Hi. This is my very first post. I've been reading this forum for the past few weeks to learn more about fish keeping and would appreciate your help.
I had a disaster on Feb.27 on my new tank after a 1/3 of water change. Both my wife and I felt so bad that we still have the pain now. I have lost 8/10 tetras, 1/3 mollie and 18/21 mollies fry.
Tank setup: 29g tank with about 25g water with gravels, 2 big piece driftwood and some small rocks.
Whisper 2 filter and Aqua clear 200 filters, 100w heater
My tank was first set up on Feb.12 with about 25g tap water with only one filter (Whisper 2 with carbon) and Aqua Plus, Wardley Sodium Biphosphate (my tap water has high PH in between 7.5 and 8), and Marineland Bio-Spira to speed up the new tank cycle according to LFS.
2/15 Bought 3 batches of plants (Anachris and Moneywort), 1 Spotted Rubber Pleco, 3 balloon mollies, and 10 glow light tetras. Replace Whisper-2 with two AqauClear 200 filter with carbon. I feed them twice daily with flakes that they can finish in 2-3 minutes
2/19 One black mollies deliver 20 fry and 17 survived. How exciting to watch the whole process!
One of Aqauclear 200 broken down, I replaced the Whisper-2 back. I did throw away one of the filter bag and replace it with a new one since it looks yellowish and dirty. Later I realized that this was a mistake. I add more feeding on the fry and adults, too.
2/20 Bought TetraTest Laborette test kit
Test water: PH:7.5
Nitrite: in between 03 and 0.8mg/l
Ammonia: 3.0
Top the tank with 2g water with Aqau Plus. The fishes behaved a little weird, so I add 1/4 Sodium Bipho and 1 capful of Aqua Plus
2/24 One Orange mollies deliver another 4 fry. So far, all the fish looks great, so did the plants.
2/25 test water: Ammonia is 0, but the Nitrite reach the bottom of the chart which indicates 3.3~33 mg/l. The color of the water turned really dark red and matches the bottom of the chart. I was very nervous and started reading and search on this forum to try to come up with way to get around it. I got the idea that the high reading of Nitrite is part of the new tank cycle. The best way is to do the water change and stop feeding for a day or two. It looks water change got a lot of benefits from reading all the posting on this forum, so I decided to do the water change.
2/26 No feeding. Change 6g water with conditioner. After a few hours, tested water and Nitrite was still way high.
2/27 No feeding. Stored about 10g water in another 20g tank with heater and add 2 capful Aqua Plus conditioner during the day. In the evening at about 8:30pm, I did 9g water change and it is when the disaster occurred. First of all, some Tetra showed struggling around and then two mollies.
2/28 I couldn't sleep during the night. In the morning I was afraid of looking at the tank. The total loss is 8 tetras, one mollies, and 17 fry. I had been thinking the reason why such outbreak could happen and still no clue. So I went to LFS and was told the PH might be too high and the water does contains Chlorine and Chloramines (we are in the same water supply area.) The LFS asked about the color change on the PH test kit. Was it turn green and blue? I could not recall the color change, so couldn't answer the question. The LFS told me to do absolute nothing for a month since now except topping off the water line. I suspected two possible reasons: One is that I did not add enough Aqua Plus. The label reads that I need double the dose to remove Chloramines. The other one is that the PH is too high and my test kit is not accurate enough for the small scales. I wonder that mollies likes high PH water?
3/1 Test water: PH: 7.5, Nitrite: possible 1.6 mg/l since I could not be sure about the color on the chart. It seems not matching the bottom of the chart. Ammonia is till zero. I still keep the water that I added to the tank, so I tested it and got PH:7.5.
3/2 This morning, one of the fry finally gone! I was amazed that he/she stayed tough for almost 3 days.
Test water: Nitrite and Ammonia are still the same as yesterday.
I used to keep fresh water aquarium for a couple of years in Pittsburgh before I moved to this area- Northern Virginia. I didn't add any conditioner and all I did was adding salt to the water. I did that since I was a kid (I had my first 20g at the age of 10). Until two months ago, I decided to read more about fish keeping on the Internet almost everyday and will do it more carefully. It turned out that I need to test the water, adding conditioner, ...etc. I know more about different species, environment setup. But my first disaster ever in my whole life for fish keeping just happened a few days ago. I got really frustrated and want to find out the reason why and should never do it again, or at least avoid the possible wrong doing in the future. I understand that my tank is not fully cycle yet. Should I add salt to the tank to reduce the stress now? (ignore LFS?s advise) All the survivors looks fine now except not eating well. Please help!
BTW, I am setting up 20gL tank for some shell dweller with sand bed. The tank cycle might take me a few weeks from now. Should I go for a fishless cycle since my 29g is not cycled yet?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
I had a disaster on Feb.27 on my new tank after a 1/3 of water change. Both my wife and I felt so bad that we still have the pain now. I have lost 8/10 tetras, 1/3 mollie and 18/21 mollies fry.
Tank setup: 29g tank with about 25g water with gravels, 2 big piece driftwood and some small rocks.
Whisper 2 filter and Aqua clear 200 filters, 100w heater
My tank was first set up on Feb.12 with about 25g tap water with only one filter (Whisper 2 with carbon) and Aqua Plus, Wardley Sodium Biphosphate (my tap water has high PH in between 7.5 and 8), and Marineland Bio-Spira to speed up the new tank cycle according to LFS.
2/15 Bought 3 batches of plants (Anachris and Moneywort), 1 Spotted Rubber Pleco, 3 balloon mollies, and 10 glow light tetras. Replace Whisper-2 with two AqauClear 200 filter with carbon. I feed them twice daily with flakes that they can finish in 2-3 minutes
2/19 One black mollies deliver 20 fry and 17 survived. How exciting to watch the whole process!
One of Aqauclear 200 broken down, I replaced the Whisper-2 back. I did throw away one of the filter bag and replace it with a new one since it looks yellowish and dirty. Later I realized that this was a mistake. I add more feeding on the fry and adults, too.
2/20 Bought TetraTest Laborette test kit
Test water: PH:7.5
Nitrite: in between 03 and 0.8mg/l
Ammonia: 3.0
Top the tank with 2g water with Aqau Plus. The fishes behaved a little weird, so I add 1/4 Sodium Bipho and 1 capful of Aqua Plus
2/24 One Orange mollies deliver another 4 fry. So far, all the fish looks great, so did the plants.
2/25 test water: Ammonia is 0, but the Nitrite reach the bottom of the chart which indicates 3.3~33 mg/l. The color of the water turned really dark red and matches the bottom of the chart. I was very nervous and started reading and search on this forum to try to come up with way to get around it. I got the idea that the high reading of Nitrite is part of the new tank cycle. The best way is to do the water change and stop feeding for a day or two. It looks water change got a lot of benefits from reading all the posting on this forum, so I decided to do the water change.
2/26 No feeding. Change 6g water with conditioner. After a few hours, tested water and Nitrite was still way high.
2/27 No feeding. Stored about 10g water in another 20g tank with heater and add 2 capful Aqua Plus conditioner during the day. In the evening at about 8:30pm, I did 9g water change and it is when the disaster occurred. First of all, some Tetra showed struggling around and then two mollies.
2/28 I couldn't sleep during the night. In the morning I was afraid of looking at the tank. The total loss is 8 tetras, one mollies, and 17 fry. I had been thinking the reason why such outbreak could happen and still no clue. So I went to LFS and was told the PH might be too high and the water does contains Chlorine and Chloramines (we are in the same water supply area.) The LFS asked about the color change on the PH test kit. Was it turn green and blue? I could not recall the color change, so couldn't answer the question. The LFS told me to do absolute nothing for a month since now except topping off the water line. I suspected two possible reasons: One is that I did not add enough Aqua Plus. The label reads that I need double the dose to remove Chloramines. The other one is that the PH is too high and my test kit is not accurate enough for the small scales. I wonder that mollies likes high PH water?
3/1 Test water: PH: 7.5, Nitrite: possible 1.6 mg/l since I could not be sure about the color on the chart. It seems not matching the bottom of the chart. Ammonia is till zero. I still keep the water that I added to the tank, so I tested it and got PH:7.5.
3/2 This morning, one of the fry finally gone! I was amazed that he/she stayed tough for almost 3 days.
Test water: Nitrite and Ammonia are still the same as yesterday.
I used to keep fresh water aquarium for a couple of years in Pittsburgh before I moved to this area- Northern Virginia. I didn't add any conditioner and all I did was adding salt to the water. I did that since I was a kid (I had my first 20g at the age of 10). Until two months ago, I decided to read more about fish keeping on the Internet almost everyday and will do it more carefully. It turned out that I need to test the water, adding conditioner, ...etc. I know more about different species, environment setup. But my first disaster ever in my whole life for fish keeping just happened a few days ago. I got really frustrated and want to find out the reason why and should never do it again, or at least avoid the possible wrong doing in the future. I understand that my tank is not fully cycle yet. Should I add salt to the tank to reduce the stress now? (ignore LFS?s advise) All the survivors looks fine now except not eating well. Please help!
BTW, I am setting up 20gL tank for some shell dweller with sand bed. The tank cycle might take me a few weeks from now. Should I go for a fishless cycle since my 29g is not cycled yet?
Thanks in advance for your comments.