3 out of 4 dead, 1 left, PetSmart won't take it back, help?!

[librarygirl]

Yes another post by me. Sorry about that...

Short history:

• 12 gal bowfront
• Been running 1 month
• NOT cycled (don't get me started, PETSMART is EVIL)
• Testing with API kit; ph goes up and down, ammonia is <0.25, no nitrates/nitrites at all
• I had 4 Glofish (GLO not Gold) as of yesterday. After a 7 gal water change treated with Prime (and I did move decorations and gravel around so I really think I stressed them all out) they were all hovering at the top and not moving much. I have a 4" air stone and the filter output creates bubbles and agitation on the surface.
• I tested water again 90 mins after water change and ammonia was 0-0.15 (guessing but not 0.25), ph 7.6 (although have had issues with it fluctuating some), high range 8.3, no nitrates/nitrates (photo of my test last night here on page 2 I think)

I woke up this morning and 3 out of the 4 were dead on the bottom. I'm not surprised but I have no idea what went wrong.

As soon as PetSmart (where I bought them) opened at 10 AM this morning b/c I want to do a fishless cycle at this point they said they couldn't take the fish back without it being within the 14 day purchase period.

So now I have 1 fish left in the tank (not good since these are schooling fish) that won't eat, and her gills are moving rapidly and she's hanging around the top of the tank.

The tank wouldn't cycle with 4 of them in there nevermind one. And I still don't know why she won't eat and is acting weird. I thought maybe the large water change and the moving of stuff around stressed them all out but it's been 12 hours now, shouldn't she have calmed down (although the trip in the breeding cup to the store and back probably hasn't helped matters).

What do I do? I don't know anyone who could take her. And other than calling around to lfs to see if any of them will take her I don't know what to do. And I'm working later today so calling around to stores and even finding one that might take her and then getting her there would take a few days at least.


Help?!

RIP Fitzgerald (aka "Fitzy")
RIP Dickens
RIP Orwell

(what? I'm a librarian )

 

[allaboutfish]

just stay on your what changes or try to find a lfs that will take it in.

 

[librarygirl]

Well the last one died too. I'm at a loss really but I'm going to pick up some ammo and go fishless. HOpefully this will work out better for me. Thanks everyone.

RIP Hemingway

 

[carey]

Good luck. Sorry about your fishies. You'll do much better this time around.

Lots of good information on the site for fishless cycling.

 

[librarygirl]

Thank you. Just called Home Depot and talked to 3 confused people and finally said they don't think they have pure ammo. I went online and the Walmart near me says they have it so am going there now to see if it's really pure ammo. If not I'll have to take a trip to Ace this week.

This is another dumb question but the fishless cycle instructions say to dose ammonia up to 4 ppm. How do you measure that? Or is it just adding a small dose of ammonia and keep running the API kit until it says 4ppm?

Thanks again, I really hope I can do this the right way without killing any more fish *sniff* I miss them...

 

[carey]

The amount of ammonia is dependant on your tank size. I added i believe 1.5ml in my 29g but I could be mistaken. lol

Theres a thread or post with the conversion to achieve the 4ppm based on your gallons. I'm sure someone will post it.

I ended up adding way too much ammonia so go slowly. I had to do pwcs to get it back to 4ppm.

You'll do great now that you can cycle without worrying about your fish. Just a darn shame they don't tell ya these things when you buy a tank/fish.

 

[j2112j]

Sorry about your fish, you certainly did everything possible for them.

 

[allaboutfish]

hey atleast next time you get fish they'll live happily and healthy and you wont have to worry about killing them

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks everyone. I went to walmart but their ammonia has surfectants in it. So I'm going to wait until tomorrow, there's an Ace hardware near where I work, I can go during lunch.

For now I drained all water, rewashed all decorations, changed out the gravel (didn't like the colors in there and hey why not now lol), rinsed filter in old aquarium water, put in everything the way I want it filled it back up, put Prime in for 12 gals, started everything up with airstone and cranked up the heat to 86. So all that's left is ammonia which I can get tomorrow.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Aspencer]

Have a great cycle!

 

[carey]

Wow all prepared and ready to go! Good for you. Will be looking forward to seeing your cycle and the fish you end up getting.

 

[Sssea]

Im so sorry for your loss.
I love their names My first goldfish was Huxley and my snail was Mary Shelley.

 

[jetajockey]

I would still try to nail down what happened to them. Just keeping fish in an uncycled tank is not going to kill them outright, the toxin poisoning is what does it, and its generally a slower process rather than wiping most of them out all at once.

If the fish were hovering and gasping right after the water change, I would try aerating your new water prior to putting it in and see if that helps.

If you rule that out and still have the same issue, then it could be symptoms of ammonia poisoning.

 

[Joyler]

Well for me (this won't help you much) I added a whole cap of ammonia, and that got it up to 4ppm...my tank is 50g though and ya the home depot in my area doesn't carry pure ammonia, but the ACE does! It's called janitorial grade pure ammonia...sorry I can't help you more, but still look forward to updates! Sorry also for your fish...that's hard...you also might want to figure out how to keep your ph even...that will really stress out a fish big time

 

[librarygirl]

Im so sorry for your loss.
I love their names My first goldfish was Huxley and my snail was Mary Shelley.

Thank you. Aw I like those names. I may have to steal the Huxley name!

 

[librarygirl]

I would still try to nail down what happened to them. Just keeping fish in an uncycled tank is not going to kill them outright, the toxin poisoning is what does it, and its generally a slower process rather than wiping most of them out all at once.

If the fish were hovering and gasping right after the water change, I would try aerating your new water prior to putting it in and see if that helps.

If you rule that out and still have the same issue, then it could be symptoms of ammonia poisoning.

Thanks I'll try aerating the tap water, but I won't know if that' the problem until I have fish in there right? I don't want it to be too late then. How long should I aerate the new water for? I have some extra smaller airstones and tubing (I was using the small ones but then upgraded to a 4") so I could use those.

I don't think it was ammo b/c the tests right after the change showed zero or close to.

Thank you!

 

[librarygirl]

Well for me (this won't help you much) I added a whole cap of ammonia, and that got it up to 4ppm...my tank is 50g though and ya the home depot in my area doesn't carry pure ammonia, but the ACE does! It's called janitorial grade pure ammonia...sorry I can't help you more, but still look forward to updates! Sorry also for your fish...that's hard...you also might want to figure out how to keep your ph even...that will really stress out a fish big time

Thanks! I did call Home Depot first, talked to 4 different people who then decided that they didn't "think" they had pure ammo. So I did go to ACE and got their janitorial strength. I put in 2 teaspoons thinking that was conservative but ended up with 8.0 ppm of ammo after so I had to pwc down to 4.0 which is where it is now.

The ph is an issue. I'm going to retest the tap water at various intervals over a 24 hour period and then test treated tap water with Prime at the same intervals and continue to test the aquarium water during the cycle. I'm also going to have the gh/kh in my tap water tested. I need to see if the ph isn't stable and if it isn't find out why and how to fix it before I add fish. Once I get more test results I'll have to start a new post to get some help. I did test the water before and after that last large pwc though and it was the same both times, 7.6, so I don't think it was ph shock.

Thanks!

 

[JackSpadesSI]

Well for me (this won't help you much) I added a whole cap of ammonia, and that got it up to 4ppm...my tank is 50g though

A cap (assuming a 5 mL cap) is way more than 4 ppm (mole-basis) of ammonia in a 50-gallon tank. The proper dosage should have been 1.05 mL.

As for OP, 0.252 mL of pure ammonia is 4 ppm of your 12-gallon tank. A little goes a long way!

 

[JackSpadesSI]

I put in 2 teaspoons thinking that was conservative but ended up with 8.0 ppm of ammo after so I had to pwc down to 4.0 which is where it is now.

2 teaspoons is nearly 40 times too much ammonia for your small 12-gallon tank! Your actual ammonia level, by the math, was 157 ppm... I'm guessing that the test kit simply isn't calibrated for such absurd quantities of ammonia.

You may want to do a LOT more PWC to get it back down to 4 ppm! 5x 50% PWC would do the trick (from the original overdosage).

 

[Joyler]

Well the cap full worked for me...my tank is cycled beautiful! I have a strong bacteria colony and a happy 14 fish, 5 shrimp and 2 snails so far...and it's only been less than a week I know the "cap full" wouldn't work for the OP I was just giving my experience...