New tank problems

[Simonlloyd219]

Hi there

Two weeks ago we bought a tank and were told to put the filter/heater etc in the tank and leave it to settle down for a week efore we added fish. It was left for two weeks and yesterday we bought a small angel fish and 4 male guppies.

We awoke this morning to find the angel dead in the corner and the water so cloudy that you could barely see inside it. The guppies are all swimming on the spot at the top of the tank (occassionally darting down and back up) in one corner next to the pump.

Having read these forums, I'm guessing we have no bacteria in the tank to lower the ammonia levels and the fish are going to die. So my questions are these:

1) Is there anything that can be done to save any of the guppies (being new to the hobby we have no second tank to transfer them to or anything like that)? We changed about 30% of the water this morning as a guess at diluting the cloudiness

2) If/when all the fish die, how do we go about introducing bacteria to the water to cycle it?

Thanks
Simon

 

[shadow]

first you need to get kits ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and a ph(especially if you plan to keep angels) then you can moniter your levels. next continue to do daily water changes of about 25% to keep the ammonia levels down. i would also read up on cycling your tank, which you can here

good luck with your fish!

 

[jvis0606]

Hi, I completely understand your frustration and panic, I was there a couple of weeks ago! Angelfish I think are not the hardiest fish to start with when "cycling" a new tank. They are quite delicate and need very pristine conditions. If you want to add hardier fish, try Platies. I'd also buy Cycle, its a solution that adds bacteria to your tank. Make sure you are conditioning your tap water also when you do the water changes. Also buy some aquarium salt, good to have when fish start feeling stressed. Not sure why your tank got cloudy, hopefully your filter is working properly. Make sure not to overfeed, in fact, you may want to underfeed (once a day) for the time being.

Keep at it, with daily 15% water changes, and hopefully everything will work out! Good luck!

 

[Simonlloyd219]

Thanks for the replies. Thankfully the water is clearing somewhat now, and all four of the guppies are looking better. I spoke to someone who said the cloudiness was probably due to us adding the water from the shop to our water. I'll know not to do that in future