New Tank, Dead Fish

[Xraymark]

A cycled filter would test 0 for ammonia and nitrite all the time. Nitrates would show a steady increase. In a fish in cycle at the start you may test ammonia everyday which nessitates water changes daily. As your bacteria grow you may have to do a water change every second day and so on.
Until a week will go by and no ammonia will be seen.
Filter start products on this forum rarely appear to work.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

What alot of people dont reailse is just beause neons are cheap does not make them a throw away fish. Neons need a mature tank, even a fresh cycled tank is not great for them. Tanks take years to mature not days and weeks, neons should not be going into a take of less then 4-6 months.

 

[Rummynose]

It may also be a good idea to test your tap water for ammonia. If you have ammonia in your tap water you won't be able to reduce the ammonia in your tank to less than what is coming from the tap. The only thing you can do in that case is to add products to your tank that convert harmful ammonia into non harmful ammonium.

Having a reading of .25 ammonia in your tank and waiting until the weekend to do a w/c will cause organ damage to your fish, and can cause death.

The deaths in your fish could also have been caused by the ich parasite settling in their gills. But I think it is more likely that they died from ammonia/nitrite poisoning, and that the ich came as a result to their stress living in bad water conditions.

 

[sadguppy]

Unless you have seen ammonia rise, then fall whilst nitrites rise, which then fall while nitrates rise, the tanks is not cycled. This will usually take well over a month in a tank with fish in it.

 

[benji87]

Ok thanks for all the good advice everyone. I guess I will have to try and start again doing a fish in cycle and hope for the best. I thought I had waited long enough before adding fish and presumed the filter starter would get me going. Never realised neons shouldn't be added until 5-6 months either! Can anyone recommend any fish that can be added in the early stages?

 

[balajake]

I wouldn't add anymore fish. just keep doing water changes daily if needed and buy a bottle of seachem prime, it will dechlorinate and detoxify ammonia and nitrite and you only use 5ml per 200 litres of water so it will go a very long way. if you have whitespot then what you need is waterlife protozin.

 

[sadguppy]

Danios are often recommended as hardier fish and most will survive a fish-in cylce although it will shorten their lives and it is far less cruel to cycle with no fish (I wish I had known this!). However any bottom feeders, like plecs or algae eaters, shouldn't be added until the tank is well established as there will be nothing for them to eat; plecs are also very sensitive to water conditions.