dead fish

You didn't let it cycle long enough... Average cycle time for an aquarium is prolly about a week... What kind of filter do u have?

Originally posted by Meeki Man
You didn't let it cycle long enough... Average cycle time for an aquarium is prolly about a week... What kind of filter do u have?

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Whoa...careful how you throw that cycle word around. If you can fishy cycle an aquarium in a week...you're the man!! Anyway, I agree you probably should have let everything turn over a bit longer...sounds to me like all those fish in a 10G may have simply suffered ammonia poisoning...Out of curiosity, do you know the pH of your water? Also, you ran the heater, but do you have a thermometer? What is the temperature kept at (You can't trust the thermostat on the heater to be anywhere near close to accurate)?

You're going to have to read up on the nitrogen cycle a bit if you really want to understand what is going on in your tank. Here's my quick synopsis of it:

Fish create waste (ammonia). When you have a new tank, this just builds up, and can get to toxic levels quickly. There are bacteria present in your aquarium that will eventually reproduce enough to be able to convert your ammonia into nitrIte. This nitrIte is also quite toxic to fish, but once again, there are bacteria that once they've reproduced to a large enough colony size, they will be able to process all that nitrIte into nitrAte. nitrAte is relatively harmless and low concentrations, and the average aquarist keeps the nitrAte levels low by doing regular water changes. The term "Fishy Cycle" comes from using fish to supply ammonia to start off the nitrogen cycle. This is as opposed to the "fishless cycle" where ammonia is added to a fishless tank and you wait until the "cycle" has completed before adding any fish.

Another issue with Ammonia is that it is more toxic at higher pH's. If you know your pH is high, you can be sure that even low concentrations of ammonia are doing heavy damage to your fish's respiratory system.

Since you're already involved in a "fishy cycle", I would recommend picking up 2-3 zebra danios and changing 25-40% of your water every couple of days until your tank is fully cycled. The only way to know if your tank is cycled, however, is to pick up a test kit that can test for ammonia and nitrite. I would expect to see very high levels of ammonia right now. In a few days to a week or so, you can expect the ammonia levels to start dropping, however, the nitrites levels will then shoot up. That "spike" can last a bit longer than the ammonia "spike". Usually you can expect it to take 4-6 weeks for a fully establshed bacteria colony to grow.

One last thing...as far as the 24 hour thing goes. I usually like to leave the filter/heater running on an empty tank a bit longer (2-3 days), just to allow the suspended gunk to either be filtered out or sink to the bottom as well as the pH and temperature to stabilize.

Please keep the questions coming...the whole purpose of the "newbie" forum is to get you over the humps of starting in this hobby...a few months from now we'll be helping you setup your new 200 gallon tank.

HTH

Your little black algae eater was probably a plecostamus. They're not a really good choice for 10 gallons, since they'll quite literally grow to be larger than a 10 gallon tank... pictus catfish are kind of picky about water quality, in my experience. Gouramis, on the other hand, are pretty tough. That's why the rest of your fish are gone and he's still hanging in there. Tough only goes so far, though.

Follow morleyz's instructions. Good information to be had there. Also, READ, READ, READ. Do some research. And ask questions if there's something that's nagging you or a problem you can't find the answer to. Chances are, one of us has gone through it before.

And buy testing equipment!


Also, your water stinks? Probably overfeeding. Fish food and fish wastes both break down into very stinky stuff, cheifly ammonia, but also sulfur, etc. Think about what people food and wastes would smell like after a few days out, and there's your answer...Luckily, once your nitrogen cycle has run its course and you have established bacterial filtration in your tank, the smell will go away (and be replaced by a much more pleasant smell, kind of like a well-cared-for potted plant....it's love it or hate it, though...). Bacteria will begin to break down the stuff that stinks into stuff that, well, doesn't.

Be patient, it's gonna take some time. You'll love the end result, though....

Hi Pam!
I'm not going to give any seasoned advice, because I'm pretty new.

However, I can give newbie advice and say the more you read, the more you'll understand, even if you don't like to read through articles... some of the best advice was given to me on this board and although I was completely and totally overwhelmed at first and figured I'd never get the hang of it, I think I finally have a pretty good understanding of cycling and the nitrogen cycle.

At first, I had someone else test my water but now I do it myself.

I echo PBQ on the "read, read, read!" Go to google.com and search the term "new tank syndrome aquarium" and just read some of the sites when you have time... it helped me a LOT.

more or less, yes, the best advice has allready been written