KSD53801

Goodmorning,

I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank that is about 1 month old. Two days ago there was alot of debris in the rocks, so i bought a vacuum cleaner and took about 10% of the water out. PetSmart told me to just put about .25 oz of clarifier in the new water, which i did. the next morning i came home and found my female molly dead. she seemed fine the night before. i thought nothing of it. she had fry the day after we bought her home and PetSmart once again told me to leave them in the breeder next for 2 to 3 weeks. which i did, and then released them. i get up this morning and all 15 fry were dead. and i also noticed brown spots on the back of the tank and one of the decor in the tank. the white rocks also have a yellowish green tint, that matches the color of one of my glofish, both seem to be doing fine. i checked my water with the test strips 24 hours before i cleaned the rocks and took my results to petsmart and they said everything looked wonderful and to go ahead and clean the rocks. well this morning i checked and the nitrate is at 20 PPM(which reads safe), nitrite is 10.0 ppm(which reads danger and is probalby my problem), water is soft, total alkalinity is 80ppm(reads moderate) and the pH is 7.2. i think the strip pretty much told me what the problem is, but my question is how to fix it? and maybe help me identify the brown spots on the tank and decor and the discoloration of the rocks?

TIA,
Kim

Lucy

Hi Kim Welcome to Fish Lore.

I'm so sorry about the loss of your fish.

It looks like your tank is not fully cycled

ammonia and nitrites and are toxic to your fish, so I would do an immediate water change of about 50% to bring those levels down and continue daily water changes until your readings are 0 for both ammonia and nitrItes and 5-10 on nitrAtes...even 20, although thats on the high side.

What is your ammonia reading?

The strips aren't very accurate, most here recommend the API Master test kit.

How many and what kind of fish do you have?

Good luck, there are a lot of people here that can help you and your fish.

KSD53801

hi lucy,
thanks for the reply. i had two mollies and two glofish to begin with. the male molly died within a week. then the female had fry and she lives up until earlier this week. my glofish are doing wonderfully, but they are a hardy fish, that was developed to fight pollution in our waters. so i'm assuming that they are a difficult fish to "kill" per say. i will no a water change, but in the meantime is it ok to leave my two remaining glofish in the tank while it cycles? btw my mom has the API kit, so i will most def. take a water sample to her to test for me.

another thing about the glofish they are the most exciting fish to watch. constantly chasing, which has continued through all of the deaths.

thanks again,
kim

Evelyn1919

hi Kim and welcome to fishlore!

like Lucy said your tank is not cycled yet and you are going to be needing lots of water change. it's grea that your mom has the API kit because that's the best way to know how your water is doing. try not to go with the advise from the people at the pest store because most of the time they don't know what they are talking about. do your own readings and change water according to your readings. nitrites are high according to you test strips but they are usually not very accurate so after using the API kit see how much water change you will need to do. most likely you will be needing about 50% water changes (every day) if your nitrites are that high and maybe less at the end of the cyle. also use a good water conditioner like Prime which a lot of people here recommed. i also used the API stress coat which helped a lot with water changes and the health of fish.

good luck and sorry to hear about your fish.

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore.
Sorry to hear about your losses so far.

Excellent advice above.
A few more things:
Brown spots are likely diatoms, a type of algae that seems to thrive at the tail end of the cycle. It usually goes away on its own after a few weeks, though excessive light/nitrogen can give it a chance to stay. (I have a goldfish/koi tank that gets lot of indirect sunlight that has a near-continuous diatom problem)

Yellow stuff is likely just nitrogen and algae staining the rocks. Not necessarily a bad thing, though it can be an indicator of poor water quality.

As Lucy said, daily water changes are going to help keep your fish alive (the GloFish will survive nearly anything, anyway, but no reason to stress them more than necessary). Once you get down to 0 ammonia and nitrites, your tank will have completed the cycle. After that point, do water changes to keep the nitrates below 20, and you're good to go.

Lucy

Does your mom have an established tank that could easily handle your GloFish? Ideally a fish less cycle is best as it does not cause stress or loss of fish.

If she does, there are a couple things you can do.

1. Have your mom baby sit her grand-fish babies in her established tank until your cycle in complete. You'll have to feed your empty tank with a source of ammonia. You won't have to change the water until your cycle is complete and you're ready to get your fish back.

2. Keep the glofish in your tank and see if your mom will cut a peice of used filter media for you to add to your filter to help seed the tank with beneficial bacteria. A handful of gravel or a decoration will help too. Do daily water changes as recommended above.

Best of luck to you! Oh, 1 more thing, we love pics!

ok, 2 things lol, don't buy anymore fish until the cycle is complete.

sirdarksol

The best suggestion here. Filter media from an established tank is a near-instant cycle, as long as the bio-load in the established tank is higher than that of the new tank (in other words, as long as your mom has more than two small fish). Make sure it gets transported in a ziplock baggie of tank water. If it dries out, it won't do any good.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore and hopefully the advice you've gotten will have your tank and fish happy soon.