doctor i need a diagnosis

[rob28]

i have a 55 gallon freshwater tank. i use 2 types of water testers.
1) 6 tests in 1 strip Quick dip by jungle
this test strip tests nitrates, nitrites, hardness, alkalinity, chlorine, and ph
2)quick dip by jungle
this test strip tests ammonia levels


when i administer test, the results are as follows:
nitrate - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
water hardness - 150(hard)
chlorine - 0ppm
alkalinity - 120-180(ideal)
ph - 6.8-7.2(neutral)
ammonia - .25 or .5 cant really tell colors are close but .5 is stress

here is a list of fish that are/were in the tank
3 diamond tetras
3 green tigerbarbs
3 albino tiger barbs
5 tigerbarbs
1 rosey tetra ??
3 iridescent sharks

my water has some cloudiness to it but you can only tell when you look down the long end.

i started feeding the fish and the sharks seperatley but quickly figured out that feeding the seperatley was creating too much waste. so they all eat tetra trpical fish flakes and the sharks occasionally get thawed shrimp brine.

my tank is only bout a month old. over the last few days ive lost three fish. 2 tiger barbs and 1 albino.
they all acted the same before dying...they kind of became anti social and lethargic.

could the hardness of the water be doing this or is it the ammonia....ive not done any water changes yet due to trying to get bacteria growth in the filter.
any advice would help or corrections

oh yeah the water temp reading is 72-74 degrees
thanks in advance

 

[black hills tj]

I would say that it is the ammonia due to your tank not being cycled.

It would be wise for you to invest in an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals(API) Master Freshwater Test Kit. It will be much more accurate.

 

[rob28]

i dont quite understand the cycling prosess.
can you direct me to where i can find more info

 

[black hills tj]

Here's a link that describes cycling in general, but more specifically it talks about fishless cycling. If you'd like more info let me know.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html

 

[rob28]

ok so i guess i didnt cylce properly before i introduced the fish. so what do i do now that the fish are in the tank and dying

 

[black hills tj]

I would suggest testing your parameters in the morning and at night. Stay on top of you water changes. If you are showing anything over .2ppm ammonia, do a 50% water change. This will help keep your ammonia levels down while still building your beneficial bacteria.

 

[rob28]

much appreciated

 

[black hills tj]

I'll do what I can to help out a fellow aquarist.

 

[bluerose]

Welcome to AA!

tj's advice is good: get an API Freshwater Master test kit and get a-testin, daily, and do a PWC (partial water change) of about 50% whenever ammonia or nitrite gets above .5ppm. All you need to test daily at this point is ammonia/nitrite; I think you'd be fine testing pH and nitrate weekly for now. Once ammonia and nitrite are consistently 0 and you have above 10ppm nitrates, you can consider your tank cycled (although it could be easily overloaded at this point, so add any new inhabitants slowly so you don't overload your biofilter). Weekly 25% PWCs are about standard for tank maintenance to keep nitrate levels down and the overall water quality good; nitrates are safe up to about 40ppm although some like to keep them between 10 and 20ppm.

Remember to match water temperatures and use dechlorinator when doing PWCs. Other than that, no chemicals. The only cycling product that works with any sort of regularity is Bio-Spira, which isn't cheap and is rather hit-or-miss...

Water changes will not affect your biofilter- bacteria don't really reside in the water but on the surfaces of the tank and in the gravel and filter media. While the tank is cycling don't change or rinse the filter media, and after it's cycled, just swish it every couple of weeks in a bucket of tank water while doing PWCs.

Your fish likely died due to ammonia levels (hardness shouldn't come in to play really here)... anything over .5 is toxic (same goes for nitrite). PWCs will help with that while your tank is cycling.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help you with!

 

[rob28]

thanks for the help.....in betwwen my last post and now, i did do a 25% water change and retested. the results showed improved results but the test kit that im using isnt very user friendly. the colors are very close together and wait times yeild different results.
hopefully the water test kit you all recommended is more straight forward.

also, everytime that i go to the local pet shops to check out fish i see little cups in the tanks that say,"we use and recommend freshwater salt".
ive never heard of putting salt in a fresh water tank....what gives??

 

[black hills tj]

I would never recommend using FW salt in any of your tanks with one exception. That exception would be to treat ich. All of the scaleless fish become very, very weak when salt is introduced. This includes loaches and cory cats, among others.

 

[jsoong]

Salt is a controversial subject in FW tanks. Some believe a small amount help in osmo-regulation, most think that is useless.

During cycling, a low salt level also protects against nitrite poisoning.

I would say ignore the salt thing for now <the lfs is prob trying to sell you overpriced "fish salt" ....> Fresh clean water is what your fish need. I would use salt only if it is needed to treat something.

 

[rob28]

thanks