many of our freshwater fish have died.?

Question

Our tank is about a month old. I have cleaned the filter pads but it is still cloudy...any ideas?

Answer 1

Your still going throw your cycle! How many fish and what size tank? When starting a new tank, you should start with a small amount of fish. Cloudy water also occurs with a new tank set up. Have you checked your ammonia and nitrite levels? Do a water test, if you don't have kit , most pet stores will test for free! Its most likely that you have a ammonia problem. which is normal at this time in your cycle. I would do 25% water change and vacuum your gravel out weekly! This will help your ammonia problem! Cut down on your feeding until your tank clears up! Don't add anymore fish until your tank done with it's cycle!

Answer 2

Okay, lots of ideas.
#1. Have you tested the water? If not, go out to Walmart and buy Jungle's Brand 5 in 1 test strips, it is now around 10 bucks per bottle; but well worth it- they test Nitrite, nitrate, hardness, ph, and alkalinity. Also buy the ammonia test strips. Test the water and see if any level are way off, follow the directions on the bottle to lower/raise what ever is needed.

#2. What type of filter do you have? If you have a power like I do you don't clean the filter pads, you replace them monthly. Besides, after you replace the filter pads the water is cloudy for awhile.

#3. How often did you clean the tank? I gravel vacuum 1/4 of the water once a week, but don't vacuum all the gravel, some of the "gunk" is also beneficial bacteria. So I just vacuum the spots that are open, I have a lot of plants and inside the hideouts I avoid, same with replacing filter pads/cartridges, after you vacuum, the water can be cloudy for a while.

#4. Did you cycle the tank? You should wait at least 2 weeks before putting fish in there, even with fishless cycling.

#5. How many fish were in there? As I have learned, too many fish= cloudy water. My step mom doesn't understand the idea of overcrowding, so soon we had 20" of fish in a 10 gallon (for those who cared, the fish were transfered to a 29 gallon tank) My dad would walk in and ask me why my tank was so cloudy, and i told him there were WAY too many fish in it.

#6. What size tank do you have, what was in it? Were the fish perfectly healthy or dieing because of disease? If they were perfectly healthy, most likely it is new tank syndrome.

Hope This Helps and Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

The tank is not cycled,cleaning the filter pads in anything but water from the tank probably killed any bacteria colonies that you had.It takes 5 to 6 weeks to cycle a tank and anyone who says you can hurry the process doesn't understand that the beneficial bacteria must grow into colonies that are attached to the solid surfaces in the tank,the more porous the better.
The cloudiness is probably caused by a bacteria bloom and they are too small for filters to remove. Until you get the tank correctly cycled you will have to put up with the cloudiness. This can take several weeks.
The way to cope with the current conditions is to monitor the ammonia levels and do frequent small water changes, to maintain water quality.

Answer 4

You lost the fish to new tank syndrome, which is basically build up of toxins from the fish themselves. There are good bacteria that need to establish themselves in the filter to rid the tank of these toxins. (long story short) Its called "cycling." Your tank will cycle faster if you leave the filter alone for the first 6 weeks. Let it get gunked up a little, that's the good bacteria. You will however need to change the water a lot at first. Depending on the size of the tank and how many and what type of fish you choose will determine how much water you will need to change. Most newbies tend to over stock their tanks. You see all those fish together like that at the pet store and you may think that is ok for the home, its not. I'm going to assume your tank is at max capacity, so I recommend changing half of the water every other day for the first 3 weeks. Get these test kits and change water by the results of the water tests.
Ph- know what it is at all times. You don't want to mess with it at all, but you want a constant Ph. Ph will fall when all the trace elements are used up. Ph will rise when something is leeching into the water, could be ornaments, or house hold cleaners or air fresheners. Ph should be monitored at first daily then after established track it weekly
Ammonia- will be the first toxin to build up. It is very dangerous and stressful for the fish. ANYTIME the ammonia gets over 1 ppm, 50% of the water needs to be changed. Any less of a water change will do little. Monitor this toxin daily for the first month. When the bacteria that thrive on ammonia establish themselves ammonia will no longer be a problem. Avoid ammonia reducing agents as they can only fool the test for ammonia and not actually rid the tank of it. Nothing works like a water change.
Nitrite- is the next deadly toxin. It comes from the ammonia eating bacteria. Its their waste product. There will be a time when the tank has readings for both ammonia and nitrite. This is the most crucial time and the tank will be doulbly full of toxins. Again 50% water change to rid the tank. Same rule, any reading at 1 ppm or higher, especially when ammonia is still present.
Ammonia will be first to drop to zero, then nitrite. Add a teaspoon of salt per gallon will help the fish not to absorb the nitrite thru their gills. Using salt in a fresh water aquarium I don't recommend. After the ammonia and nitrite fall to zero, don't replace the salt. Salt only for disease out break and that's a whole nother topic altogether.
The last toxin is NitrAte. This one you do want to see some reading for. When this shows up it is the second to the last step in the cycling process. It is the waste product of the bacteria that eat the nitrite. It is less harmful to the fish than the other two. BUT it needs to be kept in check or can cause weak unhealthy fish. Nitrate needs to be kept at 20ppm or below. It isn't dangerous to soar above 60 or 80 ppm, but if fish remain in that water for too long they will have health problems, poor growth and get sick easily.
The last step in the cycling process is algae. What you want to see is good deep green algae. It is in no way harmful to the aquaria and is extremely beneficial to the system. It helps keep the nitrates at a good level. Algae use the nitrates for food. Not all algae is good though. Red, brown, rust colored, or purple algea indicate an inbalance in the system and must be removed or the source found and eliminated. So green is good and brown is bad. Don't remove all the green stuff, let it grow on your ornaments and back and side glass. Clean it off of the front so you can see your fish but other wise don't clean everything too good. Its beneficial and is a sign that the system is working correctly. I know this is very long but this is what you need to know. Get a good aquirium and species guide to help you understand the world fish live in. The test kits are your life line. Correct water is the key. So in conclusion get your hands wet, and let your filter 'seed' itself a little. If you do it correctly your tank should be completely cycled in 3 weeks. Algae will begin to grow in about 6 weeks to 2 months. Good luck to you fishy friend.

Answer 5

To begin with it sounds like to me that you have not cycled your tank properly. My suggestion to help it along since apparently you have already lost fish is to start with not adding any fish until it has cycled. A tank needs time to mature because it is basically a bio habitat. In other words, fish need certain bacteria to maintain their health and to help with keeping the water condition under control.

I would basically redo your tank. I would suggest a 50-75% water change. I would use treated water that has been treated with a product called "Start Right" I love this product and it has worked really well for me over the years. It treats not only for chlorine but for other things as well.

Replace your filter and leave your bio filter alone after cleaning the tank. By keeping some of the old water, not very much, it will help speed up the cycling you need to help keep the tank in good healthy order.

I would wait at least a week and as long as the water is clear, buy a dip stick testing kit. Make sure to purchase a testing kit for ammonia as well since some kits do not include this in their testing. If you testing looks great such as the nitrate and ph is good along with a few other things I would then puchase a fish or two.

Allow them to float in the tank for atleast and really no more than 20 minutes before releasing them. In another week test your water again to make sure that it is in proper order. At that time if you wish to get some more fish get another two more. Make sure that you don't over crowd your tank which is very common for people to do.

If you are not sure about the testing kits you can usually take a sample of your tank water to your local pet store and they don't normally charge for the testing. By making sure that you water quality is good this will help with the cost of losing the fish. I hope that this helps. Also I would suggest whatever fish you are thinking about keep to do a little research on the species. That way you know what kind of conditions that they will need. If you are a beginer I would suggest some type of community fish to start out with.

Answer 6

What is the temperature of the tank, is there any ammonia, what ate the nitrate and nitrite levels, when was the last time you did a water change and how much did you change, what size is the tank, what size filter and how many of what kind of fish? Most commonly fish die because of ammonia spikes in the tank. Test the water and see. Without this info we really can't help you other than wild guesses.

Answer 7

a month means your tank is new. your cycle would just be ready to end but since you cleaned your filter pads you have to start over.
when you cycle your tank only a few fish in there. dont change the water in this time and never never clean the filter pads till your tank has finished its cycle.

Answer 8

Get a water test kit and test your ammonia, nitrAte and nitrite levels!

Read this site, regarding the cycling of a fish tank:
http://www.worldcichlids.com/faqs/cycling.html

A fish tank is a closed environment, which first needs to be "created" with nitrifying bacteria, then balanced. Maintenance of a fish tank is really maintaining an environmental balance.

Good luck!

Answer 9

Ok here you go. The problem is that at 4 weeks the tank has not properly cycled out yet, and that's why your water is still cloudy. Cleaning the filter has removed some of the nitrifying bacteria. Your cycle goes through 2 parts, where stage 1 is a build up in ammonia, which in turn is oxydized into a compound called nitrite, and stage 2 is a build up in your nitrite and it is oxydized into a compound called nitrate. 4 weeks is not enough time to clear this cycle and when you clean your filter media you remove part of the bacteria colony that handles this.

What sized tank do you have and what were the species of fish you had in there? Some fish are super sensative to changes in your overall water chemistry and can't cope with it. Some others are very hardy fish and can endure very harsh water conditions. I'd reccomend you keep whatever you have in there that is left, but knowing what you do have is going to help assist keeping them alive.

Usually when you first get your tank, you install your filter, lighting, air pumps/stone, and gravel with decorations. Adding your water, and conditioning it as well. You cannot just use tap water as it contains usually a mixture of chlorine and chloramine which makes water suitable for drinking for humans. This however is not good for fish to be in and can kill them so you need to treat any tap water added to your tank.

At this point, after about 24 hours of it settling you introduce your fish. When you are introducing new fish to the tank, you can help them cope with the water chemistry in there by slowly acclimating it to those condtions. You do this by keeping the fish in the bag they are transported in, and floating that in the tank. You let the temp in the tank and the temp in the bag to equalize. To help speed this up, add a cup of water from the tank to the bag every 10-15 minutes. This not only allows the temperatures to equalize as well as let the fish get acclimated to the water chemistry without going into shock.

Once your fish is in the tank, the ammonia build up will begin. While this is going on, the bacteria called nitrosommas will build up and establish in your filter and gravel bed. This bacteria oxidizes that ammonia into nitrite. In most of the tanks I've done, it takes about 10-14 days before you'll see your ammonia drop down towards 0. What this means is there is enough bacteria to oxidizes the ammonia present in the water right into nitrite so you do not see any measureable ammonia in your water, which is what you want.

Stage 2 starts to begin and this takes a little longer then stage one. This is because the compound of nitrite needs to build up into sufficient quantity in order for stage 2 bacteria, nitrobaciter to build up. Keep in mind a colony of bacteria takes 24 hours to double in size. As your bacteria builds up, generally 14-20 days, sometimes even longer, the nitrite readings will start to drop, and you'll see a rise in nitrates, and your cycle is almost over. Your cycle is considered over when you are reading 0 ammonia and nitrite in your water.

Now lets talk about the three compounds for a minute. Ammonia is the most toxic of the three and can kill your fish very effectively in a short amount of time. Ammonia in your water can destroy gills and causes breating problems in your fish. You'll see fish floating up at the top of the water looking like they can't breath if they begin to suffer from ammonia exposure. If it continues to worse, you could see bleeding from the eyes and parts of the body at which time death should follow shortly. This, depending on your fish could occur if long term, high level exposure happens.

Nitrite is slightly less toxic to fish but still something you need to be concerned about. Nitrite causes conditions similar to smokers in that you have difficulty breating because it adheres to hemoglobin in blood, and blocks the oxygen tansfer. Built up over time, it can destroy gill function and weakens immunity systems. You'll see fish become sluggish and less active with drop in appetite.

Nitrate is the least toxic and easiest to maintain. Nitrate becomes toxic to your fish if levels reach 40 ppm (parts per million) and higher. You generally maintain your nitrate levels by weekly water changes. I personally do about 20-30% and once a month I do a 50 %. You really do not want to do water changes more then 50%.

The cloudiness you see in your water, MOST of the time is a bacterial bloom, meaning your nitritfying bacteria is growing in colony size and is normal and a good thing to see. Sometimes water will become cloudy during an algea bloom, but in the cases where thats happend with me, the bloom is more of a greenish color then white.

During your cycle, resist the urge to change your water as taking ammonia and nitrite out, reduces the amount present to feed and grow with. If you do begin to see signs of distress in your fish, then by all means take action. Try to keep your feedings down and only as much as they will eat, entirely in 2 minutes. Excess food decays and becomes an ammonia source. Your fish will be fine even if you don't feed them for a day or 2.

When your cycle is over, do not just go and fill your tank up with fish to your maximum bio load immediately. This will cause your tank to go in another mini cycle, where ammonia and nitrite will spike. Ramp the population up slowly, adding a fish, maybe 2 per week and allowing the bacteria to grow and consume up the new ammonia and nitrite source to cope with the additional bio load. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me.

JV

ADDITIONAL NOTE:

On the advice of testing sticks, don't follow that. Get a liquid reagent tester. Meaning drops in a test tube. They are much more reliable and not difficult to use. The time frames for a complete cycle is NOT 2 weeks as listed by the person above peetee, its more like 2 months. Please feel free to email me on this. I've done four tanks this year alone and consult constantly with top contributers here. If I do not know the answer, I'll point you in the right direction.