HELP!! Bought a used tank and I need advice!

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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??
 
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The filter media that was in the filter before - did you let that dry out before you put it back in the filter? If it was still wet, it still should have some beneficial bacteria on it, but since she only had one fish in her tank and you've bought way more than that, it will still go through a cycling process with the fish in there. It also sounds like the tank is WAY overstocked, even if it had been cycled properly. I would take some back. I've kept two angelfish, about six cory catfish, and dwarf pleco in a 55 gallon tank before, but it sounds like you have way more than that. First off, get a test kit for testing your water parameters and be prepared to to daily water changes while it is cycling (especially if you keep that many fish in there all at one time). Hope this helps a little.
 
If you used her filters you could have immediately put in an equal bioload as she had. It seems you may have gone way over. If all she had in there was a big pleco then all you had the"bio-space" for was a big pleco. Maybe 4 small barbs - for a bit. Give things time to settle. Anything is possible if you have the filtration ie.crazy over-stocked ciclid "community" tanks.
At this point now I'd immediately start putting plants in there to help with the nitrite to nitrate process. Even a pothos plant from home depot to start sucking up ammonia or water lettuce if you can get it. Definitely keep changing the water and stop adding clarifier. I personally use spring water for all my tropical fish as I currently have a source but if all I can get is tap water in the future I plan on going all african rift lake biotope in hopes of them preferring the hard water. South American species in general seem to prefer softer water in the wild. All that being said most of what we have access to in the hobby are captive bred and easily adapt. For your situation I wouldn't attempt to go any further without plants if you want to save the fish you have. If you continue to cycle fish in the weakest will die and the rest will have their gills burned. Realistically you could be left with the one big pleco anyway as he's probably the only one hardy enough to survive. Petco sucks. Definitely ask here first
 
Ok so now I have the rhino pleco (7inches) 2 large angelfish and 2 very small catfish not sure the breed I got them from petco and 3 snails. So 5 fish and 3 snails.




QUOTE=drm315;3450302]The filter media that was in the filter before - did you let that dry out before you put it back in the filter? If it was still wet, it still should have some beneficial bacteria on it, but since she only had one fish in her tank and you've bought way more than that, it will still go through a cycling process with the fish in there. It also sounds like the tank is WAY overstocked, even if it had been cycled properly. I would take some back. I've kept two angelfish, about six cory catfish, and dwarf pleco in a 55 gallon tank before, but it sounds like you have way more than that. First off, get a test kit for testing your water parameters and be prepared to to daily water changes while it is cycling (especially if you keep that many fish in there all at one time). Hope this helps a little.[/QUOTE]
 
I got a brand new filter once I set the tank up at my house. But I have now placed her used fiilter chartiges in my filter (they did dry in between her water and mine) I don't know anything about aquarium plants..
 
If they dried out, the bacteria deceased. It's just clogging your system with toxicity. I'd take them out and use the new ones. As someone with no plant experience the easiest thing to do is to dip a pothos or philodendron into the top of your tank when it clears up you can remove it if you don't like the way it looks. No planting involved. Roots will shoot out of any part of the plant touching water and the results are indisputable. Here's mine20170624_110615.jpg
 
My test strip after my water change today

Everything to me looks okay besides the hardness lvl?
 

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Current cloudiness

This is after my water change today.
 

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If they dried out, the bacteria deceased. It's just clogging your system with toxicity. I'd take them out and use the new ones.

I *think* she said they did not dry out in between time.

Also - just my two cents - I think the 7" pleco is too big for a 55 gallon tank, along with the other fish you now have. Do you know what kind of pleco it is and if it is supposed to get bigger?
 
It did dry. The pleco is a rhino pleco or chocolate pleco it goes by both names. They say they grow with the tank and people have had them up to a foot long. The picture is him next to my 14" bubble wall bar.
I *think* she said they did not dry out in between time.

Also - just my two cents - I think the 7" pleco is too big for a 55 gallon tank, along with the other fish you now have. Do you know what kind of pleco it is and if it is supposed to get bigger.
 

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Thanks for your help I'll be going to Walmart when I get off work to look for a pothos or philodendron plant!
 
Ok - sorry, thought you said that it had not dried between time.

Again - I definitely think that pleco is WAY too big for that tank. I would try to rehome him with someone who has at least a 75 gallon tank, if not larger. Try craigslist, some local fish stores will take stock back, but not likely.
 
Your test strips don't appear to test for ammonia. That is the first toxin that usually shows up to indicate a water change is needed. Your water is pretty hard. So some of the cloudiness could be minerals that will settle. Or it's an ammonia cloud (bad) or a bacterial bloom (good).
 
Plecos really get way too big for the hobby in my opinion. Red tail cats also it's crazy to see them so prevalent but that's capitalism I guess. Also I feel alot of ppl think a "bottom feeder" or "clean-up crew" is always necessary. Most ciclids are themselves "bottom feeders" as are loaches, catfish, and most of the more interesting fish the majority of ppl keep these days. It just seems to me without being really aware of it we just arbitrarily throw a pleco in every tank and it's not at all what's best for the animal. I've seen specimens from the wild as big as any Mekong cat or sturgeon - they get ridiculously huge it's not right
 
Plecos really get way too big for the hobby in my opinion. Red tail cats also it's crazy to see them so prevalent but that's capitalism I guess. Also I feel alot of ppl think a "bottom feeder" or "clean-up crew" is always necessary. Most ciclids are themselves "bottom feeders" as are loaches, catfish, and most of the more interesting fish the majority of ppl keep these days. It just seems to me without being really aware of it we just arbitrarily throw a pleco in every tank and it's not at all what's best for the animal. I've seen specimens from the wild as big as any Mekong cat or sturgeon - they get ridiculously huge it's not right

Completely agree!
 
Plecos really get way too big for the hobby in my opinion. Red tail cats also it's crazy to see them so prevalent but that's capitalism I guess. Also I feel alot of ppl think a "bottom feeder" or "clean-up crew" is always necessary. Most ciclids are themselves "bottom feeders" as are loaches, catfish, and most of the more interesting fish the majority of ppl keep these days. It just seems to me without being really aware of it we just arbitrarily throw a pleco in every tank and it's not at all what's best for the animal. I've seen specimens from the wild as big as any Mekong cat or sturgeon - they get ridiculously huge it's not right
+1 Plecos and goldfish, the two most abused species in aquaria.
 
Current-

Bought ammonia test strip and it's at "stress" and that's my current 5-1 test strip.
 

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Should I do another water change?

I did a 50% water change around 7:30am and I declorinated the whole 55 gallons and used my ph balancer 7.0, with my current tests should I do another water change? If so how much? And do I dechlorinate the whole 55 gallons again if I did it once today? Including my current cloudyness and a pic of my new philodendron
 

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Only have to dechlorinate the new water. Would quit using the pH regulator, can lead to pH swings which are worse than letting fish acclimate to your pH.
 
There are a few things I would recommend doing,
1.) Get rid of the test strips and purchase the liquid drop test kits....a lot more accurate than the strips u are using now
2.) STOP using the ph up or ph down to regulate the tanks ph, these things are deadly to fish. If the ph is too low (below 7.0, the biofilter will crash causing fthe biological cycle to shut down or even die.
 
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