water conditions... fish dyeing?

[misscrosson]

Yeah... the two white fish still look bad... but, to me it looks like they're getting better.... swimming more... all of the fish are swimming now...

I havn't fed them at all today... nor have I put the light on...

I'm just happy that I havn't lost any fish, I'd be very sad if I did...

When does everyone recommend I wait before I get myself more fish? My older sister wanted to pick up afew fish for me this Friday.. but, I myself think that, that's just too soon... I don't want to risk losing more fish... or even making the water go out of wack more

 

[Holly9937]

Adding more fish will just make the levels rise even more quickly, so it is not a good idea for now!! Wait until you get the nitrate test and post the results, and the water has been stable for at least a week or two (meaning NO nitrite or amonia and a nitrate reading)

 

[Jay]

Whoa... Hi Ms Crosson!

Everyone here needs to take a deep breath in through the nose out through the mouth...

Again!

Go back and review all the posts. There is a lot of misinformation, misunderstanding, and just plain wrong stuff being offered here.

Water changes in this situation = good
NitrAtes will not hurt you even up to 100 ppm!!
There is something going on here probably faulty test kit readings. If your NH4 readings (ammonia) are 0 and the NitrItes are high then you have a biofilter failure or a tank not fully cycled or easily overwhelmed by overfeeding. If your tank babysitter grossly overfed your tank that could account for a spike in NitrItes. Take your water to the LFS and get them to test it.

A 50 - 60 0r 95% water change is the first line. Use a quality water conditioner that deals with both chlorine AND chloratamine.

Feed your fish, a quality flake or frozen food, what they will eat in a minuet or two. Fish are fine being fed every other day or so. Do not starve them for a week.

Get back to us on the water parameters

 

[Kasakato]

Fish wont "starve" for a week. It will help keep his levels down untill he gets a nitrate test kit. Nitrates at 100ppm will have some effect on your fish. It maybe a small effect, but its still an effect. A safe level is 20ppm. THis sould be very easy to do with weekly water changes.

 

[Jay]

Hmmm...right! I did not mean to imply that Nitrate at 100 ppm should be maintained. Just that a temporary "spike" will do no harm.

 

[misscrosson]

Should I just keep doing 25% changes every other day until all my test results are where they're suppose to be?

 

[TEES_91]

The filter you mention the Aqua clear 100 is that being used on your 70 gal tank? That filter is used for up to 20 gal tanks. I'm sure not enough filtration for a 70 gal tank.

 

[Holly9937]

Should I just keep doing 25% changes every other day until all my test results are where they're suppose to be?

You might need to do water changes daily, or even more! You need to keep the nitrite and amonia at or very close to 0 if you want the fish to live!!

 

[misscrosson]

The filter you mention the Aqua clear 100 is that being used on your 70 gal tank? That filter is used for up to 20 gal tanks. I'm sure not enough filtration for a 70 gal tank.

I'm using an aquaclear yes... but it's for tank that are up to 100gallons, and my tank is only a 70gallon... so, there is alot of filtration

One of my poor fish died today

 

[Holly9937]

One of my poor fish died today

Sorry to hear that, just keep up with the water changes, its the best thing you can do for them