Can't Keep fish in new tank alive for 2 weeks-water was tested fine-over two months!

[jpappy789]

Depends on the source...while some species do seem more susceptible to certain diseases to say that you shouldn't attempt platys because of one person's preconceived notion that they are diseased is BS.

You could probably do 3-4 of them, but I'm generally a more conservative stocker. Just keep in mind that mixing sexes will give you fry 99.9% of the time and oftentimes females will already be impregnated if they are kept with males at the store.

Just to double check...what ammonia source are you now going to be adding?

 

[fuadramsey]

I've already been adding ammonia daily to keep the levels at around 4ppm. I'm using the "janitorial strength formula" from Ace Hardware. It is 10% ammonium hydroxide.

At first when there was a zero ammonia reading (treated tap water) I added three drops and the levels went up to 6ppm. Since then it seems to need a lot more ammonia added to make the levels go up from 2 to 4-seems to be about 5 drops daily for my 10 gallon tank.

I seem to have a hard time at getting a reliable reading after adding the ammonia. How long should I wait until I test the water again to see where my levels are at after I add ammonia? I've tried 20 minutes and 1 hour and they both seem to be different. Does 5 drops daily of ammonia for a 10 gallon tank seem close?

Thanks!

 

[Mandairn]

I be leave you said your using tap water. Have you tested your tap water BEFORE you add the conditioner? plus some conditioner "will lock" up the ammonia so fish-less cycles may not work and can "fool" a test (even though you read the tank has ammonia the bacteria can't process it). On top of the other advice I would add (if you still have no fish) use no conditioner to cycle if your tap water is "safe" (sound like you have a small fish bowl so I would think your tap water is good) or to start, use store bought water.

Also, how are you acclimating your fish?

Hope this helps

P.S.
Plan out what you want to stock the tank up on then from their its ez to suggest what fish to start with and how meny.

 

[jpappy789]

Most conditioners that "lock" ammonia only do so temporarily. IIRC Seachem reps have mentioned something like 24 hrs for Prime. I'm sure others are similar...

Also cycling with just tap water, which most likely contains both chlorine and chloramine, isn't going to work...both are used to kill bacteria in our water supplies.

To the OP: I haven't cycled a tank that small besides moving media from previously established tanks, so I'm no help when it comes to specific drops. My only advice is to not worry too much about specific dosing levels, so long as you can reach an excess (ie. measurable) level and don't go TOO high (5 ppm seems like a good max) or you risk stalling the cycle.

 

[Ballyhoo]

Are there any surfactants in the ammonia you are adding? You can check by shaking the bottle and see if it gets sudsy.

Also is it possible that the wood you added is not mopani and is grape vine (commonly sold at stores for reptiles) iirc grape vine is not safe and breaks down in the tank.

 

[Jannika]

You have a fairly high pH which greatly increased the ammonia toxicity. Even a little bit will be lethal to fish. Now that you've started cycling, be careful about over-cleaning things. Don't rinse your filter pads even in tank water yet, and afterwards you shouldn't need to replace them until they're really bad, regardless of manufacturers recommendations, since a lot of beneficial bacteria live on the sponge part. Good luck, we'll walk you through it!

 

[swinneyw]

when you added the fish did you put the bag of fish in the tank and let them adjust to the water temp in their new home before releasing them into the tank i always let them float around in the bag for about a hour i have some neons that i've had a couple of years and some times i let my tank go too long before a water change and they have always been o k

 

[toasty]

Be patient. It's probably going to take ~2 month for everything to be stable in your tank. You'll be doing a ton of testing/monitoring for the first month.

After everything's okay, you don't want to add too many fish at a time. Google how to drip-acclimate fish and what kinds of fish would be happy in your 10g. A lot of people have also asked similar questions on this forum too, so have a gander at the search feature.

If you don't like staring at a lifeless tank for a couple months, keep in mind you can add live plants pretty much anytime in your cycle, and they can actually help stabilize/maintain your tank as well. Mosses are easy to keep (and hard to kill) and can look very pretty. I dropped in some christmas moss wrapped around rocks in my tank when it wasn't finished cycling and by the end, they looked like cute little bushes

 

[fuadramsey]

Okay it's been 20 days cycling my tank and I think I'm ready except for one thing: bringing the nitrate levels down. Some sites say to do large water change, others say do small changes daily. What should I do?

My tank will bring down 4ppm ammonia levels down to 1ppm withing 24 hours. I suspect it will bring down 2ppm down to 0 in 24 hours. The nitrites are 0 but the nitrate levels is around 100ppm.

Here's what I've been doing the last 3 days. Measure ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Ammonia is usually about 1ppm, nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 100. I then do a 30% water change, and dose the ammonia up to 4ppm. So far over the last couple of days I do not see a difference in the nitrate level even after I do the water change.

Advice? Is my tank ready?

-see the attached image of the cycle!

 

[Jannika]

20 days is too quick to be fully cycled using this method. You should be seeing a nitrite spike, but I don't see it on your chart. Once the nitrites go up, you can ease off the ammonia dosing to 1/2 portions a couple of times a week.