Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have had a 29 gallon tanlk for about a month now,my fish just keep dying i had 4 gouramis two smaller angelfish and two striped angelica catfish.1 gouramis and the two catfish are all thats left the tank ran for a week with and aquaclear 50(200gph)
the water was tested and was fine so i bought two angel fish waited a week and got the rest in the weekend before lasthad the water tested again the ammonia levels were too high so i did 2 25 percent water changes water tested fine then last weekend my fish started dying had the water tested there was high nitrites
they suggested getting the water moving betterso i bought another aquaclear 50(200 gph) added a airpump for 40 gallon tanks and a 10" bubble stone (already had a 20 gallon pump goin and a 6 " stone) so now i have 400gph ofwater filter (good for 100 gallon tank) and 60 gallons worth of air pumping this has been running for 5 days i bought some test strips for nitrites and nitrate it says the nitrites ar at 10, they were only 2 last weekend?

so what is going on?

Your tank will have to cycle again every time you add fish. Before you added fish you said your tank was fine, then you added fish and your ammonia and nitrites spiked... that would be your tank trying to cycle again. If you still are losing fish, I would advise waiting for a few weeks before adding any more fish. Adding the air stones and more water circulation was a very good idea. Your fish will be happy once your tank finally finishes cycling.
Does this answer all your questions? Your post was kind of long, so I may have missed one or two.
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Phishie

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

yes answered my question thanks much .

I dont know if your still around but I think where you ran into trouble is when you did a 25% water change twice ammonia gets high in your tank when you add fish lots of times for the first time or when you add alot of fish at one time you really just have to wait for it to cycle threw or do a small water change (10%) but when your first setting up your tank even that can throw it off so its better to just wait it out. oh and I dont remember if you said your angel fish are still alive or not but I dont think they like all the movement in the water I think you would be fine as long as you have one good filter and enough air for your tank and I'v been told that ph for your tank kind of depends on where you live unless you want to use chemicals for it so dont freak out on that to much mine stays kind of high and my fish do great. hope this helps

thanks for the help i got a better testing system its an freshwater master tester, ammonia ph nitrate and nitrite its much more accurate, what was showing up as 10ppm with the strips shows up as a definite 1ppm with this tester(same one the petstore uses).i started having algae growth problems and added a rubbernosed? pleco and a kissing gourami and a opaline gourami i removed my gold gourami(among the other problems he was always chasing the other fish) who is very bossy and put him in my tiger barb tank that i have a pleco, loach 3 reg tiger barbs and two jade albino tiger barbs they are doing great the gourami and the two jade albino barbs swim together and the three regs swim together and the loach and pleco swim together.