Two of my fish have died after setting up my 20 gallon tank 4 days ago. The water is very cloudy and I've been told the nitrates and pH are way too high. What can I do?
by 
thesoulcrusher
ANSWERS: 10
-
The tank needs to be established before adding fish. Some let water sit in a tank for two weeks before adding one fish. At this point you should change some (10% to 15%) of the water daily for a while. You can spend a lot of money on chemicals and get no where fast. Try to not over-feed the fish; doing this will cloud water quickly. Make sure you have adequate filtration. To better answer the question I would need more info: 1.) What kind of fish, how many? 2.) What kind of filter?
-
i have three 70 gal. tanks and the best bet would to first buy a ph test kit, there usually around 10 bucks. next find out what type of ph your fish like to live in then adjust accordingly.
-
You generally want to get some sort of beneficial bacteria, or "starter" fish in your tank before adding the fish you really want.... You have to establish the beneficial bacteria in your tank which (generally) takes two to three weeks. Fish are expected to die during this period due to the spike in ammonia and nitrite, but once both the ammonia and nitrite get down to 0 ppm you are safe to put the fish you really want to have in the tank (considering you have the correct pH and kh for those fish.)
-
Hello; Your tank is not cycled and the ammonia is probably killing your fish. Ammonia takes up to 10-days to cycle into nitrite --- then the nitrite will kill your fish for another 2 to 4 weeks! Nitrogen cycle --> waste to ammonia --> ammonia to nitrite --> nitrite to nitrate. Plus high nitrates to algae bloom! I doubt PH is killing your fish --- and after 4 days the tank has no nitrites or nitrates. Most fish will handle the PH, KH and GH of tap water in most areas. OFM
-
Ok so it fresh warm water fish. You jumped in fast, and 14 fish n a 20 gallon tank is really testing the cycles. Without disturbing the gravel bed, And I assume you have some sort of flow tube sytem that uses the gravel as the filter, you need to do a 20% water change to lower the levels. Yeah i know, it would have been better to have set this up and had 2 mollys for the first 30 days, but your fish are in there and they will die from the poisons in the start up cycle. I'm worried about the puffer, he's a brackish water fish and your forcing through a tropical start up. Do you have access to a side mounted power filter? Many one of your friends or a rental form the pet shop? It could clean the water until the gravel builds up the nitrogen cycle. In general no more than 10 fish for 20 gallons, unless you doing guppies or neon tetras. Good luck.
-
i have a 25 gallon tank with 14 fish in it how much food do i feed them all
-
I like to use guppies and white clouds (asian minnows) to "establish" a tank. They are hardy and will help adjust the water. After the water has been "adjusted" by the guppies or white clouds, I start introducing other species.
-
it sounds like new tank syndrome! i had the same problem and my biggest mistake was to add 12 goldfish in one shot. within a week or so they started to die, i would find 1 or 2 daily dead and stuck on my power filter intake and my water was super cloudy and smelly. this continued until all 12 were dead. the pet store owner told me that goldfish comets are one of the best to cycle a tank since they can withstand the high ammonia levels.
-
U DIDN'Y CYCLE IT.SIGH.BEGINNERS.
-
do a 25 percent water change ever 24 hours...and use prime to get rid of nitrates and stuff like that in ur water
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC