About to give up!

[mantis]

I'm at my wits end....... I put up a 39 [acronym:23d432aece="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:23d432aece] tank with a Penguin 170 biowheel filter. I've had nothing but problems with nitrates spiking everytime I turn around. The so called "experts" here have me so frustrated that I really don't care to have the tank anymore. I just spent $60 on more stuff to "fix" the problem but I think it made it worse. I came home from work last nite to find 2 more fish dead. That was it I went tothe store had them check the water...nitreates through the roof. I bougt a pump and a air bubble strip for more oxygen. I guess he was just as frustrated because he then told me the pump is not big enough and that was my problem. He suggested an underground filter and a Tetra deep pump model dw18. I asked if putting the bubble strip would help and he said yes. I felt I could get better prices at petsmart so I bought the bubble strip, tubing and pump from him. Then I preceded to go "look" at the stuff at petsmart. Well I ended up buying a underground filter and another pump (topfin). This pump was smaller than the other and it was suggested to put the bubbles on this one and use my tetra deep for the undergravel filter.
Well........... after a trip back to get the right size filter... I decided to just put the bubbles in for now until the weekend because thats going to be a major pain. I did a 50% water change and placed the bubble strip in. Afterabout an hour of running the bubbles the house smelt like sewer!!! I smelt the tank and it was coming from it. I didn't know what to do so I did nothing thinking that it would correct itself. WEll...its 3:00 am and I turned my lite on in the tank and the fish were stressed!!! I checked the nitrates ...they weren't bad or the ammonia. So I'm sitting here frustrated and wondering ...Where do I go from here? I'm sure I'll prolly loose the fish unless a miracle happens. HELP! If the fish die so does the tank! Thanks. Mantis

[DANO]

I would try adding aquariun salts and reducing the feeding to once a day (if you are feeding them more than that)........ And of course a water change could never hurt either....... I am in no way a pro at this but I had a problem very similar and it seem's to have helped if not done the trick......... As far as I know.

[mantis]

Thank you. I've added the aquarium salts and I onlt feed then once a day plus i skip a day after 3. The "expert" kept telling me I was feeding them to much also but I barely fed them.
Oh by the way...2 more fish dead plus the water has a yellow tinge to it.... I'm not a happy camper............ Mantis

[Voodoo Chilli]

You mention nitrAtes a few times in your post, but it sounds to me like you're having problems with nitrItes? Nitrite spikes would indicate that either your tank is (1)overcrowded, (2)overfeeding, (3)the filtration isn't working properly, or (4)the tank hasn't fully cycled yet. High nitrate levels indicate either an increase in water changes is needed (due to dissolved organics in the water), or your tap water has a high level to begin with.

I'm not familiar with your set-up, so any additional info regarding tank size, water parameters (pH, [acronym:59a0f0b759="General Hardness"]GH[/acronym:59a0f0b759], [acronym:59a0f0b759="Carbonate Hardness"]KH[/acronym:59a0f0b759]), and fish being housed with be helpful. Ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels would help, too.

[DANO]

How many fish do you have? What kind of fish too (if they are african cichlids they require a higher ph and that in tern makes lower levels of nitrite more toxic)? The yellowish tinge thing is new to me (I've never heard of it) unless you are medicating the water as well, and even then I don't know what would cause it to turn yellow.

[tkos]

Do you have drift wood in the water? This will lead to yellowish water or other decaying organic matter might as well. The more info we have the better we can help so tell us all. And some rocks might give the water a yellowish tinge if the were coloured I suppose.

[cdawson]

The odour is from ammonia and nitrites in the water. Do a massive water change (around 70%) right away. If you think your ammonia is ok, then you need a new test kit because that's what the odour is. The yellowish tinge is from waste in the water (ammonia and nitrite), think when you take a leak in the toilet. Your tank is obviously not cycled yet, so you're gonna have to do 50% water changes everyday until your nitrite and ammonia levels go back down to 0. Also what fish do you have in the tank? And what are you doing listening to the petsmart employees, better yet what are you doing GOING THERE?!! That place is a mistake for aquatics. Find yourself a reputable local aquarium store and go there, ask them for advice. The guy at petsmart just saw a person that had problems in their aqauria, dollars signs for him. The air pump you bought may be useless to you, chances are the biowheel will aerate the water enough to provide aqequete oxygen to the fish (or plants?). Take back the underground filter, your better off with the bio-wheel. Also get another test kit, they expire so check the expiry date on the bottom. Bottom line, don't shop at petsmart for aquarium supplies. They don't give the right advice their just looking to make a sale.

[Allivymar]

Hiya Mantis:

Wow. What a pain. However, I think the folks here can help if we get more info ("Need more input!" - Johnny5 *grin*)

What ARE you water parameters? Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate? Having the numbers really helps. Understand ANY level of ammonia can be deadly and any level of nitrite dangerous. Ammonia burns the gills of the fish and they can't breathe. Nitrite competes with oxygen and the fish suffocate.

As others have asked, how many fish/what are they?

How long has the tank been running? When did the problems start? What happened prior to the probs (add anything, water change, small children visiting the tank)?

Do you gravel vac? How often?

The yellow tinge is often a result of driftwood as tkos said; do you have any in the tank?

Couple of thoughts/suggestions. When you say "smells like a sewer" do mean it smells like rotten eggs? If so, CHANGE THE WATER!! Rotten egg smells mean hydrogen sulfide. Its comes from anaerobic bacteria, usually living in the gravel, and is deadly.

Answers to those questions gives us a good place to start figuring out whats going on. Any other things you can think of to add will help as well.

[tkos]

Anaerobic bacteria will wipe out fish really quickly and that could easily be the problem if you have a deep substrate in your tank that you recently moved around. I have heard of people, especially those with sand, that have lost whole tanks in a matter of an hour when they relseaed this into their tanks through cleaning.

[DANO]

This may help.........http://www.geocities.com/josh_shilling/bacteria.html

It talks about the different types of bacteria.