Problems With New Tank

Hey all! just joined looking for help on my tank. I have a 20 gallon hexagon with a 125 gph filtration. aqueon starter set. I set this tank up almost 2.5 weeks now and ran into problems after 1 week. I put all decloranator and bacteria starter in and let sit for over 48 hours. stalked the tank with 3 Dalmatian mollies and 3 platies. After 1 week we put 3 peppered cory cats. After one week 1 Molly died and then noticed ich on my other mollies and starting on the platties. I cleared up the ich after one week and was all good. now one of my cory cats have what looks like cotton wool disease. also to add to that one of the platties had fry that was pregnant from the store. 2 are left out of 20. I wake up this morning and another one of my mollies was dead with no warning. I tested my ammonia and it is what looks to be between 1.0 and .50. I also ended up replacing the filter which I think was a mistake cause now my cycle is all messed up. I removed the carbon from the first filter to put the meds in for the ich.
Nitrates are 20
nitrite 0
ph 7.5
kh 120-180

Did changing my filter mess with my cycle?

 

You can’t replace the whole filter!! That’s where all the beneficial bacteria is. Your tank isn’t cycled anymore. You need to keep up the water changes with fresh dechlorinated water every day and continually test the water. Dyou have anyone who could take the fish off you whilst you recycle the tank? If not you will have to do a fish in cycle. Someone will hopefully come along and elaborate on that or you can look it up online. You added way too many fish in one go, but that’s not a main issue right now however it could have contributed to the big system crash as it was overrun to quickly. Your susbstrate could be housing small amount of beneficial bacteria but not enough. If you know of anyone with a seasoned tank, get them to give you some filter medium or a squeeze of water from their filter which you can use to kick start your tank

 

Removing the carbon itself shouldn't have messed with the cycle. It's chemical filtration, not biological, and biological is what matters with the cycle. Unless you removed your entire filter it shouldn't have been a problem. Did you test your parameters before you put fish in, and were you adding any ammonia while you were trying to cycle the tank? If you didn't add ammonia, you wouldn't have been cycling. The BB die after about a day without food source (ammonia).

How did you acclimate your fish? Cories also like groups of 6+. Once you get the other issues in this tank sorted out I would go and get some more, but be sure to quarantine.

You're doing a fish-in cycle. I would get a BB supplement such as Tetra SafeStart plus or API Quick Start, and a bottle of Seachem Prime. Follow the directions on the supplement bottles for how much to add in/how often. Note that if you use TSS+, you should not use Prime or do water changes for two weeks as that will interfere with how the bacteria work. However, continue to monitor your water parameters and if ammonia and nitrite spike to dangerous levels (e.g. over 1.5 for more than a day) do a water change immediately. It's better to risk TSS+ not working as well as it should but save your fish from dangerous levels of toxins. Seachem prime is a dechlorinator and neutralizes ammonia and nitrites under 1ppm for 24 hours, so it's good to have in emergencies.

 

My water tests before all this happened was
ph was 7.5 then they jumped up to 8.5 after a week.
Then the KH was about 80
once the KH went up to 120
my nitrite were in the stress zone on the tetra water test. once those dropped I noticed my fish starting to scratch on ornaments in the tank and tested the ammonia and that was at .5 and once that climbed up to 1.0 my nitrite dropped and my nitrate went from 0 to 20. I have been doing 20 to 25 % water changes every day to try and keep ammonia down. I still have prices of my old filter cause I had to cut out the carbon in the cartrage to put ich meds in. I changed the filter cause I was afraid of the ich transferring back into the water

I knew I interrupted the cycle by changing that filter and kick myself for that. the pieces of that filter are already dried up so I don't know if that bacteria will start again

I used the top fin bacteria starter also. I acclimated the fish with a drip system out of the main tank before I introduced them

 

Can you do a true pH test on your tap? Sometimes the water comes out with a lot of CO2 dissolved in the water but after a few days the CO2 escapes/bubbles out. Since CO2 lowers pH, it could cause pH to rise. To do a true pH test, take some tap water and put it in a bucket. Run an air stone in it for 24-48 hours, and then test pH. If you didn't test daily, this could be what happened. It could also be that your tap parameters changed for some reason. Just to clarify, is this what happened before you put fish in or is this what happened before they died?

The fish were probably scratching/flashing because of the nitrite and ammonia. The water changes are a good idea, keep those up. If you medicated for ich, the filter would have been medicated as well and you could have kept that in. If the filter is dried out already, the BB aren't alive anymore and it wouldn't do anything to help get the cycle back on track.

 

Thank you! I will put some tap water in a bucket and try that. Straight out of tap it was also 7.5. I do have soft water also. I did order some API ammo lock also since my ammonia is 1.0. just trying to get it neutralized before it gets out of hand just in case. Nitrates are still at 20 and 0 nitrite.

Bellesfish, if I might have BB in my substrate I should not vacuum it till the BB gets back in the filter when I do water changes?

You can’t replace the whole filter!! That’s where all the beneficial bacteria is. Your tank isn’t cycled anymore. You need to keep up the water changes with fresh dechlorinated water every day and continually test the water. Dyou have anyone who could take the fish off you whilst you recycle the tank? If not you will have to do a fish in cycle. Someone will hopefully come along and elaborate on that or you can look it up online. You added way too many fish in one go, but that’s not a main issue right now however it could have contributed to the big system crash as it was overrun to quickly. Your susbstrate could be housing small amount of beneficial bacteria but not enough. If you know of anyone with a seasoned tank, get them to give you some filter medium or a squeeze of water from their filter which you can use to kick start your tank

Bellesfish, should I not vacuum the substrate when I do my water changes if I might have some BB left in there?

 

Bellesfish, if I might have BB in my substrate I should not vacuum it till the BB gets back in the filter when I do water changes?


Bellesfish, should I not vacuum the substrate when I do my water changes if I might have some BB left in there?

Yes I wouldn’t vacuum it. I would try to not feed loads during this time so there’s not a load of waste on your substrate but as long as you keep up water changes it should keep water quality fine and it will allow food for B.B. also

Some B.B. would likely remain even if you did vacuum but I would think letting the substrate rest whilst you recycle would do it good and then once cycled you can fully vacuum substrate

 

Some B.B. would likely remain even if you did vacuum but I would think letting the substrate rest whilst you recycle would do it good and then once cycled you can fully vacuum substrate

Thank you for the info. I am going to stop by pets mart after work and see if they can get me some filter media to help

 

Thank you for the info. I am going to stop by pets mart after work and see if they can get me some filter media to help

No problem, they should be able to give you some and if they won’t, ask them to just squeeze the finer out into a bag as it will contain bacteria in the water. Add this to your filter, keep up water changes and water testing and you should be good

 

No problem, they should be able to give you some and if they won’t, ask them to just squeeze the finer out into a bag as it will contain bacteria in the water. Add this to your filter, keep up water changes and water testing and you should be good

Thank you! I hate losing fish and would like to get this under control.

I know before the cycle crash my nitrite was in the stress level on the tetra 5in1 strip and my ph shot up to 8.5 from 7.5 and the ammonia is level at 1.0 then my nitrate was a 20 and my nitrite went to 0 but the ammonia never went down and now my nitrate is fluctuating between 0 and 20

Can you do a true pH test on your tap? Sometimes the water comes out with a lot of CO2 dissolved in the water but after a few days the CO2 escapes/bubbles out. Since CO2 lowers pH, it could cause pH to rise. To do a true pH test, take some tap water and put it in a bucket. Run an air stone in it for 24-48 hours, and then test pH. If you didn't test daily, this could be what happened. It could also be that your tap parameters changed for some reason. Just to clarify, is this what happened before you put fish in or is this what happened before they died?

The fish were probably scratching/flashing because of the nitrite and ammonia. The water changes are a good idea, keep those up. If you medicated for ich, the filter would have been medicated as well and you could have kept that in. If the filter is dried out already, the BB aren't alive anymore and it wouldn't do anything to help get the cycle back on track.

So not quit 24 hours on the tap with air stone and the ph dropped to 6.5 and KH is 40. Everything else is at 0

 

Hm, not sure about the pH. Maybe your tap didn't have any CO2 dissolved in it at all, and running the airstone added CO2 to the water by bubbling the CO2 in the atmosphere through it so pH dropped? That wouldn't explain the pH spike in the tank though. Hopefully someone else has an explanation for this.

I would be careful about asking PetSmart for seeded media. For all you know, their tanks could be riddled with disease. I personally wouldn't risk it and I'd just keep up water changes + Prime to keep ammonia and nitrites safe while you cycle.

 

So my ammonia shot up to almost 4.0 from 1.5 in 24 hours. I did a 25% water change and it brought it down to .50. Is it natural for my ammonia to jump that fast since my tank is recycling? I treated it with prime also.

 

So my ammonia shot up to almost 4.0 from 1.5 in 24 hours. I did a 25% water change and it brought it down to .50. Is it natural for my ammonia to jump that fast since my tank is recycling? I treated it with prime also.

It will jump, I can’t remember your stocking but I would think you would be very highly stocked for that much of a jump. I would change 50-75% before you go to sleep as if it’s rocketing overnight it will be very bad for your fish and you won’t be able to fix it whilst your asleep haha. Just keep up water changes, keep eye on livestock for ammonia poisoning and keep adding prime for the fish

 

Quick update on my aquarium. Ammonia is starting to drop real fast now. I poured some tts+ in the filter and waited another 24 hours. Did another water change and got the ammonia down to 1.0 ppm. And dumped some more tts+ in the filter. Waited 24 hours and ammonia is at .5 and did another water change. So I am hoping by another 24 hours there will be no more ammonia. Fish all have their fins out and they are not flashing and scratching. Water is crystal clear. I thought the water was clear before but wow it is really clear now.

 

Quick question. If my ammonia is staying steady at .50 should I do a water change or see if my bio filter can take care of it? I'm guessing leave it and let my filter build up.and finish my cycle?

 

Since you have Prime, it should be okay to leave it and see if the filter can take care of it since it's in low enough concentrations that Prime will be able to neutralize it, but definitely keep an eye on the levels and watch your fish's behavior as well.

 

If you know of anyone with a seasoned tank, get them to give you some filter medium or a squeeze of water from their filter which you can use to kick start your tank

I didn’t even think of this !!! My tank is in need of some beneficial bacteria, I added my fish a bit too soon. My brother in law has a saltwater aquarium with a sump. So can I take a small water sample from the SUMP water and run it across my filter ?

 

I didn’t even think of this !!! My tank is in need of some beneficial bacteria, I added my fish a bit too soon. My brother in law has a saltwater aquarium with a sump. So can I take a small water sample from the SUMP water and run it across my filter ?

What I did is I finally went to my neighbor and he has a canister filter. He cut me a good size peice of his filter off and I put it behind my existing cartrage. From what I understand the water alone will not work.

 

Very little bacteria live in the water. Most is in the filter media and a little is in the substrate.

 

Since you have Prime, it should be okay to leave it and see if the filter can take care of it since it's in low enough concentrations that Prime will be able to neutralize it, but definitely keep an eye on the levels and watch your fish's behavior as well.

thank you so much for your help!

 

I didn’t even think of this !!! My tank is in need of some beneficial bacteria, I added my fish a bit too soon. My brother in law has a saltwater aquarium with a sump. So can I take a small water sample from the SUMP water and run it across my filter ?

Unfortunately that’s unlikely to work. The bacteria will die due to the different water . You need to buy an ammonia guard for your fish and some B.B. is the tank cycled? And how many and what fish and how long has it been running?

I didn’t even think of this !!! My tank is in need of some beneficial bacteria, I added my fish a bit too soon. My brother in law has a saltwater aquarium with a sump. So can I take a small water sample from the SUMP water and run it across my filter ?

Oh and the water can’t just be from the sump. It would need to be the filter squeezed into your sponge for it to work (that’s freshwater to freshwate)

 

Mollies swimming with fins out now that water is getting healthier!