sharvison
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
My 4 year old has been working towards earning a fish tank and we put it together last weekend. We got a 20 gallon Marineland tank with LED light hood, Penguin 150 biowheel filter (with the included cartridge and seachem purigen added), and submerged heater set to 78 degrees. We were, of course, given bad advice by Petsmart and added fish too quickly and they all died overnight. I’ve been doing some reading on the forum and I need help!
We set up the tank - gravel, fake plants, decoration. Everything was properly rinsed before going in the tank. Filled with water and treated with Tetra AquaSafe then Tetra SafeStart. We did not wait 24 hours between the two, did not know at the time we had to. Then added 4 Glofish Tetras. They all were dead by morning. Got the fish out of the tank and back to the store we went. They suggested adding some additional bacteria and allowing it to cycle for a few additional days, then bring in a water sample for them to test. We did this and waited 4 days. The water became cloudy on day 2, was told this was totally normal and to just let it run its course. Took in a water sample tonight, got the all clear to add fish again. We did another 4 tetras and also added StressCoat to try to help with the transition. The fish floated in the bag in the water for about 30 minutes. Then I added some tank water to the bag and they floated another 30 minutes before netting them into the tank. 2 died within 3 hours.
I have 2 main concerns - does my water have enough oxygen with just the filter running or do I need to add some sort of bubbler/aeration? And 2 - is it just the water that is killing the fish so quickly? If so, how to do I fix it? If the last 2 fish die, do I just drain it all and completely start over? Please help walk me through this. Thank you!
We set up the tank - gravel, fake plants, decoration. Everything was properly rinsed before going in the tank. Filled with water and treated with Tetra AquaSafe then Tetra SafeStart. We did not wait 24 hours between the two, did not know at the time we had to. Then added 4 Glofish Tetras. They all were dead by morning. Got the fish out of the tank and back to the store we went. They suggested adding some additional bacteria and allowing it to cycle for a few additional days, then bring in a water sample for them to test. We did this and waited 4 days. The water became cloudy on day 2, was told this was totally normal and to just let it run its course. Took in a water sample tonight, got the all clear to add fish again. We did another 4 tetras and also added StressCoat to try to help with the transition. The fish floated in the bag in the water for about 30 minutes. Then I added some tank water to the bag and they floated another 30 minutes before netting them into the tank. 2 died within 3 hours.
I have 2 main concerns - does my water have enough oxygen with just the filter running or do I need to add some sort of bubbler/aeration? And 2 - is it just the water that is killing the fish so quickly? If so, how to do I fix it? If the last 2 fish die, do I just drain it all and completely start over? Please help walk me through this. Thank you!