Newbie And I Am Struggling :-( Fish Are Dying

[arobinson1984]

As waterdrop said, if your struggling to get the gravel started, suck on the end of the tube and watch the water until its halfway down the pipe, put ur thumb over the end of it then place it in the bucket and release your thumb, it will then syphon itself. Be sure the dig the gravel vac right into the gravel and it will suck up all the waste and gunk that has fallen down in between the gravel pieces

Also as waterdrop said, there isnt really a need to retest again in an hour because we know it will still be too high so you can just do another change in an hour, you may still wish to test and record the results as part of the learning process and it helps you get a bit of an idea how much water you need to change to get your levels to drop by x%

You only need to concentrate on your ammonia level at the minute because looking at your orignial results, your nitrite spike hasnt really begun yet (you will understand this a bit more if you read the links I posted for you earlier regarding the nitrogen cycle and the fish-in cycling)

PS, dont be alarmed if you retest in an hour an the ammonia is still at 8ppm, this may be because the orginal amount may have actually been higher than 8 and the test is only designed to read up to a maximum of 8.

Andy

 

[mark1979]

Thankyou very much for all your support, i understand somewhat more than i did this morning, i shall keep on reading till half 2 when i shall retest just so i can see if i am helping them, i sorted the vac, i was scared of rocking the water too much so was bein soft lol but av done it now, theres still tiny particles of that cat fish food fluff floating round but i have got tons out and figured that i would probably get the rest out in the next water change, wanted to give the fish a rest for a bit lol.

Just one thing before the next test, do i need to redo all the tests or just the ammonia as this is what i am concentrating on at the moment?

i would do the tests to get more practise doing them.

and its also nice to see that you are helping when you see the test results show nicer water

you wanna try and net out all of the uneaten food,or just use you gravel cleaner to suck it up.

i would also not feed them for a couple days either

 

[gaz gun man]

yes, fish can go quite happily for a week plus without food, so cut right back to a feed every 3 days or so (and just feed them enough that they can eat within 1 to 2 minutes)

Personally I would'nt worry about doing anything other than the ammonia test at the minute, doing the others could just tip your brain over the edge, what with the steep learning curve you're on at the minute

Big pat on the back for you for your commitment

 

[Shantih]

feed what the plecks? no am not its their fod that caused all that mess lol, i have just upset one of em though cos i moved his home to get under it he got mad n went nuts round tank

Oh my god how hard is it to get photos of fish?? now all i need to do is figure how to post them.......

 

[gaz gun man]

feed what the plecks? no am not its their fod that caused all that mess lol, i have just upset one of em though cos i moved his home to get under it he got mad n went nuts round tank

Oh my god how hard is it to get photos of fish?? now all i need to do is figure how to post them.......

The whole tank.

Open a Photobucket account and upload your pictures there, then you just have to cut and paste the address from the IMG code box (it'll appear under your pictures once you've uploaded them)

 

[Shantih]

Ok here goes lol, apologies if i do anything wrong hahahahahaha

[/img]

oops al try that one again then

 

[arobinson1984]

Looks a bit like a common plec to me but I'm not an expert on all the types of plecs, there are about 150-200 I believe so hopefully somebody will be able to verify which type it is for you.

Is your water cloudy? or does it just look it in the pics? cloudy water is a sign that ammonia is present in the tank.

Andy

 

[Shantih]

Yes it was cloudy i took them pics just after cleaning it out, its cleared up now, am just going to pick kids up and then al test ammonia again, we have had problems with water going cloudy since we got the tank xx

 

[Shantih]

Yeah the ammonia levels are now at 4.0 - Should i do another water change now then / how much should i take out?

 

[mark1979]

Yeah the ammonia levels are now at 4.0 - Should i do another water change now then / how much should i take out?

keep doing them changes until you have 0 ammonia,or as close to 0 as poss,i would do a 75% to be honest

i personaly would remove the plecs anyway. take them back to the place you got them.

 

[Shantih]

thanks al do another change now then

 

[Shantih]

KK waters changed again, i shall post the results at 5:15 - fingers crossed xx

 

[Shantih]

Ammonia levels are now at 0.50 should i do another water change now?

 

[mark1979]

Ammonia levels are now at 0.50 should i do another water change now?

yep get it right down.as overnight it may well creep up

i would do a 50% now though,test it again,and post the results

if its 0.25 or below great,check it in the morning and see if it has risen .if so,you maybe doing a few water changes again im afraid!!

its all worth it in the end i can assure you,so dont let this put you off!! i had te same happen but i had a 260L tank,so water changes 3 or 4 times a day were a nitemare,lol

 

[Shantih]

Excellent, i did the w/c again so i will post the results at 7:30

So my next thought is what happens next? Now my ammonia levels are down what is my next task?

Again i can't thank you all enough for your help xxx