snowmaker_unit4
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2013
- Messages
- 11
I am new to fish. I have had 3 die this week. I have only had an aquarium for 3 weeks all water samples look good. Not sure what is going on. Any ideas?
I ran my aquarium for one week fish less I had 2 dalmation mollies 2 sharks 2 swordtails 3 Mickey Mouse platties a snail and a pocassimus the pocassimus on mollie and a sword tail died I put them in 3 at a time a week a part I have a liquid master test kit and did all the tests which came back excellent
What exactly are your readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?
How long has it been since you've done a water change?
How often do you do water changes?
Sharks??? That tank may be way overstocked with the sharks alone. I read somewhere that they need like 50 gallons of water for 1. But i may be wrong. Although if you are talking bala, silver tip, or rainbow sharks, they can get close to a foot plus. Like i said i may be wrong as i have never kept sharks before.
Ammonia was .113, nitrite 0, nitrate was 20 have only done one 15% water change a week ago
Ammonia was .113, nitrite 0, nitrate was 20 have only done one 15% water change a week ago
You're going through the nitrogen cycle, your fish are dying from ammonia poisoning. Ammonia must always be at 0. Do 60-70% water changes until that ammonia gets down and continue to maintain large water changes until you're cycled.
As for the fish you added too many too fast. You still haven't said what kind of shark you have. It doesn't matter that it may be 2'. If you have bala's for example they need at least a 125 gallon 6t tank. They grow fast and are very active and would need to be re-homed.
So the ammonia is .113ppm? What are you using to test the water?
Ammonia has differing amounts of toxicity at differing pH levels. A .1ppm ammonia level is completely safe. Take a look at this chart.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html
The fish were added at good intervals (Wish I had enough self control to add fish that slowly) but they were added to an uncycled tank which is why you are having problems.
At the very least I would start with a 50% water change and recheck your levels after an hour to see if things are still peachy.
You're going through the nitrogen cycle, your fish are dying from ammonia poisoning. Ammonia must always be at 0. Do 60-70% water changes until that ammonia gets down and continue to maintain large water changes until you're cycled.
As for the fish you added too many too fast. You still haven't said what kind of shark you have. It doesn't matter that it may be 2'. If you have bala's for example they need at least a 125 gallon 6t tank. They grow fast and are very active and would need to be re-homed.
I am using an API liquid test kit the color of the water was inbetween 0 and .25 so I guessed it at that
Irredeciant sharks sorry I am sure I spelled that wrong max size is 8"