Need some help please...

[Angel88]

Hello Everyone. First time posting, but not first time here. I usually come here for information when needed. I need some help. We purchased a 10 gallon tank first week of july for my son. I told my husband at the time we need to cycle the tank before getting goldfish.....he did not listen..tank was only running a week before we got 4 small goldfish....(yes, I know...too many fish for that size)......so at the beginning ammonia was too high at 4.0 ppm....I kept doing water changes to keep it down...I use PRIME with water changes......nitrites and nitrates were at 0ppm. Everything else was normal......then about 3 weeks ago....ammonia started to drop...its been in the range of 0.50 to 1ppm,...nitrites sky rocketed to 5ppm....nitrates were 0.....then 2 weeks ago nitrates started to go up but nitrites didn't really come down....I kept doing water changes and using prime...Well 2 days ago we lost a fish......from one day to another it looked healthy then the next skin was peeling off and then died. My question is ...is my tank still cycling or is there another problem going on? is my filter a piece of crap (topfin10)

Readings as of right now...(going to do a water change now)

PH 7.5
KH 120ppm
GH 120ppm
Nitrite 3ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
Ammonia 1.0ppm

I test with liquid and strips

Any suggestions? Thanks so much.

 

[dcutl002]

Short answer: yes. Goldfish in my opinion are difficult to cycle with because of the amount of waste they produce. In addition, goldfish get WAY too large for a ten gallon tank. To put things in perspective, I kept two goldfish in a 55 gallon tank for 17 years. That's right, just two. If the fish live, eventually you will need a bigger tank.



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[loachy dance]

All of the above. Even if the 10 gallon was ok, that little filter wouldnt handle their waste.

 

[dcutl002]

May I suggest trading those goldfish in for a beautiful Betta. Ten gallon tanks make a great Betta habitat.


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[RobbFErwin]

May I suggest trading those goldfish in for a beautiful Betta. Ten gallon tanks make a great Betta habitat.


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or some dwarf gouramis

 

[PNWaquarist]

May I suggest trading those goldfish in for a beautiful Betta. Ten gallon tanks make a great Betta habitat.

Yes, AFTER your tank has finished cycling. When you can add 3-4 ppm ammonia to our tank and have ZERO ammonia and nitrites 24 hours later, your tank is cycled.

 

[dcutl002]

Yes, AFTER your tank has finished cycling. When you can add 3-4 ppm ammonia to our tank and have ZERO ammonia and nitrites 24 hours later, your tank is cycled.

Absolutely.



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[ScaryFatKidGT]

I'd say it's almost cycled, I would also say ur filter is a POS I'd get like an Aquaclear 50 or Fluval C2/3

 

[Angel88]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the advice. We upgraded our tank tonight to a 30 gallon. I transfered the old filter cartridge in front of the new one to try and transfer the bacteria. We setup the tank ..used some old water with new and added prime and added old gravel and decore to new tank. I made sure temp was exactly the same as old tank and levels were normal. We did add the 3 goldfish in once it was running for an hour. They are being curious right now...exploring.....I will recheck levels tomorrow snd keep an eye to make sure things are going smoothly and hopefully the tank will cycle well in the next few weeks. Any advice anyone has? Thanks.

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[dcutl002]

Some live plants. Suggestions for goldfish IMO are, but not limited to: Amazon Sword, Anacharis, Anubias, Banana plant, Cabomba, Duckweed, Java fern, Hornwort, Vallisneria spiralis, Water sprite, and Water wisteria.