Hello everyone! Sad that this has to be my new post. Hopefully I'll have something more positive to contribute in the future.
About 2 weeks ago I got a 15G tank and realized I'd prefer something bigger. I cycled my small tank with some fish in there. I had a betta fish in there, a couple of mollies, a couple of cory cats, a snail and a couple of baby angelfish my friend gave me.
I finally got the 36G tank, cycled it for a bit (I know the ideal is to wait much longer than just 24 hours), dechlorinated the water, added most of the water from the old tank, added the bacteria + stress relief solution, some sort of solution that reduces ammonia, and because the old tank had to go back to my friend, I transferred the fish over. Every single one died except for the cat fish.
These were my original results:
Gh 0
Kh 0
Ph 6
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.5
I called the local aquarium store (they're honestly considered the experts in the city as they specialize in this sort of thing) and they told me to get a ph buffer, as well as some aquarium salt. They gave me a couple of mollies as a 'sorry' of sorts. I didn't add them in till I added these solutions and got some results back.
Gh 0
Kh 40
ph 6.5
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
ammonia 0.1 at most (I want to say it's zero but the test strips are confusing and I'm ditching the strips after this and switching to the water based one(?))
Despite all this, the mollies died too. The catfish are still alive but one is kind of floating around, looking up and not really 'swimming' if this makes any sense.
Things I have in the tank currently:
*Switching from gravel in the old tank to sand in the new one.
*All plants are fake and transferred over from the old tank
*Top Fin Multi-Stage Internal filter (40G)
*an aquarium ornament with an airstone connected to a Fluval air pump
What can I do? I'm banging my head against the wall and am devastated I lost most of my fish. Please help. I feel so discouraged
About 2 weeks ago I got a 15G tank and realized I'd prefer something bigger. I cycled my small tank with some fish in there. I had a betta fish in there, a couple of mollies, a couple of cory cats, a snail and a couple of baby angelfish my friend gave me.
I finally got the 36G tank, cycled it for a bit (I know the ideal is to wait much longer than just 24 hours), dechlorinated the water, added most of the water from the old tank, added the bacteria + stress relief solution, some sort of solution that reduces ammonia, and because the old tank had to go back to my friend, I transferred the fish over. Every single one died except for the cat fish.
These were my original results:
Gh 0
Kh 0
Ph 6
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0.5
I called the local aquarium store (they're honestly considered the experts in the city as they specialize in this sort of thing) and they told me to get a ph buffer, as well as some aquarium salt. They gave me a couple of mollies as a 'sorry' of sorts. I didn't add them in till I added these solutions and got some results back.
Gh 0
Kh 40
ph 6.5
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
ammonia 0.1 at most (I want to say it's zero but the test strips are confusing and I'm ditching the strips after this and switching to the water based one(?))
Despite all this, the mollies died too. The catfish are still alive but one is kind of floating around, looking up and not really 'swimming' if this makes any sense.
Things I have in the tank currently:
*Switching from gravel in the old tank to sand in the new one.
*All plants are fake and transferred over from the old tank
*Top Fin Multi-Stage Internal filter (40G)
*an aquarium ornament with an airstone connected to a Fluval air pump
What can I do? I'm banging my head against the wall and am devastated I lost most of my fish. Please help. I feel so discouraged