Newbiefishmom
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2017
- Messages
- 9
So heres my story. My boyfriend and I are renting a place and the landlord said no pets, but said we could have a fish tank. So I did research and went to the local pet store and asked a few questions and was informed that the bigger the tank the easier to maintain it .
So I watched a lot of youtube videos on how to set up a tank and how to do water changes and how to de-chlorinate. We found a used 55 gallon tank that came with the works. We got the tank, stand, 2 heaters and a 7 inch Rhino pleco that came with the tank. We were moving the tank about 50 minutes so we had to empty the entire thing.
We thought we didnt want any of her nasty fish water so we cleaned the tank with vinegar and water, we got a brand new filter, new rocks and decoration, and a new air-rater with new tubeing. We set the tank up and de-chlorinated the whole 55 gallons and got the temp to about 75 which was fine for just the pleco. So we put him in the tank the same day as set up not knowing we were supposed to let the tank cycle for a week.
We went to petco the next day to buy fish and told the person helping us how we just got our tank set up yesterday and they said nothing to us. We bought 3 snails two catfish 4 tiger barbs and an beautiful angel fish. Brought them home and put them in and the water started to get cloudy so i added some water clarifier.
I didnt want my angel fish to be all alone without another angelfish so i went to every pet store in a 50 mile radius trying to find another angel the same size as mine because we bought a good size one. At the pet store i was going to boesmans rainbow fish and 4 more tiger barbs and told the pet store employees the same thing i told everyone else and they made it sound like all of my fish were going to die because i didnt let it sit for a week they asked me how my levels were and they wern't aweful my ph was high and it showed i had very hard water on my 5 in one test strip. So I got a Ph balancer that stabilized it to 7.
That same morning I added more water to my tank so I de-chlorinated the entire 55 gallons. I did the ph blancer like they told me to and while reading the instructions I relized the ph blancer had a de-chlorinator in it so i double chlorinated the entire 55 gallons. They also had me buy a biomax filter insert to help with my ammonia lvls and after having it in my filter for a day i had white particles and a layer of dust everywhere in my tank.
You couldnt even see to the back of the tank. So i took that out because I thought that was my issue. I talked with some friends and youtubed videos about bacteria bloom because that is what everyone thought I had and everyone said it shouldnt harm my fish that it will clear up in a week. Well now today 4/4 of my tiger barbs are dead. Everyone said not to do a water change but i read on this site to just change the water not to gravel vac the rocks because it would get rid of my good bacteria.
So just now I did a 50% water change and i used the ph balancer to bring it to seven and de- chlorinate my tank. All of the levels look fine besides the total hardness it is very very hard. Im just so worried and stressed for my fish and my fishtank to be clean and healthy for my new babies. I also read on this sight that if you have old filter cartilages from an established tank to put them in your filter to seed your tank so I put the filters that the lady we bought the tank from in to my filter. Does anyone have any advise at all for me??
So I watched a lot of youtube videos on how to set up a tank and how to do water changes and how to de-chlorinate. We found a used 55 gallon tank that came with the works. We got the tank, stand, 2 heaters and a 7 inch Rhino pleco that came with the tank. We were moving the tank about 50 minutes so we had to empty the entire thing.
We thought we didnt want any of her nasty fish water so we cleaned the tank with vinegar and water, we got a brand new filter, new rocks and decoration, and a new air-rater with new tubeing. We set the tank up and de-chlorinated the whole 55 gallons and got the temp to about 75 which was fine for just the pleco. So we put him in the tank the same day as set up not knowing we were supposed to let the tank cycle for a week.
We went to petco the next day to buy fish and told the person helping us how we just got our tank set up yesterday and they said nothing to us. We bought 3 snails two catfish 4 tiger barbs and an beautiful angel fish. Brought them home and put them in and the water started to get cloudy so i added some water clarifier.
I didnt want my angel fish to be all alone without another angelfish so i went to every pet store in a 50 mile radius trying to find another angel the same size as mine because we bought a good size one. At the pet store i was going to boesmans rainbow fish and 4 more tiger barbs and told the pet store employees the same thing i told everyone else and they made it sound like all of my fish were going to die because i didnt let it sit for a week they asked me how my levels were and they wern't aweful my ph was high and it showed i had very hard water on my 5 in one test strip. So I got a Ph balancer that stabilized it to 7.
That same morning I added more water to my tank so I de-chlorinated the entire 55 gallons. I did the ph blancer like they told me to and while reading the instructions I relized the ph blancer had a de-chlorinator in it so i double chlorinated the entire 55 gallons. They also had me buy a biomax filter insert to help with my ammonia lvls and after having it in my filter for a day i had white particles and a layer of dust everywhere in my tank.
You couldnt even see to the back of the tank. So i took that out because I thought that was my issue. I talked with some friends and youtubed videos about bacteria bloom because that is what everyone thought I had and everyone said it shouldnt harm my fish that it will clear up in a week. Well now today 4/4 of my tiger barbs are dead. Everyone said not to do a water change but i read on this site to just change the water not to gravel vac the rocks because it would get rid of my good bacteria.
So just now I did a 50% water change and i used the ph balancer to bring it to seven and de- chlorinate my tank. All of the levels look fine besides the total hardness it is very very hard. Im just so worried and stressed for my fish and my fishtank to be clean and healthy for my new babies. I also read on this sight that if you have old filter cartilages from an established tank to put them in your filter to seed your tank so I put the filters that the lady we bought the tank from in to my filter. Does anyone have any advise at all for me??
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