My New 48L Tank.

[Curiosity101]

With levels like yours were I really don't hold out much hope to be honest. But like I said it's definitely worth trying.

Although it's always horrible to hear of people getting duped by fish shop employees... it does happen. Try not to feel too bad, you can only do your best from here on.

I definitely agree fishless cycle is best imo. You still end up with a fully stocked tank after the same amount of time. And you avoid exposing the fish to any levels of ammonia and/or nitrite.
It may be worth asking around on here to see if any can donate you some mature media and/or some filter mulm. Where abouts are you based?

I put the tank in about a two weeks ago, filled it & treated it then left it running untill saturday when I added the fish, so it has been fishyfied since Saturday & was running for a week before that.

So it's only had fish for 4/5 days? Wow. That does make me think it's more likely your nitrites are from the wrong type of ammonia bacs rather than a lucky fast cycle. Any chance you have a white slime/film over tank decor n such?

 

[chilli-spice]

it's always so awful when you get bad advice from the LFS

it happened to me too, you aren't the only one!

i saw someone else suggest on someone else's post, to keep the kids entertained and into the idea, get a nice colourful fish book and let them have a look at the pictures of the fish. then talk about those fish and you can read the interesting bits to them, might help them be a bit less impatient for the fish to arrive.
at 4, they could also help you with the testing. under close supervision and done very carefully, they would probably enjoy being scientists
each test would take a looooot longer, but am sure they'd enjoy it

 

[Aqua Tom]

It may be worth asking around on here to see if any can donate you some mature media and/or some filter mulm. Where abouts are you based?

So it's only had fish for 4/5 days? Wow. That does make me think it's more likely your nitrites are from the wrong type of ammonia bacs rather than a lucky fast cycle. Any chance you have a white slime/film over tank decor n such?

Based in Harlow, South Essex.

No sign of any film on anything.

 

[Timmy_Bee]

I reaserched the nitrogen cycle quite extensivly. I didnt just jump in blind. I decided fish-in-cycle was the way to go because I want to keep my kids interested in the hobby & a fishtank with no fish in just isnt at all tranxifing for two sub 4 year old girls.

Sorry if you took my first post the wrong way. Unfortunately, LFS's are in the habit of giving bad advice, so i find its always good to check

 

[Aqua Tom]

Just got back from taking my eldest to her halloween disco & discovered another deadun laying on the gravel

So i am down to one fish now & he aint looking to great.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I am gona be fishless in the near future so have ordered some ammonia from boots to begin fishless cycling if the last one dont survive.


I am sad but determined.

 

[the biffster]

sorry to hear about your
losses aqua tom i am keeping
my fingers crossed for the solitary
surviving fish if it doesn't make it
go with the fish less cycle its a
lot easier than doing a fish in cycle
and a lot less pain and disappointment
good luck the biffster

 

[SparkyDave]

Tom

sorry that your fish died, I hope the last one makes it.

We have the same tank, and had almost the same advice from pets@home, I am so glad I found this forum so much usefull info here
I set up our tank for 2 weeks and then introduced 5 leopard danios (danio frankei) one of them died within 12 hrs

I tested as advised on here every 12 hrs and for the first few days Ammonia (NH3) was showing 0.25ppm 12 hrs after 50% PWC I carried out those 50% every 12 hrs for 3 days then started to do 80% PWCs its been a week since then and I managed to get some mature filter sponges from my LFS swapped them into our filter and almost instantly the NH3 tests were showing at almost 0.
I have continued to do a 50-80% PWC when ever the NH3 test showed any hint of green but its been mostly yellow (API Kit)

The remaining 4 seem to be doing well, one is getting fat, we think shes a girl, of course they all have names from Twilight lol

As everyone has said on here its crucial to keep an near constant eye on the Ammonia levels as in an uncycled tank thank what builds up first and to dilute as much as you can with PWCs to bring that down to as close to zero as you can.

Luckly in a 48ltr (mine takes only 41 ltrs of water to fill I suppose the rest is displaced by the equipment, plastic plants, ornaments and substrate?) big water changes are quite easy, I use 2 25ltr brewers buckets and a normal bucket to get it done. Just remember to add and stir the "tapsafe" or whatever conditioner into the buckets of water before refilling the tank.

Good luck

SD.

PS heres a pic of ours (aquascaping by Darcey age 10)

 

[Aqua Tom]

My Wife has just rang me at work to say that the last poor fishy has kicked the bucket.

Will be started a fishless cycle when my ammonia arrives.

Is it best to leave the water in the tank or shall I just start over?

 

[Curiosity101]

Definitely leave the water in with everything running. If the ammonia is 5ppm or less then it will keep the cycle going. If its over 5ppm then dilute it a little, you don't want the wrong bacteria growing. Also you might want to leave the tank lights off, ammonia + light = algae.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with C101 (as usual, sigh)