The Dead Fish Blues

[Atreides]

I have a 10 gallon tank. I used bottled distilled water from Wal-Mart for it because my tap water is high in chlorine and very hard. I let my tank sit for about a week before I introduced 6 neon tetra. a week later I introduced 6 glowlight tetras. And a week after that I added a otto to try to keep things clean. Everything seemed to be going just fine. Then, in a matter of a few days I lost 6 glowlights and 4 neons. At first I thought it was the heat. We have been experiencing a rather unusual heat wave where I live. My bedroom, where the tank is located, is in the basement and my room has no windows, but the tank still reached over 85*F. I set a large and powerful fan near the tank to try to cool it off, but they kept dying. I called my local fish store and they told asked me how old the tank was and I told them about 3-4 weeks. They said I was experiencing an ammonia spike most likely. I did some digging here, which was very helpful might I add, and then concluded it was time to use that syphon I had bought. I sphyoned out a lot of gunk off the bottom, so it appears that I was overfeeding my fish a bit and that I should have cleaned it sooner. So from the water loss of cleaning it, that was about a 30% water change. That was about a week ago, I was out of water and today was the soonest I could go to the store and buy more water and some test strips. My ammonia was about maybe 6 ppm if not higher. I think cleaned my gravel more untill it seemed I couldn't get any more gunk out of the gravel, and so that made up for another 2 1/2 gallon water change. After an hour I retested the tank and it seems to have gone down to about 3 ppm. Um, I also tested the tank using the pH/Alkalinity/Hardness/Nitrite/Nitrate test. All of them were safe/ideal except for the pH, it is borderline basic but not too bad, it seems to be about 7.4 maybe. I am going to wait a week or so to retest the tank and I have cut way back on feeding to about once a day, especially now that I only have 2 neons and an otto. I think I will wait a week or so before retest and then contemplate getting maybe 6 more tetras since my tank might have been slightly full and the fact that the glowlights died before the neons did.

I know ammonia is a well covered topic on this forum so my question is more towords was my tank too full and how do you cool off a hot tank. Any advice on any of the above issues would be very appreciated!

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

did you run a fishless cycle in that week you let it sit?

If not, your high ammonia levels won't be cured by cleaning the gravel (although it will certainly help!)...you need to cycle your tank!

there are a ton of good threads on cycling your tank...read up! And keep doing water changes to keep your little guys alive (ammonia is toxic, and even at very low levels can hurt your fishies!)

I would bet it was the ammonia that killed your little guys, not temperature, although the warmer your tank (and the more basic your water), the higher the concentrations of NH3 (as opposed to NH4, which doesn't hurt your fish). Can't really change the weather....and it's best not to fuss with the pH...best bet is to just do water changes when your ammonia gets too high.

 

[madasafish]

I tried the fan-on-the-water thing, but I think this caused as much harm as good, as the temperature swings were hard on the fish (I didn't keep it on all the time). Also, the water evaporates REALLY easily and fast that way...

Yes, the tank was overstocked, by at least 4-5 inches. Try having a max of 10 inches of fish (when the fish are mature), and you won't overload your tank's capacity.

Also, you can get probably get an ammonia-redicing pad for your filter. What type of filter do you have?

 

[Atreides]

Hmmm

I am using a filter that sucks the water from a tub, and then it runs through a carbon (?) filter and flows back into the tank. Also, I was unaware of fishless cycling, I must have missed that since I was a bit antsy to get the fish tank started. Most beginers guides say that you just have to let is sit a few days before adding fish. Also I have been doing more reading and I guess using distilled was ISN'T good for the fish. (sighs) All of this is just a tad bit overwhelming. I thought I had done enough research (about 8 hours before buying everything) but it seems as I missed quite a bit of details.

 

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees*

You tank is in the first stages of cycling; is why you have a high ammonia content and very little nitrite/nitrates. As sweets said, you'll need to do lots of water changes to keep your remaining fishies alive (ammonia and nitrites are deadly to fish; ammonia burns their gills, nitrite competes with oxygen and both suffocate the fish). HOw much to remove and how often is dictated by the test results (lots of nitrogenous waste? Lots of changes). Theres a great article about the nitrogen cycle here: http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html . Keep in mind water changes will slow down the cycle as your removing the food (ammonia/nitrites) the bacteria need to eat. But better to have a slow cycle then ammonia and nitrites in the water IMHO.

I wouldn't worry TOO much about the chlorine and hardness levels. Chlorine is easily removed by dechlorinators, and theres a good chance the water you have is similar in chemistry to the water the lfs has. So the fish stand a good chance of being used to it already. Obviously you still want to acclimate them by adding small amounts of tank water to the new fish bag until you double the water, as there can be small changes; ask the store where you get your fish what their hardness level is and see if its that different from yours. Plus, as you've learned, distilled water is missing basic chemicals the fish really need.

 

[yellowjacket171]

Atreides, Don't be too hard on yourself. I did weeks of research before getting my fish and am still learning from others especially on this forum. I did a fishless cycle for one week and had also added 4 cups of gravel/water from a relatives healthy tank. I was also anxious to add fish also but added a few each week. I tested every day for weeks and did a gravel vac with 20% water changes weekly and I was loosing an average of one fish a week. It was depressing and stressing me out and was wondering what was I doing wrong? After reading many posts on this forum I see I am not alone. I started my tank in early May 2003 and have had many of my fish for two to three months now.

 

[yellowjacket171]

Atreides, Don't be too hard on yourself. I did weeks of research before getting my fish and am still learning from others especially on this forum. I did a fishless cycle for one week and had also added 4 cups of gravel/water from a relatives healthy tank. I was also anxious to add fish also but added a few each week. I tested every day for weeks and did a gravel vac with 20% water changes weekly and I was loosing an average of one fish a week. It was depressing and stressing me out and was wondering what was I doing wrong? After reading many posts on this forum I see I am not alone. I started my tank in early May 2003 and have had many of my fish for two to three months now.

 

[yellowjacket171]

Atreides, Don't be too hard on yourself. I did weeks of research before getting my fish and am still learning from others especially on this forum. I did a fishless cycle for one week and had also added 4 cups of gravel/water from a relatives healthy tank. I was also anxious to add fish also but added a few each week. I tested every day for weeks and did a gravel vac with 20% water changes weekly and I was loosing an average of one fish a week. It was depressing and stressing me out and was wondering what was I doing wrong? After reading many posts on this forum I see I am not alone. I started my tank in early May 2003 and have had many of my fish for two to three months now.