Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi! We set up a 10 gallon tank about 5 or 6 weeks ago and it is not going well. We waited a week to get fish, had the water tested, and started with three glofish (danios). Two of them died within a week. We had the water tested again and the alkalinity (sp?) was high. Did a partial water change and added more water conditioner. Several days later the pet store tested our water again and said we were good to go. Anyway, I will try to shorten this...We added two more danios and two fancy guppies over the subsequent weeks and all of the fish have died one by one. We keep taking water in and the only problem has been ammonia level too high. The pet store said maybe we are overfeeding. We now have no fish and I am wondering if we should give up or just get a goldfish? We wanted to go tropical since they are not as messy. We have water conditioner, a good filter, and a heater. We'd love to have fish, but don't want to kill any more.

One other thing is that we live 30 minutes from the pet store. One employee said we should ask for a bigger bag with more air next time even though we are buying small fish because the drive plus 15 minutes of float time in tank is too long in the bag. Any suggestions or thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Kate

Please do not be discouraged. There are a few tricks to the trade that beginners are not aware of. Trust me - we all had to learn whether it was the hard way (like you) or learning from others (I learned the hard way too). I would like to point out a few errors (so you can learn from your mistakes) and explain why it didn't work out, which will hopefully prevent other mistakes. Then, I will discuss options for you, and how to successfully cycle a tank.

The average fish tank takes 4-6 weeks to cycle. The time it takes varies (of course) as there are several factors affecting the cycling process. Danios are not a hardy fish, and do best in an already established tank. I also wonder how many you added at first. If your tank just sat for a week, and then you put say 5 fish in it, the cycle isn't set up so adding more ammonia to the tank (via the fish) completely crashed any cycling that was starting from the week it was set up without fish. Ammonia is the number one fish killer, and it kills so fast. Unfortunately, ammonia is the first water parameter to spike during the cycling process. That's why a hardy fish is recommended, however there is another option which I will recommend below.

Since the pet store is so far away, you may want to purchase your own water testing kit as you will need to know what's going on with your water chemistry during the cycling process. You can order it online or at your local petstore. There are several options now a days. Your ideal parameters are: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrites, and
Fishless Cycling

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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."