Fish dying and I can't figure out why!

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CJRose14 said:
Absolutely! I wish I knew of one. There's one up on the north side of Indianapolis named The Reef and they're really great, but they don't have a ton of variety. And all of their fish are full-grown! I couldn't find any young fish of any kind. I think they specialize more in reef fish than freshwater. We moved here recently, so I'm trying to find a quality local store. I had a great one where I used to live, but that's a few hours away. :(
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I 100% recommend the reef, but if take their advice with a grain of salt, as they don't tell people about weekly water changes. But their livestock is amazing. I was just over there yesterday getting a zoa frag. As for the trouble, I'd say they died from the ammonia spike of adding them into the tank. I had a fry tank that was wiped out in a few hours, it was a 30 gallon, 30 fish, only 2-3 made it. It is very deadly. I'd recommend a fishless cycle as it doesn't put stress on the fish from the toxic ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.


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keegster803 said:
I 100% recommend the reef, but if take their advice with a grain of salt, as they don't tell people about weekly water changes. But their livestock is amazing. I was just over there yesterday getting a zoa frag. As for the trouble, I'd say they died from the ammonia spike of adding them into the tank. I had a fry tank that was wiped out in a few hours, it was a 30 gallon, 30 fish, only 2-3 made it. It is very deadly. I'd recommend a fishless cycle as it doesn't put stress on the fish from the toxic ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.


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You think that's the case, even though the water test said 0 on ammonia? Not arguing, I promise. :p I'm just all kinds of confused! Haha.
 
What kind of test did they use? Strips or liquid? As the strips are pretty inaccurate. You'd have some ammonia no matter what, as fish poop. So the test was probably inaccurate.


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Correct me if I'm wrong, but those aren't the best fish to cycle with. You should do fish less cycle just because you are putting those fish into danger in the first place by making them go through all that.


36g semi-aggressive
20g community
10g betta, nano fish, shrimp
5.5g betta
 
keegster803 said:
What kind of test did they use? Strips or liquid? As the strips are pretty inaccurate. You'd have some ammonia no matter what, as fish poop. So the test was probably inaccurate.


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Yeah, that's totally fair. They did use the strips, not the liquid kind. It was just Petsmart, after all. :p We're going to get the liquid one later tonight and see what that says. So bizarre. Does driftwood not hold much bacteria? I thought that with that in there, it would help offset the cycling. :( That's what I used to do with new tanks - just throw a big piece of decor from an established tank and I never had issues before.
 
Also, how much ammonia do plants typically eat? I've been told that that, plus the colonized driftwood would basically make cycling obsolete for this tank. I've never had a planted tank before now, so I don't know how much ammonia they actually convert!
 
The cycle will happen no matter what, your just speeding it up. It always happens, even when you are fully stocked and your tank has been running for X+ years. The plants only use the nitrates, which are the last step of the cycle. The cycle is only deadly to your fish because the bacteria colonies aren't big enough to convert the ammonia and nitrites to nitrates.


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keegster803 said:
The cycle will happen no matter what, your just speeding it up. It always happens, even when you are fully stocked and your tank has been running for X+ years. The plants only use the nitrates, which are the last step of the cycle. The cycle is only deadly to your fish because the bacteria colonies aren't big enough to convert the ammonia and nitrites to nitrates.


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Ooh, that's really good to know, thank you! I was told that the plants use the ammonia, not the nitrates. That could definitely be it, then! I'm excited to get the water test kit and find out for sure what's going on. :D
 
Welp, you were all right. :p It WAS ammonia! I'm at between 1-2 ppm. Just to be safe, I returned the remaining fish (I only have some of the pest snails in there right now. Don't judge me, I like them :lol: ) so hopefully the tank will cycle quickly. :)

My fiancé keeps reading about quick start types of things to get the bacteria growing faster. He wasn't excited about having fish until we actually had some, now he's like a 12 year old and can't wait to get more! Haha. I've read mixed reviews and wonder if it wouldn't be faster/better to just let the tank cycle on its own, rather than add some sort of bacterial additive to it. What do you all think?

Thanks again for the advice and telling me what I should have already known. Haha.
 
Bacterial additives are hit or miss. That's all there is to it.

If you really want to speed it up see if you LFS will give you/ let you buy some seeded filter media from an established tank. This is media that had colonies of bacteria already on it instead of taking a chance with additives.


Caleb
 
ImACoolguy said:
Bacterial additives are hit or miss. That's all there is to it.

If you really want to speed it up see if you LFS will give you/ let you buy some seeded filter media from an established tank. This is media that had colonies of bacteria already on it instead of taking a chance with additives.


Caleb
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Thanks, Caleb! Personally, I think I'd rather just let it cycle on its own. Since I've got the driftwood from the established tank, the plants, and it's been set up for nearly a week (it will be a week on Saturday), I feel like I've gotta be at least halfway done. Haha.
 
CJRose14 said:
Thanks, Caleb! Personally, I think I'd rather just let it cycle on its own. Since I've got the driftwood from the established tank, the plants, and it's been set up for nearly a week (it will be a week on Saturday), I feel like I've gotta be at least halfway done. Haha.
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What are your water parameters? Determining the cycle is all in the numbers ;)


Caleb
 
YOWZA. Good thing I took the fish outta there. It's chemical warfare in this thing!I did not get a chance to do a partial water change yesterday and I haven't done one yet today, so that's definitely on the agenda today. I'm guessing this means I'm nowhere close to cycling. Here's where I am. :ermm:

Nitrite: .25
Ammonia 1
PH 8.2
Nitrate 160 <--- WHAT!
 
Now you don't need to water change, just provide an ammonia source for the BB to feed on. Fish food or something like a cocktail table shrimp will be plenty. When your ammonia and nitrite can hit rock bottom 0ppm in 24 hours your cycle is finished. Then you do a massive water chance to bring the nitrate down to a safe level.

You are pretty far along!


Caleb
 
ImACoolguy said:
Now you don't need to water change, just provide an ammonia source for the BB to feed on. Fish food or something like a cocktail table shrimp will be plenty. When your ammonia and nitrite can hit rock bottom 0ppm in 24 hours your cycle is finished. Then you do a massive water chance to bring the nitrate down to a safe level.

You are pretty far along!


Caleb
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Whew, that makes me feel better, then! I've been still "feeding" the tank with fish food, hoping that helps. Yay! :D
 
Yes. Get your ammonia on up there and when it can drop to 0ppm (along with nitrite) one day your tank is cycled.


Caleb
 
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