freshwater tank?

Question

ok..i had this freshwater tank
the first tank i had was 5 gallons and i had tropical fish in the tank
i wanted a bigger tank so i got a 15 gallon tank and cycled it for about 3 days and i took some water from the 5 gallon tank to the 15 gallon tank..and on thr 4th day i put the tropical fish.then by accident i put a new decor in the tank that i washed with soap and the soap got into the tank..so i saved only very little water from the tank and did a 95% water change and cleaned the tank

now the tank is very bad..the tank water does not look clear
and my pleco seems very sick..i dont kno what to do
i think my fish are very unhapy i only have 6 fish in the tank
and my sharks in my tank dont seem very active..there always on the bottom of the tank..please help me i dont kno what to do. the water level in the tank droped 1 inch..and there is always fish waste and food in the gravel..what should i do PLZ HELP ME

answers appreciated very much

Answer 1

The problem I feel is that your tank is still cycling. I have never seen or heard of a tank cycling in less then a week. It generally takes 4-6 weeks with alot of maybes in that. I am thinking your water is cloudy because there is a bacterial bloom and I bet if you checked your water chemistry, you'll find ammonia and nitrites present in your water, but more likely very elevated ammonia readings. This is becasue your previous tank has not cycled, and probably from that soap also. Your sharks I bet are adjusting to the tank change at the moment but shortly I'll bet you'll find them up at the top of the water tryign to breath from the elevated ammonia.

Right now you are just going to have to be patient. Ammonia is going to rise, and there could be some signs of distress as I mentioned about the breathing. Be patient and if you want to change out some of the water do a small 10% or 25 % change, but try to hold of doing this durning your cycle.

Shortly after that, your ammonia will begin to drop off as nitrates begin to form from your bacteria oxidizing it into this compound. Nitrites are slightly less harmful then ammonia but you need to keep on top of those as well. Elevated nitrite levels can lead to lack of appetite difficulty breathing, damaged gills and it adheres to hemoglobin in the blood cells, much like in smokers, blocking oxygen transfer. Stay on top again with some water changes here and there, but keep in mind the bacteria which oxidizes nitrites takes a little longer to stablize then the other bacteria which oxidizes ammonia.

They are two different sets of ammonia and basic bacteria takes about 24 hours to double in size. Once your ammonia and nitirite levels begin to drop towards 0, you'll see a rise in the last compound, nitrates. Nitrates are the least harmful of the three, but need to be controled with regular water changes. Your cycle is just about over at this stage, and considered to be over when you get consistant readings of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Keep an eye on nitrates going over 40 ppm (parts per million) You can keep them lowered by doing weekly water changes about 25% I'd say. Once a month do a 50% change, but never change out all your water.

One way to keep your ammonia in the early stages of cycling low is to not feed too much. In my opinion thats the biggest contributor to elevated ammonia is over feeding. As barb has said in some other posts, fish dont have a stomach per se like we do, but they do have an intestinal system to process this. Feed your fish as much as they will consume totally in two minutes. If there is excess food not eaten then it is too much and you'll want to clean and make a note on your next feeding.

I don't know if I'll get the mystery thumb down with no comment from someone else who posted, but if you feel I am in error, run my advice by some top contributers here in the fish section like MM, Copperhead, Ghapy, or PeeTee.

Answer 2

You can't cycle a tank without introducing ammonia (fish, shrimp, pure ammonia, etc) Putting water in a tank and letting it sit only relieves if of the chlorine. The water in your 5 gallon would not have helped either. The bacteria you are looking for in cycling is the nitrate bacteria that is found on surfaces in your old aquarium (filter media, decorations, gravel, etc). The soap did not help at all.
The water not looking good is a bacterial bloom. The cycling is starting now. The fish are sick from the soap and from the ammonia spike. Plecos grow to 2 feet long and put out a HUGE amount of ammonia. Your tank is way too small for a pleco. For a bottom feeder, you'd be better served with a few corydoras catfish: lower bioload and do a better job of clean up. The sharks are also too small for the tank.
The fish waste and decaying food are adding to the ammonia and nitrite overload you're getting which is killing your fish. Do a large water change. If you still have old decor or gravel, add it in as soon as possible: hopefully some of the bacteria are still alive.

Answer 3

Your fish are suffering from ammonia poisoning and are likely to die if you don't keep their water as clean as you can! Two steps:

1) WATER CHANGES You need to change 10-20% of their water daily to dilute the ammonia poisoning. Make sure the new water is the same temperature as the tank water (comparing with your hand is accurate enough) and condition it with a chlorine remover. Do this daily until the cycle is over. The only way to know when that is is to buy test kits for ammonia and nitrite. They both have to be ZERO for the water to be safe. After that, change your water two to three times a week since you have so many large fish in such a small tank.

2) GRAVEL VACUUMING The fish food and poop on the bottom is rotting and fouling the water. Use a siphon (like the one I linked below) and push the sucking end of it into the gravel slowly then pull it straight back out, and do that through as much of the gravel as you can. Don't sweep it back and forth like a vacuum and don't stir the gravel around too much. You can do this a couple of times a week until the tank looks better and once a week after that.

For future reference, sharks and plecos are both large tank fish (100s of gallons) and aren't going to live a long healthy life in tanks as small as yours. Use google and do searches on the types of fish you want in the future to make sure you're giving them a suitable home. It will save you work and worry!

Good luck.

Answer 4

Small water changes every day. No larger than 10%.Begin now. It takes 5 or 6 weeks to cycle a tank. Three days is not enough time for the cycle to even begin. Don't feed the fish,they will be too sick to eat any way. The cloudiness is probably a bacteria bloom(not the good kind).Test for ammonia every day,if you can. When you do the water changes siphon out as much of the mess on the bottom. DO NOT do a water change larger than 10%. But do a 10% change EVERYDAY until the tank has cycled.

Answer 5

If you still have the 5 gallon tank, move all the fish in there with conditioned water. Then do a 100% water change and rinse (not with soap) everything that touched the soapy water. Then refill the tank with gravel, decor, all the jazz, then add conditioned water. After that, you can add the fish in.

~ZTM

Answer 6

Never use soap on fish stuff. Clean with hot water & conditioning salt.
Move your fish to a safe tank till the one they were in is cycled & has no soap in it.

Answer 7

Try adding some stress coat as your fish are definitely stressed. Do get some of the waste out first without losing too much more water though. Wait and see if that livens them up. Wait and try more stress coat by the bottle directions. You can get that at any pet supply store.

Answer 8

Ditto to Pee Tee and Jon V... small daily water changes will be the best way for you to handle the problem.

MM