New fish are slowing!

[tornadonick]

recently i got my 29g set up, a couple days ago I put in a couple plattys and mollys. today I have been watching them and they seem a lot slower than usual, my redwag platty is haning out at the bottom not doing much, and my balloon molly keeps haning out at the top apparantly gulping up air? I have tested and my results where
0 amonia
0 nitrites
about 3 nitrates
PH, i am a noob and cant remember what it was but i know that was normal. what could be doing this? am i over reacting?

[arangarajan93]

Did you keep an air pump?! If not keep it. I think so that yourballoon molly needs some oxygen. Thatz why it is gulping at the top. Anyways i am a newbie only. It is better that you consult others too.

[tornadonick]

I do have one, but not installed yet(yet another thing i cant find around here), I will look for it and try to get it in as soon as possible, but the other ones are acting a little off too, not real bad but I want to get this taken care of!

[Durvish]

Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?

[tornadonick]

I cycled my tank for about a week, but i also stole some water from my sister, ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates seem fine, although nitrates apear to be smaller then most people report

[Durvish]

Sorry chief but it takes longer than a week to cycle a tank and unfortunately there is almost no bacteria in the water. It is mainly in the filter media. Since you already have fish you need to read up on cycling a tank with fish. And you need to immediately do a pwc.

[Kat1103]

Recheck your readings. They may have ammonia or nitrite poisoning. Those are symptoms. Good luck.

[tornadonick]

Assuming that it is that, i do not have enough room in my sisters tank for them, what would I do to get them out? how can i try to fix this?

[Durvish]

To start off with your going to have to do partial water changes everyday to keep the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels down. Make sure to use a buffer like "Prime" when doing the pwc's. You absolutely must read up on the nitrogen cycle and cycling with fish, I don't have the link for you for that -- hopefully someone else will pop in and post it -- you can just as easily Google it. Also if your sister has had her tank running for awhile then go grab a handful of substrate from her tank and put it in some CLEAN pantyhose or a media bag and drop it in your tank. It will have good bacteria in it and will help speed up the cycle. And last but not least -- make sure you are testing with the liquid kits not the test strips, the test strips and commonly known to be way off.

[Durvish]

Nitrogen Cycle: Nitrogen Cycle and the Aquarium - Algone.com

[Durvish]

Short page of cycling with fish: The Basics of Cycling in an Aquarium

[meegosh]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...ow-116287.html

You should read through that. It should help you understand what is going on in your tank. I would start by doing a 50% water change.

[Durvish]

Thanks meegosh. That's the one I was looking for but couldn't find!

[tornadonick]

Thank you for your information, I knew it took longer(despite LFS saying 24 hours) but thought at the time that it was in the water so taking some of my sisters water would do it. I will also mention that i am using used gravel, even though it has been a few years. I also still have the (blue filter things, what ever they are called) from my old filter, the kind with the substrate attached to it. I wasnt using it because it didnt fit in this one. Would rigging that in there somhow help?

[tornadonick]

I did a near 50% water change today, my balloon molly seams better but now my sailfin molly was up gasping air alot. I rechecked my ammonia and it looks like it's somewhere between 0-.25(this chart is a pain in the @#!@$ to read. On the nitrites and nitrates, i have a dip testing kit that i want to upgrade as soon as i can, but that seams normal on there.

[Durvish]

If the gravel or filter ever became dry then the bacteria died and became useless.

[tornadonick]

here is possibly a very stupid, extremely absurd question. do these bacteria live on plants, there is a live plant(some kind of sword) living in my sisters tank that is almost dead considering we got it knowing nothing about them. could i drop a leaf in my filter and use that to seed it?

[tornadonick]

I should mention that it is not dead yet, still green and i am going to be looking into trying to save it, although i have more important things to worry about. Is this just going to have an inverse affect and add to the ammonia levels?

[Durvish]

Bud the best thing you could do is get a handful of her gravel and put it in your tank. Tomorrow get a real testing kit and start doing as many water changes as it take to keep your fish healthy as your tank cycles.

[tornadonick]

Her tank isnt all that old either, I havnt taken much time on testing it lately but hers is just over a month, I will try it.