Help with water and stocking....

[JHBROWNE]

Fairly new to the hobby...absolutely love my fish! Looking to soak up some knowledge as I feel like I'm doing it wrong....

After losing one of my corys last night for a reason I can't quite nail down other than I found him caught in an artificial plant and was unable to maintain control when trying to swim after the fact...

Given I still very new at this I was wondering If you guys could look at my water test and offer any suggestions....

-20 gallon long tank
-2.5 weeks post switch from gravel to sand
-2.5 weeks post upgrade from 10g to 20g (transferred as much water as possible from 10g tank)
-Tetra ex30 filter
-Air-wand
-Heater/water temp 76.9 on average
-Luffy moss 3 large
-I use distilled water to maintain the tank
-1 echo bio stone

Residents.....
4 bloodfins
1 clown pleco
2 red eye tetras
2 albino corys
3 peppered
3 sterbai
2 narcissus -I believe- (had 3 lost 1 last night)

 

[SherLar]

First, I would toss the strips; they're unreliable at best. You would be better off with an API Master Test Kit. They're a bit more pricey, but one kit can easily last a year. Judging by the pics with the strips, however, it looks like your nitrites are 0, and your nitrates nearly so. Unfortunately, there isn't a reading for ammonia, so can't tell what it may be.
Transferring used water from one tank to the other didn't do much except add dirty water to your new tank. There's almost no beneficial bacteria present in the water column. Most will be in your filter media, with some in the substrate and on porous decor. You would have been better off putting your used media into your new filter for a couple weeks.
I think it's likely that your new tank is cycling again, which means your ammonia will probably be high, since there isn't enough bacteria yet to nitrify it. Try doing 50% water changes every other day for a couple weeks at least, testing your water before every water change, until you get 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and <40 ppm nitrate.
There's a definite learning curve, and unfortunately, most of us have killed a few fish along the way. It happens, so don't beat yourself up. Some of us still make stupid mistakes (Me! Me! Me!). I almost lost a 15" Ornate Bichir a couple weeks ago when I left his tank lid open and walked out of the fish room to answer the door. I walked back in to the room a few minutes later to find him still flopping on the floor. Thankfully, he's doing well now.
Also, with sand substrate, you want to be sure to agitate the sand periodically to prevent an outbreak of anaerobic bacteria from growing. Your corys should help with this, but it's still a good idea to mix it up a bit when you do water changes.
Hope this helps.

 

[Adam C.]

I agree with everything that SherLar said. Getting a ammonia test is very important. Unless you can test for ammonia there is no way to really know where your tank is in the cycling process. Are you using the same filter in the 20 that you had in the 10? If so and you didn't let the filter cartridge dry out then you should be able to stabilize your tank very quickly. If you are using a new filter then I would suggest testing your water every day until the ammonia reads zero. Unfortunately until you can consistently read zero ammonia then you may possibly keep losing fish. There are also many bacteria boosters out there and I suggest getting some. I like Seachem Stability but everyone makes one. It's simply a bottle full of the good bacteria that you are trying to colonize in your tank. This will help you to build up the good bacteria that is absolutely necessary to keep a happy and healthy tank. Any ammonia is bad so I would not let it get above 0.50ppm. You may have to do daily water changes but if you want to keep these fish then that's what it takes. Feel free to ask any questions. Don't feel too bad we've all done it.