Lost most of my fish now

[3Corsameal]

am back again, only quickly tho, not on internet as much as i would like.

anyway, i thought my tank was all going really well, as the n02 and n03 really improved since they were sky high not long ago.

then in the space of 24hrs 4 fish died, and most of whats left is really pale and not looking very happy.

been to LFS today and he tested the water and told me the ammonia was very high, so have been given some biological booster. hopefully everything will sort itself out soon.

have also added 5 real plants, (i've never been keen on the idea of real ones) but am really impressed with them, looks excellent now, got plenty of planting, real and fake.

am chuffed with how it looks

back soon......

 

[madasafish]

Chuffed is good! If ammonia is your problem, you might want to get an ammonia-reducing pack for your filter.

BUT, don't count on everything sorting itself out. Monitor the tank carefully, and do up to 50% water changes if ammonia levels are sky-high.

Also, if you get the ammonia-reducing pack, you will see high ammonia levels in the tank when you test. This will be the harmless ammonia ion, NH4+ (I believe), so don't freak out if ammonia levels don't immediately drop.

Pale fish is the classic sign of ammonia poisoning, btw. Now you know for future reference.

Live plants are fantastic if you know what to do. What species did you buy? You may find they die quickly if you don't have a fertilized gravel, CO2 injection and adequate, correct-wavelength light. If you've got hardy plants such as Java Ferns, Amazon Swords or Anacharis, this won't be a problem. If they're sensitive, i.e. lotus, microswords, they will almost certainly die. If you don't have a lot of surface water movement, and have just a few plants in a big enough tank, CO2 injection may not be an issue. If you have a small tank and lots of water-surface movement, think about making a simple CO2 injection aparratus. I can guide you in this if you're interested. They're very very easy to make.

Good luck!