GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I bought a brand new tank and set it up as a tropical tank. I was advised by the store I bought it from to use "sera floredepot" which is a long term gravel substrate for freshwater aquaria. However, ever since I set the tank up the water has continued to be yellow/tanned in colour - despite using charcoal in the filter to clear it, and doing regular weekly water changes! Now my fish are starting to die, and I don't know what to do to fix things up! Could someone please advise me on how get the water so it is clear and sparkling again? (I have been thinking I should get rid of the substrate and just use the gravel I have on top of it, as I have just used gravel for years and never had the problems like I am currently having now!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 The colour won't be affecting the health of your fish...it'll be something else. I understand you want the colour clear but you should first really try to work out what's wrong with your fish. How many fish did you add when you started up your tank? Has it been running very long? Is this your first tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 The yellowness in the water is harmless - it will disappear in time. The thing that is killing your fish is probably Nitrite - your tank needs to run for a week or two before enough bacteria have built up in the filter to cope with the fish. Nitrite is invisible, but you can buy test-kits for it. In the meantime you will have to do very large (80%) water changes each day for the next week. Do a google search on 'the nitrogen cycle' for more info on 'cycling' a tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Edit: Beat me to it ^^ Tested the water parameters? Ph and ammonia and the such? (Reference re fish dieing) How big is the tank? What fish? How long has it been set up for? When you fill up the tank do you make sure not to disturb the gravel/fert? Got any driftwood in your tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jn Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Re: testing the water.. what do you do when your water is discoloured? I have good phosphate test kit.. which uses a control and a test sample to account for discoloured water.. but most of the basic kits don't show accurate results I think when the water isn't clear. (I think the phosphate one is JBL but my freshwater kit is your basic AquariumPharmaceuticals brand) Do the shops use tests that are reliable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Thanks for all the advice/answers coming back so promptly! Firstly, no, it is not my first tropical tank, but I've always been 'lucky" with my previous tanks and never had anything as disasterous as this! The tank is a hexagonal 62L. It was set up 5-6 weeks ago. After 2 weeks I added 10 guppies, and have been adding 2-3 fish on a weekly basis since then. However, I had just bought the last lot of fish (neon tetras) at the weekend, and it was after the new additions that I started losing fish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 You will really need to test the water before you can sort out what is going on. If you can rule out water problems, then you can start isolating other factors like disease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 thanks for that - I will buy my own test kits and do the tests myself. I only test the pH levels, but think I'd better get the nitrate and ammonia test kits before I put more fish back in...- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Although those tests are very useful, if you are on a budget then the Nitrite test is probably most important - it is the most dangerous toxin, and if you can detect Nitrite you know that the Ammoninia is being converted (into Nitrite, and the bacteria that converts Ammonia to Nitrite grows quickly so any Ammonia will cease to be a problem quite quickly) - and if you can't detect Nitrite, and you have being doing water changes (which would remove/dilute any Nitrate), then you know there must be Ammonia. In any event the solution for water problems is the same - do lots of big water changes, and add a bacterial culture like 'Cycle' or 'Filterstart'. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 That's great advice - I've been very fortunate with previous tanks as I'd never even heard about doing any kind of nitrite/ammonia testing until I began having problems with my new tank! I will get a nitrite test kit and get my water right before I consider adding any new fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 I went out and bought a fancy multi test kit this afternoon. The results seem to indicate that the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH levels are OK. Ammonia was 0ppm Nitrate was 5ppm Nitrite was 0ppm pH was 7.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted November 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Picture of my tests! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianab Posted November 30, 2007 Report Share Posted November 30, 2007 Well the water tests look OK, and it sounds like you have done the right thing by slowly adding fish to the tank, so I'm not sure exactly what is wrong. However when I get a problem like that I usually revert back to the old standby of 'do more water changes' :-? You wont harm anything by changing 50% of the water, every day if you want. Effectively you just dilute whatever is causing the problem and keep the fish alive untill things settle down. Someone else may have a better idea, but I've never killed a fish by changing water Cheers Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemines Posted December 2, 2007 Report Share Posted December 2, 2007 to get the water clear you could try a flocculant and fine filter wool. just ask at your lfs for water clarifier and get the one for particulates not for "new tank syndrome." use filter wool and keep using carbon and it should hopefully clear the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenAngel Posted December 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2007 thanks for taking a look at the test results ianab! I'll keep up with your good advice and do my regular water changes-hopefully it will flush out the bad toxins or whatever it is that is making my fish unhappy! I haven't lost any more fish since Friday - so maybe things are starting to stablise.... I've got 3 x swordtails, 8 guppies and 1 corydora. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted December 2, 2007 Report Share Posted December 2, 2007 I'd say that up till now your Nitrite was very high - but has now subsided. All good from this point hopefully Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DutchKiwiCowboy2 Posted December 3, 2007 Report Share Posted December 3, 2007 Could you possibly have reached the limit that a 62 litre tank can support? How many fish were there when they started dieing? Too many may have overloaded your system, especially since it is a fairly new setup. Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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