Newbie needing help

[db7398]

We have a 55 gallon freshwater tank. Currently stocked with 4 tiger barbs, 4 neon tetras and 2 red swordtails. Our tank has been running for approximately two months. We are also using a stone aerator in the tank and the filter has a biological wheel filter attached. In the beginning we had two cat fish, 5 tiger barbs and 2 angel fish. Our newbie error was stocking the tank with too many fish too soon. The only fish that survived were 4 of the tigers. We believe it was the high ammonia levels that did the damage. We have done many water changes and have added Ammo lok to decrease the ammonia. Seems like no matter how many water changes we do (we do condition the water before it is added), we cannot get the ammonia level to 0. We feed them flake food twice per day. Morning and night. They eat everything we feed them in less than two minutes. I would think that the biological filter would have come around by now, but the ammonia level continues to read 4.0. The tank is crystal clear. All of the fish appear to be healthy with the exception of the tiger barbs color fading, but it comes back in a day or two. What could we be doing wrong? Any suggestions?

[jsoong]

first, check that your ammonia test is accurate. Go test some tap or distilled water & see if you can read zero. <What brand test kit are you using? They are not made equal.>

With ammonia at 4, I would think that you would see some ill effects on the fish. however, the use of ammo-lock might skew things.

Do you have tests for nitrites & nitrates? Those levels would help to tell where you are in a cycle.

[db7398]

The test kit we are using is Aquarium Pharmacueticles- Freshwater Master Test Kit. We have tested the tap water and it is at 0. All other tests are right where they should be. A few days ago the only test off was the PH. It was a bit low. We added a PH increaser and that is fine now. I am baffled.

[jsoong]

What is the pH? I would suggest not messing with the pH unless you know what you are doing. <And you don't use those pH up / down stuff to alter pH; you need to alter the buffer system. Otherwise, you get yo-yo-ing pH, which is way worse than an "off" pH.>

It is normal to have the pH drop a bit during cycling. <Conversion of ammonia to nitrate releases acids.> You fix that with water changes.

How much water changes are you doing? With ammonia at 4, you need to do something like a 90% pwc to get it down to 0.5 (max I would have for a fishy cycling.) Doing 5-10% changes won't alter things much.

One other thing to test - check the ammonia in tap water that have dechlor & ammo-lock added. (ie your change water before you add it to the tank.) Sometimes, the dechlor messes with the test result, or you might have high chloramines in the tap water.

And can you post all your test numbers? esp, the NO2 & NO3.