Lost 5 today...weak

[Beta 93]

changed water 30% last night, added nirtate, chorloide remover, and a 2 tablespoons of bacteria starter, found 5 fish dead when i got up this moring,

my barbs and bala are all dead ( the balas were gonna go to a bigger tank, too late now )

my 2 gouramis are fine, and pelco is fine

nitrate and nitrite were high, even after the water change, i think it was just overstocked, now that there are only 3 fish (removing the pelco tomorrow) should the nitate and nitrite levels drop, had the 20 gallon tank a month, perhaps not long enough to cycle?

any advice would be nice..

 

[Ferris]

Your tank is almost certainly cycling at the moment and there were way too many fish in there for a cycled tank, never mind a new tank. Do daily water changes to try and save the remaining fish and keep checking the water parameters.

Good luck!

 

[Beta 93]

yeah thats what i figured. The gouramis and pelco seem fine, the last bala looks stressed out, and the other barb died, no surprise there.

Ammonia level reads 0, Nitrate level is 60ppm, nitrite is high, dont know what, but test strip is almost red, dide 20% water change.

I figure the last bala may not make it, so i'll have the last three left, will let the tank sit for another 2 weeks before adding anything else, the pelco will get a new home soon

 

[rdd1952]

changed water 30% last night, added nirtate, chorloide remover, and a 2 tablespoons of bacteria starter, found 5 fish dead when i got up this moring,

my barbs and bala are all dead ( the balas were gonna go to a bigger tank, too late now )

my 2 gouramis are fine, and pelco is fine

nitrate and nitrite were high, even after the water change, i think it was just overstocked, now that there are only 3 fish (removing the pelco tomorrow) should the nitate and nitrite levels drop, had the 20 gallon tank a month, perhaps not long enough to cycle?

any advice would be nice..

Are you on city water or well water? There is another post from someone with high nitrites and nitrates. He had done a water change but it didn't have any effect and he found that his well water was extremely high with almost the same readings as his tank. He thought it was because of the large amount of rain they had recently. Test your tap water too.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Im thinkin it has something to do with the amount of bacteria starter you put in.

 

[Beta 93]

yeah i'm on city water

nitrate and nitrite levels have gone down though, i'll keep checking and try bottled water next

two small tablespoons are all i put in a 20 gallon tank

 

[Ferris]

Keep up the regular water changes until the tank has cycled and the readings are all fine, this could take a while i'm afraid.

 

[Beta 93]

thats fine, no rush

 

[troutfly]

I have to agree that you had too many fish in the tank at one time. A 20 gallon tank is large enough to support about 6 fish if they are all under 4 inches or so.

The going rule of thumb is to have 1 inch of fish for every 1 gallon of water.

I hope this helps to avoid the next catastrophy.

 

[Ferris]

The going rule of thumb is to have 1 inch of fish for every 1 gallon of water.

I hate rules. .

Look at the stocking levels of my 20 gal (UK). There is no way that many fish should be in there but I make it work with over filtration and very regular water changes. Never lost 1 fish in that tank and they are perfectly happy. Rules can be bent within reason.

 

[Matchu]

By 'bacteria starter' do you mean ammonia.

Thats meant to be used for a fishless cycle, ie with no fish as it helps them to die.

Dont add any more of it.

 

[Ferris]

I'm presuming "bacteria starter" means the various products you can buy to establish the bacterial colony, not ammonia. Its debatable how effective they are but they don't do any harm.