fishuz

To note - even if your problem was a medical one water quality would still be the root cause as Tommy,Loman and Jay pointed out...taking the time to understand what will cause a change in water conditions and understanding how to correct it to bring things back to normal is one of your best defenses in keeping healthy fish. Using chemicals and medications should be a last resort option.

__________________

30g FW
2 Cichlids
2 Barbs
2 Tetras
1 Chinese algae eater
77g FW
1Empty

Steph

Thanks for all the great advise. You guys rock!

Sorry I didn't respond yesterday, but I was busy cleaning my tank. Seemed as though the nitrates kept going up and the water was not clearing at all; so I decided to get rid of all the extra food & waste that had collected in the gravel.
took the water out and saved it , put the tank w/ gravel in the bath tub and rinsed & rinsed & rinsed. Got about 98% of the gunk out. Then replanted & postioned the ornaments; poored the old water back in -- although stopped just shy of putting it all in because there was quite a bit of gunk settled on the bottom of the bucket.

It's now been 24 hrs since I did that cleaning and all my readings are good... except nitrate, but it has come down to about 10-15. Water is crystal clear. THings are looking good again.
Still using strips for measuring, but will head to my lfs tomorrow to find some of the *real* test kits. Going to wait till at least mid week, if not next weekend, to add any life. (My husband is a BASS fisherman, and wants to stock it will small mouth bass!)

Jay -- didn't mean to offend you about the pH info. was just trying to say I didn't think that was my problem cause that was *normal* for my tank. All of you obviously know WAY WAY more than I do, and I am grateful for your willingness to help the newbies.

Tommy's right... "I've got the bug" for this fish thing. When I was a kid, we had several tanks... boy has the world of keeping fish changed since then! My folks don't remember ever checking all the ph, nitrates, nitrites, etc... they just cleaned the water & changed the filter regularly. All I remember loving my fish, and I'm excited to be trying it as an adult. Am hoping that after the first of the year I'll be confident enought to upgrade ... I'm scoping out the 55 - 75 gallon tanks already.

Again, Thanks to everyone for all your advise! Although I'm sad about losing ALL my fish, I'm super excited cause I do think I learned from the mistake, and even better I found *YOU* on this forum.

See you all on other Threads!
Steph

Tommy Gun

Steph,

While I see and understand your thought process about cleaning out the tank the way you did (and to be honest, I may have taken the same course of action given that you had no fish in the tank), I would really recommend that you wait for adding any fish. I am worried for you because much of the bacteria you need to keep the tank 'fish ready' lives in the substrate and decor of the tank, and not so much the water. This was one of the first things I learned from this site myself (thanks, Jay!) and so I can totally understand this misconception.

Jay may need to point you in a better direction than I can, but I think it is ok to have the plants in the tank, but I would really wait to get fish after you have your test kit(s) and are sure that there will be no cycle or mini-cycle happening again. It sounds as if you understand what you are looking for as far as the water parameters, so I urge you to be patient a little longer, just in case.

Also, while at your LFS tomorrow, why dont you take a good look at all of the tools and devices at the store for cleaning a tank and for plant care. This was one of the best things I did a long time ago. Even though I do not have a plant in any of my tanks (short of plastic), I have a couple nice pruning tools and a tool that allows me to grab things from the bottom of my tanks without putting my hands in there (used to plant live plants). I also have a nice tool that came with three attachments: one for scrubbing algea off the tank's glass, a scraper blade for the same reasons for harder algea, and a shovel for scooping things up or stirring substrates. I love this tool!!!! I also have a couple of pythons available for use at all times and I have the VERY handy attachments for them to hook right to my kitchen or bathroom sink (makes things easier and lots faster).

My point being, now that you better understand what makes your tank have such high nitrates (ammonia and nitrites, as well), and better realize the need to keep your tank really clean, you can get yourself tools and things to help make this all easier for you. The faster that you can get the dirty work done, and the easier it is for you, the less the chances will be for you to put off tank maintenance. There are some really great things out there and I really suggest that you browse through them all and think of any use for them, even if it is not the intended use. I have done this and I can now do a water change on my 55 gallon tank in less than a half an hour, complete with substrate vac and any algea removal that I might need to do. Honestly, you are really going to need to do this if you plan on keeping any messy bass in the tank!

Good luck and dont give up!

Jay

Steph..

A nitrate level of 10 -15 ppm is no problem it is well within the range of normal. Nitrates are really not very toxic and then only at extremely high amounts.

Someday we will get tommy to put a plant in his tank and learn to put nitrates to use

I agree with the counseling here, a good consistent routine of tank maintenance really pays off in tank appearance, health of residents, and wear and tear on the owner.

You might suggest to your husband that "His" bass tank needs to be in the 150 gallon range

This thread is getting very long and we seem to have kicked the issues around very well.

Regards,
Jay