Im pretty sure ive made all the mistakes!

[JeffA]

Hello,

My name is Jeff and about 1 month ago I bought a 55g fish tank from petsmart and flew off into my new hobby of aquariums. Now I have some knowledge of fish keeping but aparently everything I thought I knew was wrong. So forgive my long winded-ness and bare with me as I tell you my story and my plights.

I bought this tank because I wanted to create this wonderful eco-system in my home and teach my daughter some responsibility at the same time. So I go to petsmart (not a mistake I intend to make again) and listened to them tell me what I needed to do. I am a very impatient and compulsive person so naturally I wanted fish right away and so the lady told me i could use a pouch of bacteria and if I did that then I would be fine to put fish in right away. So thats what I did. You see, I bought a set, it came with a marine land dual biowheel filter and heater, along with some led lights both day and night (blue) and I also deemed it necessary to buy an air pump with some line to add oxygen to my tank. So I go about my day buying things to put in the tank, like gravel (blue) and fake plants and a ship decoration.

So $400 bucks later, I have what I need and I go home and set it up I put the gravel down, put the ship and fake plants in there and fill it up. I turn the filter on and let it run for about an hour, then I added the bacteria in a pouch and let that run for about an hour.
Right now im thinking, I got this, and go back up to petsmart to buy some fish, I get some neon tetras, love those little guys, a couple mollys and some neon fish assorments, all tetras I think. So I buy these fish and place them in the tank, well more than half have died within 3 days and the others were getting eaten by the mollys.

At this point im diving pretty hardcore into research about aquariums, and let me tell you, I have yet to find a solid answer on some of the most simple questions. Its maddening!

And ive had it at this point, i was ready to just give up, then a friend told me about this place in town that is super great, so I go and explain all this, and the gentlemen put his hands on my shoulders and shakes his head saying, you have made almost all of the new tank mistakes, he goes on to tell me that I have what fish keepers call "new tank syndrome".

This gentlemen tells me i should get a better filter and add sponge filters, reduce my feeding to every 3 days, and let my tank be for a while. And thats exactly what I did. I bought a aquaclear 70g filter, 2 small sponge filters, got home and set it all up. So now at this point I have the filter that came with it, the marineland, and the new aquaclear 70g filter plus 2 small sponge filters on either corner of my tank, and man o mighty if my water didnt go from cloudy to crystal clear in like 2 days. It was fantastic. So I thought aught was not amis, untill i went and bought an api testing kit to check my water. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, all of my readings were (and still are ) horrible. But I digress.
After i put these new filters in, and leave the tank run for several weeks, fish are dieing left and right, im changing water every saturday, i even took all the fish out and completely changed all the water. (i moved my tank and it was super heavy with water in it, so i emptied it).

So clearly im not satisfied with how the tank looks, it just looks so **** fake, i want a more natural look, kinda, so being impatient i go back to the new pet store i go to now, and say i wanna change from fake looking gravel to natural and i want to do live plants instead of fake, and he goes, thats fine but go slow. Do i listen... NOPE bought 36 lbs of gravel and about 60 dollars in live plants. Go home completely change all the blue fake gravel to actual gravel (more natural looking) and plant my plants. Oh and i put in a bunch of rocks and aquascaped a kinda cave thing going on. Pictures to come!

So, interwebz, I understand up untill now, i have been the worst fish keeper ever, and i realize that i need to have patience. I need my tank to be better and I need a nudge in the right direction.
My last readings i did tonight were as follows:
PH7.6
High ph: 7.8
ammonia .25ppm
nitrite:1.0ppm
nitrate 40ppm
So i just replaced the carbon in my filter and rinsed out the sponge just a little, the next thing i change per the manufacturer is the bio max pellots thinggys in the bag. Then next month i replace the sponge. That i understand, you wanna keep the bacteria in the tank rather than replacing everything at once and havign to grow new bacteria. I even understand the nitriate cycle i think.

What im hoping, if you have read this far, your committed to helping me out, and helping me become a better fish keeper because i love this hobby and i dont mind puting some money into it just as long as it works out.

On a side note, i will be going to a 150g soon, so i wanna make sure i have the steps i need to take down, so when i get this tank, i wont make the same mistakes.

Can someome please explaine to me the cycling of a tank, what happens, how it happens, how long does it take, whats going on while its happening ect.
how can i fix my tank plain and simple, i am in your hands!

Thanks for reading,

Jeff

 

[UntimelyLord]

Hello and welcome!

"Cycling" a tank refers to letting a tank go through the nitrogen cycle: ammonia is produced by fish, converted to nitrIte by beneficial bacteria, and then converted to nitrAte by other beneficial bacteria. Ammonia and nitrIte are very dangerous to fish, but nitrAte is okay at levels under about 40 ppm. A fully cycled tank will have zero ammonia and zero nitrite but some nitrAte. Some nitrAte will be used by the plants but you will need to do partial water changes to remove excess nitrAtes.

Since beneficial bacteria live in the filter and gravel, you've set yourself back some by changing the gravel out all at once and by rinsing the sponge. If you must rinse a filter sponge, only do it in used tank water. This is to make sure you don't kill the beneficial bacteria with chlorinated water. Despite what the filter manufacturer will say, never replace a filter sponge or bio media unless it is falling apart. Even then you need to be careful not to replace all the media at once.

I would do two 50% water changes with dechlorinated water as soon as possible (to reduce ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte). At this point you will need to be doing water changes maybe every other day.
Seachem Prime is a good dechlorinator that also temporarily detoxifies ammonia and nitrIte so it is safe for fish but is still available for the beneficial bacteria to grow.

It is late here but here is a good article for you to read: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/i-just-learned-about-cycling-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now/

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[t-bone]

The above response is spot on. The only thing I would add is.......PATIENCE. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. I used to be impatient about everything in life including my hobbies and all it did was cost me ALOT of money and heartache.