoxify ammonia. This temporarily converts the ammonia to a non-toxic form, but the bacteria can still 'eat' it. After around 24 hours, the ammonia becomes toxic again, but it should have been removed by the bacteria well before it can become toxic again.


So you don't need an ammonia remover, just a water conditioner than detoxifies ammonia.

Yep that is what my husband said about the city water. I got some ammo lock which detoxifies. It says add every 2 days, if after 7 still shows ammonia do a 25% water change. How will that help when the city water has Chloramine in it?

 

[Slaphppy7]

You didn't need the "ammo lock", if you use Prime...

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

1 ml per 10G of water for the Prime, medicinal syringes work great for dosing the proper amounts, you can get them free from your pharmacy, or very cheaply at the dollar stores or Walmart.

As stated above, no need to waste $ on "ammonia removers", that's what WC's are for, until the tank is cycled. Prime keeps the water from being toxic in-between WC's, and once the tank is cycled, makes your tap water safe for weekly WC's.

Help a math idiot out with dosing Prime, pretty please? *batts eyelids*

I have some Prime, but haven't been using it because I couldn't figure out how much to dose. I use 15 litre buckets to do water changes, so how much Prime would I need to treat 15 litres of water?

 

[Slaphppy7]

15 liters = 4 US gallons (approx)

Prime dosage is 1 ml per 10G, US

I would treat 15L of tap water with 1/2 ml Prime...it's a tiny bit more than needed, but you can safely "overdose" Prime in small increments, I do it with every water change on all of my tanks

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

15 liters = 4 US gallons (approx)

Prime dosage is 1 ml per 10G, US

I would treat 15L of tap water with 1/2 ml Prime...it's a tiny bit more than needed, but you can safely "overdose" Prime in small increments, I do it with every water change on all of my tanks

Thank you so much! When I tried the Prime, I was using around that, knew it was overdosing a bit, and knew it was safe to do that with Prime as far as the tank was concerned, but with Prime being relatively pricey, I was hoping for a more precise measurement so I wasn't just wasting it, you know?

Thank you for mathing for me! I really do appreciate it

 

[itiwhetu]

I would like to see you put live plants in your tank. For the knife fish. It will also help with your other problems.