My fish will probably be all dead tommorow

[Def]

Just thought I'd add. My platties *love* it when I do a water change. They swim right up to the stream of water and in & out of the bubbles.. Funny to watch

 

[Fishy Fishy Man]

Lol my platies are kinda the same. I have a tube which leads out of my filter with a screw top thingy and wen u open it a bit it sends a jet of bubbles into the tank, they love it!

Havent figured out what purpose this serves. Will ask LFS this w/e.

 

[toggle]

im in work at the moment but i went to a local lfs and bought a test kit and some frozen bloodworms (though id treat them after near enough posining them!! ) )

But i got back to my desk and....I GOT THE WRONG TEST KIT

All it tests for is PH/GH/Nitrite/Nitrate

So i need to buy another blimming kit for Ammonia! and that kit blimming cost £10.00

When i get home ill post the results, i feel really bad for my fishies hope there alive when i get home!

 

[canarsie11]

Dont 4get to let us know

 

[jrd77]

Those are important tests as well. Only one more to go with the Ammonia and you'll be all set for some good test results.

 

[skimpy]

im in work at the moment but i went to a local lfs and bought a test kit and some frozen bloodworms (though id treat them after near enough posining them!! )

When you test your water if the ammonia or nitrIte levels are up then obviously as mentioned you will need to do water changes until levels are down again, but I would also suggest (as much as you would like to treat you fish) DO NOT feed until levels are down.

All the tests from your kit are good to have but you will need to get the ammonia test. Ammonia and NitrIte are the ones you need to watch right now during your cycling, they are the most toxic for your fish.

Your PH will move about a bit while cycling but should stabilise when tank is mature and you nitrAte will be needed more once your ammonia and NitrIte spikes go down.

Let us know what the PH is.

The ammonia and NitrIte must be kept down to below 1ppm with water changes, these are dangerous to fish at any level so if possible keep them even lower than 1ppm. Eventually they should both run at 0ppm.


Your NitrAte need to be kept at under 20 for your tank to be healthy, when established it will probably rise a bit each week before your maintenance clean but try to not let it go too high.

I dunno whether you're meant to clean the filter and gravel whilst cycling. I don't really know much about cycling with fish.

I would suggest that you do not clean the filter or gravel whilst cycling, or you will be removing the bacteria before it has a chance to establish itself. You can hoover up any poop etc from the surface of the gravel, but don't dig in and remove the bacteria.

Good luck with the test results, hope they are not too high, but if they are, please try to refrain from feeding and do water changes straight away.

 

[toggle]

im still in work but im getting out at 5.00pm (i thought id quickly sneak on here heh) But i gotta fish my fishies or they will all die

Cant i at least feed them every other day?

(ill post results around 5:45pm - 6.00pm)

O and thanks for all the help! i thought you would all moan at me for being a lousy/rubbish and cruel fish keeper...but all what i did is take the LF's advice. DAm ME!

 

[skimpy]

Post results of tests before feeding - lets just see what they are first.

 

[clutterydrawer]

they won't starve I promise I dont feed mine for a week when I'm on holiday and they're fine. I think it would be ok to feed them as long as you're doing sufficient water tests and changes - only a little bit though

 

[toggle]

Ok got the test results and please dont shout at me

Ammonia: 0.5 - 1.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0.0 ppm
Nitrate: 0.0 ppm

GH: 16d
KH: Cant rember (colour has gone a colour not on scale after about 10 mins)
PH: 8.0

so what do i do now? Also i got back from work todasy and my water is quite cloudy (still visiable to see in but definatly misty)

Do i do a water cahnge or summit? also i know the P/H is bad

 

[clutterydrawer]

the pH is fine for guppys.
(you have guppys, right? or did i make that up? )


the levels aren't critical yet but if it was me I'd probably change a bit anyway....maybe about 4litres.

 

[toggle]

yeah guppies

ill do 4 litre water changes daily then for this week and see if i get nitrite at the end of this week..

Also why is my water cloudy?

 

[toggle]

yeah guppies

ill do 4 litre water changes daily then for this week and see if i get nitrite at the end of this week..

Also why is my water cloudy? wasnt like this yesterday and the fish seem to keep going to the top gasping for air, also their gills seem kinda redish..

omg im a bad fish keeper next time im gonna do a fishless cycle

 

[clutterydrawer]

Those are bad bad symptoms. hopefully it's because of the ammonia which can be fixed with a water change...

When you've done the water change (remember to dechlorinate...) see if they perk up a bit. if they don't, try changing a bit more.

what kind of aeration do you have in the tank? does the filter ripple the water surface?

and yeah, you should have cycled fishless. but at least you'll know next time.

 

[toggle]

when you said

"When you've done the water change (remember to dechlorinate...) see if they perk up a bit. if they don't, try changing a bit more."

do you mean do another water change an hour or so after the first?

and

"what kind of aeration do you have in the tank? does the filter ripple the water surface?"

not really, should i get one of those bubble pumps or summit?

Jeeze, just opend the lid and it stunk bad!! gonna do a water change now i can still se4 my comp so pbs