problems with a 10gal cycling

[jstfinch]

Ok so I got a 10gal fish tank from my brother-in-law because he upgraded to a 20gal. He had a good establishment going and thought I would like to have a fish tank...well i set it up and started with plastic plants and a rock formation and gravel...he also gave me a heater and filter pump, hood lights. so I started out with a filter from his tank and we thought it would be stable enough for me have a starter bacteria colony growing I could add fish. So i made a trip to the local PetSmart and bought five glowlight tetras, three died within less than 24hrs and i exchanged and got more...Then after all of those died I went to an alternate source from my brother-in-law he took me to his local Fish Fair and these lasted a little bit longer but still died. So I tried an ammonia fishless cycle but had the wrong formula...broke down and bleached everything and now back up and running....Now I need to figure out what to do to keep from killing more fish

 

[jetajockey]

I would look into other reasons as to why the fish are dying off so quickly. Putting fish into an uncycled tank is not going to do that to them, unless the tank has huge amount of toxins in it.

Are you using water dechlorinator? Are you temperature matching water changes? How did you acclimate the fish?

You should really consider getting a liquid test kit to get an idea of what your parameters are.

 

[jstfinch]

no my brother-in-law told me everything how to do it...I also bought a master test kit and every time I do a water test it was showing O on the ammonia.

 

[jetajockey]

How did you add the fish to the tank? When there is a big shift in water parameters from the bag to the tank, the fish can sometimes have issues transitioning and will end up dying.

Otherwise, I'm not sure. Could be something in your water source. Did you use any chemicals to clean the tank?