pennytupence

I recently bought a Lido 120 cube tank,to move my 12 teenage Mollies into.I used the filter out of the old tank and half of the water too.I waited 5 days and tested the water and it was perfect,but i noticed a couple of fish were not eating.I came home from work today and one had died so i tested the water again and the ammonia level was 1.5. nitrite also slightly high.Im just wondering, and im fairly new to fish keeping, if i put the sponges in the wrong order would this make a difference?.there are 2 lots of sponges in this tank and i may have put them in the wrong order.Sorry if i haven't explained it very well,and is there anything i can do to get the levels down.Thank you helpsmilie:

alicem

Hi Pennytupence, welcome!
I looked your tank up and it's a pretty thing! A nice size at little more than 30US gallons.
If they both came out of a filter, they don't have to be in any order. I don't think that is a problem at all.
I'm sorry to say, I believe your tank is going through a mini cycle.
I'm assuming the sponges came out of a filter that was on an active tank.
Unfortunately the sponges may not have had enough good bacteria in it to sustain 12 mollies.

You've explained it fine. What you can do to help now are partial water changes.
You can also add Prime daily, after water changes, to help offset any ill effects of the cycle you are going through.
Keep up the water changes and in time the tank will settle down.
Best of luck,
alicem

pennytupence

Thanks so much for your help i think i know where i went wrong now i bought new sponges and just put the white filter the one that goes at the top in the new tank.Do you think it will get worse,i don't want to lose any more babies,i originally had 3 Mollies the fish shop didn't tell me they were live bearers,i had to learn everything from scratch and unfortunately the adult Mollies died during this time, but all the babies survived.I learned everything from this site,but as you can see im still learning.

LarryK

Heyyyyyyyy Jude! Sorry, couldn't help myself!!!

Judging by the lack of info the fish shop gave you, I think you've done really well to salvage the babies. I've also learnt alot on here in a short time and as with most things, if people think they can't learn anything new, I think they are mistaken! Especially in a hobby such as fishkeeping with so many species. Anyway, as long as you keep checking in here, you should go pretty well. Sorry about you losses!

pennytupence

LarryK;614603]Heyyyyyyyy Jude! Sorry, couldn't help myself!!!

Judging by the lack of info the fish shop gave you, I think you've done really well to salvage the babies. I've also learnt alot on here in a short time and as with most things, if people think they can't learn anything new, I think they are mistaken! Especially in a hobby such as fishkeeping with so many species. Anyway, as long as you keep checking in here, you should go pretty well. Sorry about you losses![/quote]

Haha
Thanks for the encouragement,and I'll let you know how things transpire im just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.