Question about Freshwater Community Tank :)

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KelliMorton

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 31, 2011
Messages
3
Location
South Carolina
I am new here (I posted an introduction in the introduction section a bit ago) and we have a fairly new (about 2 weeks old) 36 gallon Aqueon Aquarium. It's mainly for educational purposes (we homeschool our special needs son) as well as for relaxation :) We had one several years ago and after enjoying it for many years, we took it down after my husbands Pacu's ate every other fish in the tank (thanks Walmart for the wrong information) but here we are again (there's more info in the introduction part about me and our tank etc...) anyways, the water isn't clear in this tank, and I'm wondering if that's just part of the initial setup. The tank we had before we already established when we got it (the people gave it to us completely set up with fish and plants still in it!) so I'm not sure how all this works. We set up our tank, let it run 24 hours after adding the chemicals (Start Right, Aquarium Salt, and Easy Balance) then added our 2 live plants. Called PetSmart the next day and they said it was safe to now add fish. We have river rocks, purchased at Lowes and sifted all the sand out then washed with a mild bleach solution and rinsed 5 times and dried well before we added them into the tank (per the PetSmart person's advice). So we went and bought fish. We got 2 sunburst mollies, 3 orange platys and a pleco and 2 african dwarf frogs, a male betta and a ghost cat. Came home, put the bags in the tank for 20 minutes, then netted them out of the bags and into the tank. They did great! We realized they had forgotten to give us two fish we asked for (dalmatian mollies) so we went back on Sunday to get those two. While there the girl said it was safe to add a few more as well if the others were okay, so we got 3 guppies and a blue mystery snail and a black mystery snail. She also said we needed to add another ghost cat because they preferred to be in small groups, so we got one of those. Came home, did the same with acclimating them, then turned them out. Yesterday we came home to find one of the ghost cats had died while we were away from home for a couple of days, his tail was stuck in the filter bottom. Then later in the day we found one of our frogs had died. Then this morning, the other frog got his foot stuck in the filter inlet at the bottom and when we got it loose, he died shortly after. So far, that's our only losses. The other fish seem happy. My husband got a refund for the fish, and while there the girl looked at the receipt and told us "you should NEVER add that many fish at one time!" To which he responded "the girl kept telling us we could add more!" So anyways, long story short, she checked our water and said everything was great, other than an ammonia spike, which was making our water slightly cloudy and apparently killed the fish and first frog (???). She said to do a 25% water change and add the weekly chemicals as well as another teaspoonful of aquarium salt. We decided we also needed a test kit (which they DID NOT tell us we should get, but we had with the other one), to keep check on the levels. I will post pics of the tank soon. Any advice or enlightenment for a mom who is desperately trying to not kill all our fish, and to make this as easy as possible?? (also, we're hoping to be able to have some little fish!) Kelli
 
Thanks for replying! I just followed your link and read it! Nope, we didn't cycle the tank, the fish store person (Now I know I should NOT have listened to them) told us we were fine with just the 24 hours. I now have an ammonia test kit and am going to check that level now. The fish have been in there almost 14 days (too long to return them) so I'm just gonna attempt partial water changes and ammonia level checks for the next couple of weeks I believe.
 
What kind of test kit do you have? Make sure you have a liquid test kit, as test strips are inaccurate. You'll need to monitor ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrate.
Keep in mind:
Ammonia should be < .25 ppm
NitrIte should be < .25 ppm
NitrAte should be < 20 ppm
Levels higher than that can be deadly to fish.

The general idea around here is never trust the people at the pet store. ;)
 
Sorry to hear about your losses. Looks like your fish are in a bit of trouble. Let us know what the test kit shows. If the ammonia levels are above 0, the first thing I would do is a 50% water change, and then continue them daily until the levels go down. It can take weeks to cycle, so it would be best if you could get the petstore to take the fish back. I wouldn't add any aquarium salt, just keep up with the water changes, and remember to dechlorinate the water first. Good luck!

--Adeeb
 
Or read this: The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

How big of a tank is this? Since (assuming) that your tank isnt cycled, I would recommend doing 25-50% water changes everyday with addtional prime (detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for 24 hours) until you ammonia and nitrites are at zero and your nitrates are at 5-20)

Oh, just a heads up, Aquarium salt isnt necessary for those fish, they can do fine without it. The snails, frogs, pleco, and ghosts dont really like it.

I would also take the male betta out of the tank (Because of issues in being in a community, could possibly kill another fish, but I guess it depends on its personality) ,

If your pleco is a common pleco and your tank is less than 100 gallons, I would recommend getting rid of it. They can get 18-24 inches, possibly larger, and need bigger tanks.

Depending on your tank and its current stock, I would recommend getting more ghost cats Once the tank has finished the cycl, they are skittish without there own kind.

Also, with all those livebearers, your are going to get some babies, I recommend finding out the gender and getting rid of all the males.

What kit are you using?

Hope this helped
 
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