Ok don't kill me. Stupid newbie mistake and didn't know about cycling. My dh got a 55gl tank kit about a month ago. Set it up let it sit a few days bought fish. 2 days later molly fish had babies (which are still alive and healthy). Other fish start dying. Anyway was thinking about getting a 10 gallon for babies since they have outgrown their nets. While looking online at what would be a good tank for them found out about cycling and testing the water. Had never heard of this before I was very surprised. Unfortunately there is no pet stores around me (got fish and tank at walmart) so not really alot of advice. Anyway i ran out and bought some test strips since that was all walmart had and unfortantly they don't have ammonia on it. Tested the water. nitrite was off the chart. I can't really tell what since they are crappy strips. I've been doing water changes daily. What else can i do. I can't make the hour drive to the nearest pet store so i have ordered a better test kit and other stuff i needed online. Going tonight to see if i get lucky and maybe walmart got some good test kits in but i doubt it. Any other advice? I need help desperately!!!!
Newbie need lots and lots of help
- Thread starter celeste
- Start date
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Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Make daily water changes until you get a test kit. Check out www.bigalsonline.com for products. They are cheap and have great customer service.
Do not get anymore test strips. Get yourself a liquid reagent kit like the Aquarium Pharm Freshwater Master Test Kit. It is about $15.00 online after shipping and lasts a long time.
Do not get anymore test strips. Get yourself a liquid reagent kit like the Aquarium Pharm Freshwater Master Test Kit. It is about $15.00 online after shipping and lasts a long time.
Voodoo Chilli
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Don't feel bad; we've all been there. The important thing is you've learned about cycling and you're trying to get things straightened out.
First thing: don't buy any more fish for the time being.
Second: as soon as you can get your hands on a decent test kit, test your pH, ammonia, and nitrites. The liquid drop type tests are much more accurate and reliable than the strips you've got, but those'll do in a pinch.
Continue to do your daily water changes based on the ammonia and nitrite levels you're getting from the tests. You'll want to change enough water out to keep those at a non-lethal level. The amount and frequency will depend on your tank readings; there's no hard rules for that.
Eventually your tank will cycle itself and hopefully you won't lose any fish in the process.
Good luck!
First thing: don't buy any more fish for the time being.
Second: as soon as you can get your hands on a decent test kit, test your pH, ammonia, and nitrites. The liquid drop type tests are much more accurate and reliable than the strips you've got, but those'll do in a pinch.
Continue to do your daily water changes based on the ammonia and nitrite levels you're getting from the tests. You'll want to change enough water out to keep those at a non-lethal level. The amount and frequency will depend on your tank readings; there's no hard rules for that.
Eventually your tank will cycle itself and hopefully you won't lose any fish in the process.
Good luck!
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
The water changes should be enough. Do you have a hob or canister filter?
Fishyfanatic
Aquarium Advice Addict
Don't gravel vac unless you see a build up of food/waste. At this point you want to have as much beneficial bacteria as possible.
Follow fishyfanatic's advice. do the daily pwc. If you dont have a test kit, probably not yet since you just joined today, I would do 50% pwc's every day. In addition to the test kit you should get some dechlorinator. Walmart will have it. you can use Prime, Stress Coat or any other dechlorinator. Unless you are on well water.
Oh and Welcome to the family.
Good Luck,
Brian
Oh and Welcome to the family.
Good Luck,
Brian
7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
celeste,
At this point you need to minimize the amount of toxins (ammonia and nitrIte from the fish waste) as much as possible. While it will be difficult to do, you need to severely cut down on feedings. I haven't seen it posted so how many fish do you have in the tank, what kind are they, and how big are they? This is very important so that we can judge exactly how much waste they are producing.
Since you are going to be cutting down on the food (I would feed a small amount every other day to start with making sure that ALL of the fish are getting a bite to eat) you do not need to vacuum the gravel. I would make sure that you did get all the waste and fish food up that is already there, but there should not be much more due to the lessened feeding. This is for their own good, and while they might not like you for it, it will keep them healthier.
Next are the PWC's. These are vital, but you need to get the values for ammonia, and nitrIte really low ASAP (under 0.5ppm ideally). I know you have the strips so they won't be very accurate but its better than nothing. Depending on the amount of fish I would try to do a 75-80% water change in one shot, give it an hour or so, then test. If either level is still off the chart or over 1ppm do another very large 75-80% water change. Make sure you are using tap water that has been treated with a dechlorinator, and make sure it is the SAME temp as that of the tank. The larger water changes you do the quicker the numbers will come down, and the less work you have to do.
Goodluck!
justin
EDIT: One last thing you can do if you have relatively good light in the tank is to pick up some live plants. For now don't worry about all the fertilizers and carbon dioxide additives, you need all the help you can get. Plants like hornwort, moneywort, anacharis, etc are excellent ammonia absorbers and should help to keep the levels lower between PWC's. You have a 55gallon tank, so it takes a LOT of waste (or in your case a month of no water changes in a new tank) to get the ammonia and nitrIte levels really high.
And I would recommend an air stone or two in your tank. While the oxygen level in the tank is probably acceptable, you need all the oxygen you can get with your fish. Since you have high nitrIte I'm assumming your ammonia level is probably not that bad in the tank. Therefore your main concern is the nitrIte. A little background on nitrIte: it acts like carbon monoxide to us, that is, it competes for the places where oxygen binds. What you get is essentially an asthmatic fish that cannot breath well (suffocating basically). The less oxygen in the water, the harder it is for the fish to breath. So I would reccommend an air stone or 2.
At this point you need to minimize the amount of toxins (ammonia and nitrIte from the fish waste) as much as possible. While it will be difficult to do, you need to severely cut down on feedings. I haven't seen it posted so how many fish do you have in the tank, what kind are they, and how big are they? This is very important so that we can judge exactly how much waste they are producing.
Since you are going to be cutting down on the food (I would feed a small amount every other day to start with making sure that ALL of the fish are getting a bite to eat) you do not need to vacuum the gravel. I would make sure that you did get all the waste and fish food up that is already there, but there should not be much more due to the lessened feeding. This is for their own good, and while they might not like you for it, it will keep them healthier.
Next are the PWC's. These are vital, but you need to get the values for ammonia, and nitrIte really low ASAP (under 0.5ppm ideally). I know you have the strips so they won't be very accurate but its better than nothing. Depending on the amount of fish I would try to do a 75-80% water change in one shot, give it an hour or so, then test. If either level is still off the chart or over 1ppm do another very large 75-80% water change. Make sure you are using tap water that has been treated with a dechlorinator, and make sure it is the SAME temp as that of the tank. The larger water changes you do the quicker the numbers will come down, and the less work you have to do.
Goodluck!
justin
EDIT: One last thing you can do if you have relatively good light in the tank is to pick up some live plants. For now don't worry about all the fertilizers and carbon dioxide additives, you need all the help you can get. Plants like hornwort, moneywort, anacharis, etc are excellent ammonia absorbers and should help to keep the levels lower between PWC's. You have a 55gallon tank, so it takes a LOT of waste (or in your case a month of no water changes in a new tank) to get the ammonia and nitrIte levels really high.
And I would recommend an air stone or two in your tank. While the oxygen level in the tank is probably acceptable, you need all the oxygen you can get with your fish. Since you have high nitrIte I'm assumming your ammonia level is probably not that bad in the tank. Therefore your main concern is the nitrIte. A little background on nitrIte: it acts like carbon monoxide to us, that is, it competes for the places where oxygen binds. What you get is essentially an asthmatic fish that cannot breath well (suffocating basically). The less oxygen in the water, the harder it is for the fish to breath. So I would reccommend an air stone or 2.
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