PLEASE READ MY RESULTS: Test Kit arrived today - thanks*

[greenorchid]

Goldfish Tank - 55 gallon - new tank - a week old
- one xl chocolate oranda and 1 medium red fantail

PH - 7.6

Do I have to take High Range PH?

Ammonia - .5 it was 0 but after I let it sit it went up. I just did a 25% water
change at 5:30pm - it's 10:30 pm now - if that matters....

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 10


so, what should I do about ammonia? - is this due to my recent water change or newer tank?

Thanks

 

[greenorchid]

Any advice? thanks

 

[tnfinfan]

I use both high and low pH tests because my water is normally 7.5 and performing one test doesn't cover any changes to that very well.

Are you cycling fish-in or did you cycle the tank before adding the fish and now you're seeing ammonia again? If cycling fish-in, you need to keep a little ammonia but can minimize the damage to your fish with additions of water conditioner to bind the ammonia. You'll still want to keep it low to avoid a big nitrite spike once the bacteria start feasting.

 

[flitabout]

Well I would have done a 50% water change. Anything less than 50% isn't removing enough to keep the water safe. Think of it this way, if you do a 25% change on your tank and your ammo is 1ppm, a 25% change is only going to bring your ammo down to .75ppm. What you are aiming for in a fish in cycle is .25ppm or less.
So my advice is to do a 50% water change then wait 20 minutes test again and if it is still too high then do another. Wait an hour in between WCs. People will tell you that water changes will stress fish, (my fish love them!) but they never stress them as much as high ammo and nitrite levels.

 

[tnfinfan]

Oh, and new, uncycled tanks are no place for fancy fish. Losses are common with fish-in cycling. If you know someone with an aquarium, ask them for a dirty filter pad or a cup of gravel to jump start the process.

 

[flitabout]

Oh I forgot to add that yes you use both tests. I have to because my tanks sit at right around 7.5. TnFinFan is correct.

 

[greenorchid]

Im Sooooooo confused!!! Help*

Ok I should have explained my whole story - sorry..... I'll try and make it short.

- I received goldfish as a gift , had no clue how to care for them.

- Made a mistake of placing a xl oranda and medium fantail in a 10 gallon tank.

- Did my research bought a 55 gallon started cycling.

- only cycled for 24 hrs and then found this website and asked if I should add them right away because they were totally dying and suffering in the 10 gallon.

- everyone agreed yes - so in they went. This was 5 or 6 days ago.

- I got the fish on January 1st.


so I guess technically I am doing an fish in cycle - but not by choice I just had to save them from the 10 gallon so I had to pick the better of two evils.

Ok - so here I am now and the fish had Ich. I treated them with the 4 day treatment of meds and they perked up day one (I wanted to try natural salt route but I was scared they were going to die if I didn't give them fast results) and now they are happy and swimming with no more spots on their tails.

- My oranda has growth white pimples on his Wen - but I learned that's normal from another member and my fantail has black burns on her tail which I also was told was part of healing.

- so here I am today - fish seem very happy - I just ordered Hikari purple bag pellets, Hikari lionhead, blood worms, plankton and repashy gel food soilent green (I read to mix up their diet) I also tried shelled peas and lettuce but they weren't feeling those that much- i'll try again later.

- Ok, so I know my faults now - and I am very much trying to fix what has gone wrong

I just did another High PH test and Ammonia ....

High PH - looks like somewhere between 7.8 and 8.0 in color

Ammonia - looks like a .6 - it's a tad bit darker than .5 but lighter than 1.0

Any Advice? thanks

 

[tnfinfan]

50% WC, wait an hour, 50% again. You want to get that ammonia down to .25ish. BTW, you are dosing every bit of water with conditioner, right? The kind with aloe really helps heal.

 

[greenorchid]

I use Stress Coat (aloe) and Prime - good?

 

[greenorchid]

50% WC, wait an hour, 50% again. You want to get that ammonia down to .25ish. BTW, you are dosing every bit of water with conditioner, right? The kind with aloe really helps heal.

I just did another 50% - ugh this is exhausting - I have to get a longer hose and drain out a window or something........ anyway I'm going to retest a little later - can I do the next 50% tomorrow or is it best to do tonight? I have an infant and a toddler - these WC are a lot of work! Who knew fish were such difficult pets to care for????? wow! I give you guys a lot of credit*

 

[robbyno22]

I also have an infant and a toddler, so I hear you! I was doing 2 wc's a day, and thought I wasn't going to make it to the end of the cycle, but I did! Good luck!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[greenorchid]

I also have an infant and a toddler, so I hear you! I was doing 2 wc's a day, and thought I wasn't going to make it to the end of the cycle, but I did! Good luck!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

ha! - I'm hanging in there - I wish I still had a 10 gallon now....haha - anyways so i guess after I check levels I'll decide then if I should do another change - right? Or should I just do one later tonight again?

 

[robbyno22]

I would check your levels before you change it, but you will probably be doing them daily (or 2xs a day) for a while. I'm not sure if you can use a quick start product with goldfish, but I had success finishing my cycle early by adding quick start at water changes. However, my amm levels were already going down, and my nitrite and nitrate levels were going up when I added it.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[greenorchid]

like quick zyme? should i use that?

 

[robbyno22]

I used tetra quick start. I'm new to all of this too, so I'm not sure which brands do what . I do know that it needs to be live bacteria. I have a 13 gallon tank, and added 10 ml of the quick start twice, 1 day apart, and during the water change. Again, I was nearing the end of my cycle, so it just made it go faster

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[greenorchid]

I have a 55 gallon - so these water changes and killing me! back and forth with these buckets! ugh*

 

[robbyno22]

I would definitely get some bacteria then! Worse case scenario, it won't work. Best case, it will speed things up! How old are your kids? Mine are 2 1/2 and 8 mos

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[greenorchid]

we're in the same boat - 3 years and 6 months**** we were given these fish as a present for my son and i had no idea how difficult fish are .... now it's my obsession to make these darn fishies healthy - This also doesn't seem like a very environmentally friendly hobby - so much water wasted!!!! I feel bad, but I have no choice...

Ok I'll add my stress zyme now.... and another water change tomorrow morning - I can't do it now - it's already 10:20pm... too tired.

I'm at .5 ammonia

8.0 ph

0 nitrite

10 nitrate

tomorrow morn - another 50%

 

[robbyno22]

In the morning, check your tap water. It's odd that you have that high of nitrate level, but still such a high amm....

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[flitabout]

In your situation I would go and get some prime. It's cheap and it treats 1000g for the little bottle it will be good so your are limiting yourself to 1 water change a day. Basically it will just buy you some extra time. Prime will temporarily detoxify ammo and nitrite. Also rather than killing yourself on these water changes they can be pricy but they will save your sanity is either an aqueon or a python water changer. It hooks up to pretty much any faucet. All you do is turn the water on an it will syphon the water out, reverse it and it will fill the tank. All you have to do is treat the entire tank volume with your water conditioner and you are good to go. I have been where you are at. I promise it does get better. I have six kids from 22 to 3. I say as the 3 year is running around at almost 11pm wanting to see his froggy in the kids tank!