somethings wrong with my fish, need HELP!!!

[sostoudt]

well im at work right now and im going when i get off to get the dechlorinator. so i need a checklist of things to get, and what to do when i get home. i just hope i dont lose any more fish.

so at the fish store i need to get:
water test kit: ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite
dechlorinator(make sure its prime or atleast get something else to remove ammonia)

when i get home:
test water
50% water change
add dechlorinator


so i shoud test the water first before i do the water change and add dechlorinator. no just change it first, we already know your water is bad.

also should i feed the fish tonight.no you dont need more ammonia now

and if im missing anything in the list or am wrong about something please tell me, or redesign the list. and what order should i do everything. if you have filter media from you other tanks add some to help the lack of bacteria colonies. you can also buy bacteria additives, but i never thought they did much.


thanks agian guys, i dont know how i can say thanks enoughf yall have been such a big help for me.

if you get prime it has a triple dose for tank emergencies.
a important note about nitrate and nitrite detoxifiers, some test kits dont show the detoxified ones some do. so even if your test kit says nothing for the next week after using it it doesnt mean your cycled. i would not add anymore fish for a month to make sure you bacteria colonies have time to grow.

edit: make sure your tank has enough gas exchange as prime will take down oxygen levels a little bit when you emergency dose

 

[fallen612]

so i should do the tank emergencies, and i will test it after i do a water change.

just wondering i cant add it to the water i have in there now??

and dont add any more fish.

when you say make sure enoughf gas exchange, does that mean put the water levels down? thanks!!!

 

[fallen612]

???

 

[trevinoboy]

your water might be too clean, so what you should have done was:set up the tank, put a few feeder fish in that tank for a few days so they can poop and make the water dirty, then after 3 or 4 days you add the fishes to the tank

 

[fallen612]

so i got home and tested the water it was:
PH: 7.6
Amonia: .5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

so i added prime last night and added some ph leveler to put it at 7.0 then this morning i tested the water again, it was:

PH: 7.4
Amonia: .3
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0

so i added more prime and more ph leveler and i added some of the bacteria in the bottle stuff.

then tis afternoon i added some water clarifier becaue it was very very clowdy. it didnt clear up much but i will prob add a bit more tommorow. so what do yall think.

many fish are still up at the top of the tank, but they seem to be moving more. all but 1 of the neons died. but thats it on teh rest of the casulaties( knock on wood).

so what do yall think??

 

[sostoudt]

so i got home and tested the water it was:
PH: 7.6
Amonia: .5
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

so i added prime last night and added some ph leveler to put it at 7.0 then this morning i tested the water again, it was:

PH: 7.4
Amonia: .3
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0

so i added more prime and more ph leveler and i added some of the bacteria in the bottle stuff.

then tis afternoon i added some water clarifier becaue it was very very clowdy. it didnt clear up much but i will prob add a bit more tommorow. so what do yall think.

many fish are still up at the top of the tank, but they seem to be moving more. all but 1 of the neons died. but thats it on teh rest of the casulaties( knock on wood).

so what do yall think??

just stay on top of the tank, your not done by a long shot. you have to make it through the rest of the cycle until you have only nitrates showing up. so keep testing your water regularily, and especially watch the ammonia its the most dangerous. as soon as you ammonia has leveled off to zero, i would make sure to stop dosing the extra prime so you can tell your nitrate and nitrite levels, if your kit cant detect them when there detoxified(i dont know what kits can and cant.)
btw gas exchange happens when water is exposed to air, it is higher with a air pump making bubbles, or theres some kind of surface disturbance.
for your enjoyment here is a graphic respresentation of the cycle

 

[pluddy]

Maybe the Ph was to high or too low, i'm not shure how long it would take it to cycle but i dont think that whas the problem.

 

[fallen612]

just stay on top of the tank, your not done by a long shot. you have to make it through the rest of the cycle until you have only nitrates showing up. so keep testing your water regularily, and especially watch the ammonia its the most dangerous. as soon as you ammonia has leveled off to zero, i would make sure to stop dosing the extra prime so you can tell your nitrate and nitrite levels, if your kit cant detect them when there detoxified(i dont know what kits can and cant.)
btw gas exchange happens when water is exposed to air, it is higher with a air pump making bubbles, or theres some kind of surface disturbance.
for your enjoyment here is a graphic respresentation of the cycle

so i should dose prime according to the normal ammount?? because the nitrite and nitrate levels are going to go up. correct??? thanks!!

 

[kzimmerman]

Righ now the most important thing you can do is do a water change. Syphon about about 30-50% of the water, add new water back in, then dose with the prime. You will be doing frequent water changes until the cycle stops. If you have your smaller tanks still set up and running, put your fish back into them. Those tanks should be cylced, but if you have allowed the gravel and filter to dry out, don't bother. The bacteria on them are most likely dead.
Putting additives into a tank generaly doesn't solve the problem. It's more like a band aid, it just masks it. Don't worry so much about about additives, just keep up on daily water changes, don't feed and the problem will get better.

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Man oh man! You've gotten some outright ridiculous advice from some. A lot of it's good but there's no way for you to decipher the good from the bad. DO NOT add any more "ph balancer" stuff. It'll kill your fish, it's worthless. Your main problem right now is that it takes about 1 month for an aquarium to become balanced (cycled). The fish waste & uneaten food turn into ammonia. That ammonia sits there for a week or 2 until your filter builds up the bacteria needed to eliminate that ammonia-that bacteria is called "nitrite" (with an 'i'). Nitrite is harmful to fish also. So your filter grows yet another bacteria called "nitrate" (with an 'a') that eliminates the nitrite. Nitrate is much safer to fish although the general rule is to keep your nitrates below 20-30 ppm. You test that with the test kit and you lower nitrates by doing water changes-that's later on after your tank is cycled. Right now you're in the beginning stages of cycling. You've got a small reading for ammonia but that's going to go way way up if you don't do big water changes every day. Some people claim the cycle takes longer if you do water changes during it, but you have no choice at this point if you want to save your fish's lives. For the next 4 wks or so you're going to be doing water changes probably every single day. 50%-75%. That's just the facts. Don't even think about pH-it doesn't matter. Use the prime like suggested. When you use Prime it'll neutralize the ammonia so the fish won't be poisoned, but when you test for ammonia you'll still get an ammonia reading. But know that the Prime is deactivating it for you.
You'll get just ammonia readings for about a week or so with your tests, then all of a sudden you'll start getting readings for nitrites. That'll continue on and on for 2-3 wks. In that time you'll just start getting readings for nitrates. As soon as your ammonia reads '0' and your nitrites read '0' and you have some nitrate readings-you're cycled
I figure I probably repeated what some others said but maybe it'll help hearing it from another person.