Hello I’m jonie - Trouble with new tank

[Jonieriddle]

Hello. I’m in need of major help. I’ve recently gotten a 36g tank and every fish I have put in it has died. We really don’t know what we are doing. I actually got a bigger tank because the place we recently move into the ppl before us left their fish. The have a 4g fish tank with a goldfish and a black moor. The water is very nasty and dirty, but they survived. I attempted to clean the tank and made the mistake of putting distilled water in the tank which cause so much harm to my fish. The moor fish now has white blotches all over him kinda look like he is peeling and the goldfish was turning red. The both where bottom sitting as well. So I looked online and completely emptied the tank cleaned it then I put spring water in it I put prime in the water and stability in the water. They are not at the bottom anymore but my fish are obviously sick how can I help them and how can I fix my 36g tank. We have well water and that’s what we put in the 36g tank. We want to change all the water and fill it with spring water. Will that be ok and I have no idea about how to make water heathy for any fish so I really need a step by step instructions on this tank please before any other fish die. Thank you

 

[Aiken Drum]

Edited post.

Im really confused by what you are trying to get across. Are your 2 goldfish still in the 4g tank and are now getting sick? Or have you moved them to the bigger tank and they are now sick? Im presuming they are still in the 4g tank as you say everything you have put in the new tank has died. Is this correct?

Are you able to give some kind of timeline on what you did in each tank?

How long where your goldfish in the distilled water before you changed it to spring water? At what point did they start to show these symptoms? What cleaning did you do exactly?

What did you do to set up your new tank? What did you add? How long before they died? Where there any symptoms that would give a clue to what caused it?

Do you have any idea of what your water parameters are? pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? In each tank?

Can you give some more details on this new tank? Does it have a filter and heater? What are your plans for this tank? Moving the goldfish into there?

This really looks like neither tank is cycled. The symptoms you describe with your goldfish is classic ammonia poisoning. Your cleaning may have crashed your cycle, the 100% water change may have cleared up the ammonia but it will come back over time if your tank isnt cycled. The only cure for ammonia poisoning i know of is clean water and recovery over an extended period.

If you arent able to test your water, i would change 50% of the water daily in the goldfish tank until you are able to do so. This will help control water quality to safe levels until you are able to know where you are at and we can get the tank cycled.

I will post something about the nitrogen cycle. And if you can clarify a few points on whats going on and what your plans are for these tanks and fish we can better advise on where to go from here and how to cycle your tanks.

If these 2 goldfish have been living in a 4g tank they are likely to be stunted. How big are they? Any idea how old they are? When fish are kept in too small a living environment, they grow stunted, but their internal organs continue to grow. This causes them ill health, shortened life spans etc. Moving then to a bigger tank would be great, and will give them a much better quality of life, but the damage may already be done.

You say you used spring water to refill the tank and later say you used well water. Which is it? You also say you want to use spring water to do your water changes. Thats fine, but is there an issue with your well water to make you think this is needed?

 

[Aiken Drum]

The nitrogen cycle is the natural processes that go on in your tank that convert ammonia into less harmful substances.

Ammonia gets into your tank through various pathways. Fish waste, decaying uneaten food, and dead, decaying plants are common ammonia sources in an aquarium. Its also possible your tap water is an ammonia source. Chloramine is a common water treatment and when treated with most water conditioners the bond in the chloramine breaks and releases ammonia into the water.

Ammonia can be toxic to fish, depending on how much there is, and what the pH and temperature of your tank water is.

The first stage of the nitrogen cycle is the removal of ammonia. If you have real plants in your tank some of this ammonia will be absorbed as part of their natural growth. Generally though ammonia is consumed by denitrifying bacteria that lives mostly on your filter media. These bacteria consume the ammonia and produce nitrite. Unfortunately nitrite is pretty much as toxic to fish as ammonia.

The second stage of the nitrogen cycle is the removal of nitrite. A different denitrifying bacteria will consume the nitrite and produce nitrate. Nitrate is much less harmful than ammonia and nitrite, and for most aquariums the nitrogen cycle ends there. Excess nitrate is removed through your regular water changes.

A further stage of the nitrogen cycle can also happen, but its difficult to remove all the nitrate from a typical freshwater aquarium. Plants will absorb some nitrate in a similar manner to how it absorbs ammonia to grow. There are also nitrifying bacteria that consumes nitrate and gives off nitrogen gas which will simply offgas from your aquarium. This nitrifying bacteria is difficult to grow in freshwater aquarium.

“Cycling” a tank is the process you go through to grow denitrifying bacteria in your aquarium to consume ammonia and nitrite. You are said to be “cycled” when you have enough bacteria to consume all the ammonia and nitrite that your tank produces and turns all of it into nitrate. If you test the water of a cycled tank you should see 0 ammonia and nitrite and some nitrate.

 

[ColdKoi]

Please read the above about the nitrogen cycle if you are not already aware of it! That is #1 key to keeping fish alive

From what I gather:

You completely cleaned the 4g tank and added distilled water and put the fish back in there.

By doing this you likely removed the vast majority of the beneficial bacteria which in itself very likely would cause the cycle to crash. By using distilled water you basically ensured the cycle would crash. It’s an easy enough mistake for new fish keepers to do, but also usually a deadly one

The fish most likely went through a major ammonia spike depending on the time period between the cleaning and you noticing the effects.

There’s not a lot you can do for them other than to provide them with the best water quality you can. They will most likely heal up on their own they just need time and good water.


Why are you not using your well water? Short of the possibility of it being contaminated or having a quality not suitable for drinking/aquarium use, that is going to be almost the best thing you can use. I don’t know about your area, but well water around here is generally on the hard side, which is great for an aquarium. Your aquarium requires a certain level of hardness to thrive, too low like the distilled water and you can basically kill everything in the tank

Your 36g, if you are unaware of the quality of the well water, spring water would be a ‘safe’ option. If your well water has been tested and you have a report of that it would be great if you could post that to make sure there’s nothing in there that will be an issue