Save My Tank

[PeaceTheDreamer]

Hi my name is Casie,
and i need major help with my fish tank, I have done research and cant figure out what i did wrong. The first time my fish died it wasn't my fault, see i had gotten a plant from PetCo and come to find out later it was infested with pond snails. I was able to remove the snails fairly quickly but the excess ammonia from the snails had all ready set in and killed them. After the fish had been umm... properly buried in the toilet. I cleaned the whole tank thoroughly and had the water checked before adding any more fish in. PetSmart checked it and cleared the water. So i then bought one Dalmatian molly, and two sunburst pollys. I have a 10 gallon tank so they should have had plenty of room. I got two cory cats to help keep the tank clean. The tank was getting really dirty lately so i decided to take the fish out and clean everything again. Thats when things went down hill i put the four big fish in a clean milk jug with tap water and dechlorinator in it. I dont know if the water was to warm or if the chemicals in the water still was too strong. The cory cats started struggling to stay right side up, and the molly kept falling on his side. The baby that was hiding in the castle is doing fine but all the other fish died. I feel terrible what did i do wrong ? Please help me. Any advice will be much appreciated.

 

[attibones]

Sounds like you never cycled your tank. You'll want to have a read of that in the cyclig sub forum.

Can you get a liquid test kit and give us your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH? These are likely to have gone down since you did a large change.

Mollies and platies are not suited for a ten gallon. Only corydoras pygmaeus, c. habrosus, and c. hastatus are suitable cories and none of them clean the tank. Cories are mostly carnivorous. Cleaning the tank is your job.

 

[Ninjouzata]

I agree with attibones. Also what has your water change schedule been like? How often and how much do you change at a time?

 

[PeaceTheDreamer]

I try to take out 20 % of the water ounce a week and thoroughly clean it all out ounce a month.
And I do my best to keep the water clear for my fish. The baby sunburst Polly seems to be doing great but he
Is the only one who survived.

 

[Ninjouzata]

What do you do when you thoroughly clean it once a month? Can you post readings for pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

 

[Ch4rlie]

 
Think Ninjzouta and Attibones may be correct in saying you may not have cycled your tank prior to adding the fish into the tank.
 
 
This is the link that is being referred to for Fishless Cycling your tank. Conatinas good information on how a cycled tank works and why its best to do this before adding any live stocking.
 
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/
 
And one other thing, I would suggest you get, if you can, a water test kit so you can keep an eye on your water parameters everyday, a recommended kit for the beginner would be something like a API FW Master Test Kit, like this - 
 
[sharedmedia=core:attachments:75363]
 
Usually a bit cheaper to buy these kits online rather than form LFS.
 
Having a read of that article and obtaining that test kit will get you off to a decent start to learning more about this hobby
 

 

[cambojnr]

Also by thoroughly cleaning are you cleaning everything in the old tank water our running it under a tap?, as when cleaning anything out of the tank, only use the water from the tank, same with when you take fish out only put them in the water from the tank as anything else will likely be different and shock them.

 

[PeaceTheDreamer]

Ok that makes more sense I will try and get a reading for ph and nitrates but right now my
Fish and snails seem to be doing fine. Thank you for your help I will try to figure out how to post pictures soon