charliegirl
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2014
- Messages
- 2
Hi Friends,
Fishkeeping 1st timer here. I've done a ton of reading but I'm not sure what to do, and advice varies so wildly, I thought I would reach out to the community. I'll try to keep it short.
At Christmas, we got a 5 gallon tank. We followed the fish store's advice, and filled the tank with a filter (the Marina Slim S10 clip-on filter), heater, tap water and conditioner. 48 hours later the test strip showed all good things. The fish store said go ahead and add fish, so we did.
We added two goldfish and two tiny tropical fish. I followed the guidelines, did 30% water changes weekly, tested twice a week and kept a close eye on things.
We got through the bacterial bloom ok, and 4 weeks in things were stable. Then (stupidly, I suppose) we decided to add two more of the tiny tropical fish. We went through a second bloom of sorts, but it cleared up well and things looked pretty good.
In the 7th week, suddenly the nitrite level exploded. We tried to follow advice and started 25% water changes twice a day, but to no avail. After a week all the fish were clearly dying. In a panic, we did a 60% water change, but the next day the nitrite level was sky high again.
Within 24 hours of that we lost all the fish. The symptoms clearly showed it was because of nitrite poisoning. Guilt and shame followed.
That was a week ago. The tank is still up and running, but empty now. Nitrite level is still high, but everything else on the test strip looks OK actually.
Some people say dump it and start again, some say the tank is still cycling and can be saved, and that we should finish the cycle without fish.
I'm confused about the process and terribly gun-shy about adding more fish. I guess we made some bad mistakes, but what I really want to know is, should we dump and start again, or can that water environment be saved?
Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance for your advice.
charlie
Fishkeeping 1st timer here. I've done a ton of reading but I'm not sure what to do, and advice varies so wildly, I thought I would reach out to the community. I'll try to keep it short.
At Christmas, we got a 5 gallon tank. We followed the fish store's advice, and filled the tank with a filter (the Marina Slim S10 clip-on filter), heater, tap water and conditioner. 48 hours later the test strip showed all good things. The fish store said go ahead and add fish, so we did.
We added two goldfish and two tiny tropical fish. I followed the guidelines, did 30% water changes weekly, tested twice a week and kept a close eye on things.
We got through the bacterial bloom ok, and 4 weeks in things were stable. Then (stupidly, I suppose) we decided to add two more of the tiny tropical fish. We went through a second bloom of sorts, but it cleared up well and things looked pretty good.
In the 7th week, suddenly the nitrite level exploded. We tried to follow advice and started 25% water changes twice a day, but to no avail. After a week all the fish were clearly dying. In a panic, we did a 60% water change, but the next day the nitrite level was sky high again.
Within 24 hours of that we lost all the fish. The symptoms clearly showed it was because of nitrite poisoning. Guilt and shame followed.
That was a week ago. The tank is still up and running, but empty now. Nitrite level is still high, but everything else on the test strip looks OK actually.
Some people say dump it and start again, some say the tank is still cycling and can be saved, and that we should finish the cycle without fish.
I'm confused about the process and terribly gun-shy about adding more fish. I guess we made some bad mistakes, but what I really want to know is, should we dump and start again, or can that water environment be saved?
Sorry for the long post and thank you in advance for your advice.
charlie
