Everything keeps dying

[ProjectXKeeper]

OK lemme start off by saying, i just got involved in this hobby about 4 months ago....and made the mistake of getting a 10 gallon tank, anyway the girlfriend loves the fancy goldfish, so it started out with three of those...i think the biological filter hadn't established, the nitrite was through the roof after a week, and everybody got ich....tired to fix this to no avail....then i got alittle comet after things seem to fix themselves....he did great...i wanted something other than goldfish, but nothing was compatible that i knew of...i wanted a pleco and i knew you could keep those with the goldfish, but the guy at the shop told me plecos need to be in around 77 degrees....bought a heater...jack it up and remember goldfish were cold water guys, so figured it would be an experiment...and it worked....once i was up to tropical water conditions...the guy at the shop said you can mix alot with the goldfish and the pleco.....so i tried a blue dwarf gourami and a dalmation molly....everyone got along fine and all was well in the world....then the red algae showed up.....alot of it.....and the algae cleaning pleco got lazy....didn't wanna do anything with the gravel either...one goldfish kickes the bucket from what i believe was a bladder infect (floating sideways and alive and all).
then the molly died, then the pleco.....the other two seem healty and happy...but my girlfriend wnts to know why everything is dying.....oh yeah....guy at the shop told me that the bio filter lives in the filter bag, and that thing i believe needs to be changed...it's pretty funky....but i'm not sure about how to go about doing that....someone help me out here....

 

[Toirtis]

OK...start with telling us what sort of filter you have. Your tank needs to be cycled (search the term on this site, we have several info threads on it) prior to your adding fish...and the fish you add need to be researched, compatible (goldfish and tropicals are not compatible, no matter what your fish-shop guy told you), and added slowly. You do not want too many fish for your tank and filter to handle, nor fish that get too large (like the goldfish and pleco). Live plants will also help with water-quality, but you will need appropriate lighting for them, and you don't want plants with something like goldfish, which will simply eat them.

To answer your girlfriend's question of why your fish are dying...the tank has not been properly cycled and matured, and there are far too many (and incompatible) fish in a tank that small, so the water quality is very poor, and the fish are dying from ammonia and nitrite poisoning, and likely also suffering from secondary conditions caused by the stress they are being caused by the bad water.

 

[ProjectXKeeper]

i'm using one of those whisper ones that comes with the 10 gallon set...
and the tank was cycle befre i added more than one fish.....i took about a month...i tested it and everything...but then....BAM....it all went downhill

 

[sugarloves]

The molly needs to be in brackish (saltyish) water. They CAN live in fresh water but I find that they get ill often when they are kept without salt. For your 10 gallon I would go out and get some live bearers. They are hardy, bright and the reproduce like rabbits. I dont like guppies very much but I ADORE platties. They come in so many bright colours and they are so cute to watch. Get maybe 3 platties. (One male, 2 females. The male will have an elongated anal fin and the females will most likely be fat) You could also try getting sword tails instead of platties. They are just as bright but I believe they get a bit bigger. Go out and buy your 3 platties. Then wait till the water paramaters settle down again; this should take about 2 weeks. Then go out and get some cory cats. They are so cute and all action. My favorite are the albino cory cats. Get 3 of them because they like to be in groups. Platties and cory cats are a nice mix because it will balance out your tank well. The platies swim in the top to middle section and the corys stay on the gravel. Dont be tempted to buy more than these 6 fish because your female platties will pop out about 20 fry every monnth. You will soon be over stocked.

As for the filter, Is it a hob filter? If so I would go out and buy a sponge insert to an aqua clear mini. Then cram the sponge in behind the filter cartridge (or whereever it will fit) This way good bacteria will grow on the sponge and when you go to replace the filter cartridge you wont have to worry about a mini cycle. Dont replace the sponge; let it act kind of like a biowheel. I wait forever to replace my filter cartridges. Ever water change (which is weekly with my 10 gallon) I take my cartridge out of hte filter, swish it around in some old tank water to clean off some of the gunk then I put it back in the filter. The only time I replace it is when it is so full of gunk that even rinsing it doesnt help. (this happens about every 3 months or so). I assumre you are doing a 25 percent water change weekly ( or when your water params start showing up bad) and replacing the water with conditioned water of the same temperature.

Oh and on a note, if you do go out and get cories, be aware that they are treated as scaless fish which means you cant use certain medications with them, like ick meds. Next time ick strikes, ask about the salt and heat treatment. It works far better than any med and is safer for your fish.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:71b977e093] Welcome to AA, ProjectXKeeper! [/center:71b977e093]

tank was cycle befre i added more than one fish.....i took about a month

What did you cycle the tank with? If the tank was left running, there will be no increase in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. You will just have a tank of water.

i think the biological filter hadn't established, the nitrite was through the roof after a week

It really doesn't matter how well a filter is established. If you add too many fish at once, any system will crash.

No one has addressed the 10 gallons of water per goldfish rule. Since goldies are messy waste producers and high users of oxygen, they need 10 gallons a piece. Your system has crashed and you are loosing fish because they are stressed by being confined to such a small area and their environment is dirty.

What are the current water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)? How often are you vacuuming the gravel while doing a PWC? How often are you doing PWCs?

 

[malkore]

I'd agree this tank is not stable...it must have a partial bio filter, but it doesn't seem up to the task of handlign the fish load.

The general rule is 1 goldfish per 10-15gallons of water. Koi need even more room as they'll grow to a foot long (koi are really meant to be pond fish).

 

[Toirtis]

The general rule is 1 goldfish per 10-15gallons of water.

I would argue that 15 is probably closer to the actual...a friend of mine that breeds ranchus has his pairs in 60 gallon tanks.

Koi need even more room as they'll grow to a foot long.

I know several dozen 3' long koi that might argue that.

 

[workfortheman]

"then the red algae showed up.....alot of it....."

I am concerned about the algae problem. If there is massive algae growth/decay in the tank, won't this lead to serious oxygen deficiencies? The decomposition of dead algae consumes oxygen if I remember correctly, which could cause dangerously low oxygen levels, causing fish to die.

Also, here's your fish list (I think this is right):

"three of those . . . fancy goldfish"
pleco
blue dwarf gourami
dalmation molly
Isn't this overstocked for a 10 gal? Okay, just read more closely and this issue has been addressed already

ALGAE ADVICE: remove it! Clean the tank-gravel included. add more biological filtration if possible such as inserting sponges into the filter.
FISH ADVICE: decide if you are going to keep the goldfish, or tropical fish!