New Fish Are Dead

[chrisb1357]

Well when i got the tank i got a Sponge Filter and then also a Plastic Cartridge Filter which had some fine white filter stuff. But if you have a look inside the cartridge filter there also so kind of black pellet type things which are wrap up inside the white fine filter.

Chris

hi chris.
did you actualy find carbon in this filter, my mum has the same tank and all it has is filter floss and the bio balls no carbon..
yes always use the water conditioner when adding tap water if it was me i wouldnt add the stress zyme anymore, keep dong the water changes and all the readings will come down.
good luck

So do you suggest just a daily water change without ammo lock.

Chris

using ammo lock will give you a false ammonia reading on most 9all?) test kits.

 

[Disco]

No. Continue to use ammo-lock but ignore any reading as it will be non-toxic. When your nirite is zero it would suggest the tank has cycled, as the bacteria for this grows much slower than the one that breaks down ammonia.

 

[chrisb1357]

So its not worth me testing for Ammonia for a week or so then i guest. Just to monitor the other levels in the tank and so a daily water change and add Ammo Lock every few days

chris

No. Continue to use ammo-lock but ignore any reading as it will be non-toxic. When your nirite is zero it would suggest the tank has cycled, as the bacteria for this grows much slower than the one that breaks down ammonia.

 

[zoekin8yg]

Do you know when doing water changes on a daily basis do you still need to add the water conditionor when adding new water or just add plain water with nothing else. Am going to do another 50% water change tonight again and add some ammo lock again.

Am i best to add some more Stress Zyme again or not

Chris

You need to add conditioner to all water you put in the tank to remove chlorine and other impurities. The ammonia reading when you use the ammo lock is sort of false as the ammo lock detoxifies the ammonia, so its still there but not in its toxic form.

 

[chrisb1357]

Checked the water levels again today. PH is going down and all others apart from Nitrate which is going up a little

Chris

 

[zoekin8yg]

sounds like things are going well, the nitrates will increase, as thats what the nitrite is converted to, whats the level? anything below 50ppm the fish should be fine, if its higher do a water change.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup if your nitrates are increasing it's going well.

didn't knwo that about ammo lock affecting the readings. never used the stuff myself, just stick to water changes and lots of them if there's any problems.

keep doing daily changes, add water conditioner every time. be patient it's all going well.

that looks like an otto to me as well

 

[chrisb1357]

Hi Miss Wiggle,

Here are my latest tank stats from dinner time today. I added Ammo Lock on Sun so not sure if this will affect the readings.

Tank Stats:

Nitrate No3 - 20.00
Nitrate No2 - 5.0
Total Hardness GH - 300 (17.0)
Total Alkality KH - 80 (4.0)
PH - 7.2
Temp - 27c / 28c

Ammonia Test one day after adding Ammo Lock - 1.2 mg/l

I have been doing daily 50% Water changes for the last 4 nights and am going to carry on with them this week as it looks like the readings are getting better. I dont think am going to add any more Ammo Lock.

When doing a water change should i clean the filter sponges with clean water or not. Also is it ok to suck up any bits off the gravel.

I have reduced feeding to every 2 days now as there is only the one fish left in the tank.

Many Thanks
Chris

yup if your nitrates are increasing it's going well.

didn't knwo that about ammo lock affecting the readings. never used the stuff myself, just stick to water changes and lots of them if there's any problems.

keep doing daily changes, add water conditioner every time. be patient it's all going well.

that looks like an otto to me as well

 

[Miss Wiggle]

good, glad it's improving, stoping the ammo lock and carrying on the changes is the way forward for sure.

yes only feed a little as you only have the 1 fish.

don't clean the filter sponges when doing water changes (well not for the time being anyway) only clean them if you see any drop in the flow from the filter, then you should get a bucket of water taken from the tank and just gently squeeze out the filter sponges in there to remove the worst of the gunk. NEVER run them under the tap, NEVER try to clean them thoroughly, if you do then you'll kill off your bacteria colony and you'll have to go through all of this again!!

yes by all means siphon the waste and uneaten food off the substrate.

now things are getting back to normal you will shorlty be considering more fish for the tank, bear in mind your filter now has a bacteria colony that's big enough to support 1 small fish, that's not a hell of a lot, so even if you just add 1 more small fish your doubling the load on it. so you need to go slowly, very slowly. i would literally recommend getting them 1 fish at a time at intervals of about a week until you've built up to 5/6 fish. you'll also need to keep checking your water stats if you start to see any ammonia or nitrite readings then do daily water changes again, this will only be a mini cycle so should just take a day or so to sort. this is just because you've a very small filter capacity as you've just one fish now. so softly softly catchy monkey!

and 1 little note, when your posting please be careful when typing nitrIte and nitrAte, telling people it's the wrong thing can mislead them very badly as to the quality of your water adn you'll get advise that is wrong for your tank. don't mean to critiscise, i get them muddled too, but just a word of warning cos it makes a v big difference

 

[chrisb1357]

With regards to the Ammonia tests should i keep doing daily water changes until the test results get to Zero.

Chris

good, glad it's improving, stoping the ammo lock and carrying on the changes is the way forward for sure.

yes only feed a little as you only have the 1 fish.

don't clean the filter sponges when doing water changes (well not for the time being anyway) only clean them if you see any drop in the flow from the filter, then you should get a bucket of water taken from the tank and just gently squeeze out the filter sponges in there to remove the worst of the gunk. NEVER run them under the tap, NEVER try to clean them thoroughly, if you do then you'll kill off your bacteria colony and you'll have to go through all of this again!!

yes by all means siphon the waste and uneaten food off the substrate.

now things are getting back to normal you will shorlty be considering more fish for the tank, bear in mind your filter now has a bacteria colony that's big enough to support 1 small fish, that's not a hell of a lot, so even if you just add 1 more small fish your doubling the load on it. so you need to go slowly, very slowly. i would literally recommend getting them 1 fish at a time at intervals of about a week until you've built up to 5/6 fish. you'll also need to keep checking your water stats if you start to see any ammonia or nitrite readings then do daily water changes again, this will only be a mini cycle so should just take a day or so to sort. this is just because you've a very small filter capacity as you've just one fish now. so softly softly catchy monkey!

and 1 little note, when your posting please be careful when typing nitrIte and nitrAte, telling people it's the wrong thing can mislead them very badly as to the quality of your water adn you'll get advise that is wrong for your tank. don't mean to critiscise, i get them muddled too, but just a word of warning cos it makes a v big difference

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes, keep doing them until both ammonia and nitrite read 0 consistently

 

[chrisb1357]

Hi all,

Well been doing 50% water changes each night over the last week and here are my current tank stats. Not sure if they read good or not

Ammonia - 1.2 mg/l
Nitrate No3 - 40
Nitrite No2 - 3.0
Total Hardness (GH) - 300 (17.0)
Total Alkalinlty (KH) - 120 (7.0)
PH - 7.2

Temp - 27c/28c

I have not added any Ammo Lock for the last 5 days and have been doing water changes each day and adding the required amount of water conditonor each time.

It seems that the levels dont seem to be moving. Do i need to just carry on with the water changes
Chris

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well your nitrite has dropped from your last reading so that leads me to believe your reaching the end of your cycle.

i think the reason it's slowed down is as you have lost fish the bioload has decreased, when you had plenty then lots of ammonia was being produced so the beneficial bacteria were building up fairly quickly.

as you have lost fish the amount of ammonia being produced has dropped so the rate of production of bacteria has slowed right down.



Yes you should continue the daily changes to stop you loosing the remaining fish (how are they by the way, any signs of disease?)

I'm not sure what to suggest to speed it up really, introducing more fish to a tank with ammonia and nitrite is crule to the new fish, but would up the boiload and speed things along..... but is it worth putting the fishes life at risk? I don't think so personally

the other way to up the ammonia content is to add liquid ammonia, but that would probably make teh levels dangerous and could kill your remaining fish

I think your just going to have to stick with the water changes for now

 

[chrisb1357]

The other fish seems to be happy. Swmming around and feeding off the bottom and side of the tanks. Cannot see any spots on it or anything.

Am not going to put anymore fish in just yet as i do also think its not right to add anymore until its safe to do so.

Will carry on with the water changes for now

Chris

well your nitrite has dropped from your last reading so that leads me to believe your reaching the end of your cycle.

i think the reason it's slowed down is as you have lost fish the bioload has decreased, when you had plenty then lots of ammonia was being produced so the beneficial bacteria were building up fairly quickly.

as you have lost fish the amount of ammonia being produced has dropped so the rate of production of bacteria has slowed right down.



Yes you should continue the daily changes to stop you loosing the remaining fish (how are they by the way, any signs of disease?)

I'm not sure what to suggest to speed it up really, introducing more fish to a tank with ammonia and nitrite is crule to the new fish, but would up the boiload and speed things along..... but is it worth putting the fishes life at risk? I don't think so personally

the other way to up the ammonia content is to add liquid ammonia, but that would probably make teh levels dangerous and could kill your remaining fish

I think your just going to have to stick with the water changes for now

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad they're fine

i don't think it's fari to add fish either, and i can't think of any other safe way to speed up the cycle, just got to persevere and have patience (incidentally, patience by take that's playing on the radio as i type this )