Hi!
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? how long has your tank been set up for? You won’t be able to keep ammonia and nitrite down until the tank is cycled.
Your tank is definitely overstocked. Bala sharks are very active and get pretty big. I’m not great at stocking advice, but i’m sure someone else on here will help you come up with a plan that fits your tank.
Unfortunately, No. We were instructed by the associates at petsmart, and they said this
QuickStart would allow us to add fish same day, not knowing anything about the nitrogen cycle, we went with the flow.
HI 4 yr old and Daddy,
I am new on FishLore forum, but I was once upon a time a "fish lady" (and THE plant lady) at a PetSmart in Indep., MO approximately 20 years ago (back when I was in college). When I was working there, employees were trained to be at least somewhat knowledgeable, and I apologize that the staff you encountered probably had little idea what they were talking about.
Am I reading this right that your tank is 40 gal?
As the previous poster mentioned, you are dealing with an uncycled tank. Had I been the person who waited on you at the store, I would have recommended using
StressZyme by API and the sister product StressCoat for protecting the fish's slime coat etc (if I remember correctly, the later also removes
chlorine/cloriamines from your
tap water...don't quote me on that, as I'm am on a farm with well water, so I dn't have chlorine in it.) I've tried a lot of "tank cycling" products and StressZyme worked the best for me everywhere I have lived and had fish (moved probably 25 times in my 43 years of life and have kept fish on and off for over 30 years...and I totally remember the days when tank cycling products weren't on the market yet.) I also would have recommended running your new tank for at least 1-2 weeks with StressZyme , inexpensive
live plants (plants are wonderful, they give surface area for good bacteria to grow) and maybe a snail or two or a couple of cheap feeder
goldfish (fish/invertebrate that you aren't planning to get "attached to" so IF you lose them to new tank syndrome, you don't feel so bad about it.) The light bio-load of a few plants (which will use the nitrates once that cycle going) and a few goldfish in a 40 gallon wouldn't overwhelm the system you are creating, but would provide the
Co2 and a little bit waste needed to feed those tank cycling bacteria.
If you have a local (non- big box) fish/pet store within a reasonable driving distance from you, pay them a visit. They are usually have much better informed staff and are in the business of not only getting people into the aquarium hobby, but keeping people in the hobby. Usually they want to see customers grow and learn, and are willing to teach new fish keepers what they need to know to be successful. Back in the day, we used to have to find a local store or somebody who was breeding fish in their garage of whatever and ask for a few handfuls of gravel from a cycled older tank or an "old filer pad" or sponge from a
sponge filter (or if you were lucky their water from a water change, to get a new tank established.) If you have a nice "mom and pop" fish store, it is worth asking for a few handfuls of substrate or filter media they were going to throw out anyway, even is they charge a small fee, it would be worth it to really get your cycle established and not have to replace the fish you bought. That said, sounds like maybe there are too many/or too large (fully grown sizes) of fish for a 40 gallon in total, especially for where your nitrogen cycling is at the moment. If you know somebody else (co-worker, friends family, etc.) who have aquariums for 6 months or more and could either take a couple off your hands temporarily or permanatly that would be helpful until you are better established..this would help relieve the bio-load on your tank while it's getting up to speed.
What type of filter are you using? Many of the traditional hang on back and
canister filters are not maximized for ideal filtration. WHY? The manufacturers and stores don't want you to know that because they make a lot of their money selling you those throw-away filter cartridges. You and your family could have a lot of "family night" fun watching aquarium fish videos learning about the fish you have, fish you might want to try someday and general fish keeping topics on YouTube. Try typing in" maximizing your aquarium filtration" on a YouTube app to find more ways to help create an environment in which your fishy pets will thrive.
Yes you want to gravel vac and get out what you can of the dumped
fish food and do some water changes maybe every other day for a while. (Please note though that water changes in and of themselves do create stress on the fish too and removing too much of the water also reduces the population of your
beneficial bacteria colony (always added more cycling bacteria culture when you water change to help reduce the stresses on the fish and bacteria colony). By all means get that decomposing fish food out, it will create more toxins and molds that are detrimental to the fish. Once that is accomplished do regular water change twice weekly for a month or so...then if your biological filtration is in a great place you may need to do it only weekly, unless another problem arrises. Meanwhile, learn about ways to grow a huge colony of beneficial bacteria (I really recommend adding sponge media to any filter you are running and there are many ways to do this, ditching the throw-away cartridge that are usually used as media in most filters and replacing with sponge media or
bio-rings/balls is a great place to start...look for how to vids on YouTube) that can handle the amount of waste your current fish are producing. And definitely try adding live plants to help use the by-products of the nitrogen cycle.
