# Help newbie



## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

Hi all!

i have a problem. If someone could shine some light on my problem...
I have a fairly new tank. 50 gallons; freshwater, flu val 204, and a flu val submersible running in it. 
The problem i have is i introduced 3 days ago a group of 6 tiger barbs into it ( it was empty before). next morning, 1 died... >.< 
yesterday i introduced 6 more tiger barbs, 1 died the same evening, about 3 hours after i let it in, 1 went missing over night, the other one died today. 
One of them was swimming upside down for a while before it died. Might have been Swim Bladder?
also i have a small lobster running around there, but the fellow hides under the rocks and seems to mind his business.
All water levels are Ok. 
ph 7.4 
amonia 0.
nitrite 0.5 
nitrate 0. 
temp is around 27-28.5c depending on time of day. 

All fish were bought from Big Al's if anyone knows.

so here is the question, why are my fish dying at a rate of over 1 a day? 
right now from the 12 i bought, i have 8 left 3 days into it.


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## Sea-Agg2009 (Aug 2, 2008)

1. When did you first start your tank? I mean when did you put the water in it for the first time? What I'm getting at, is did you cycle your tank before you put fish in it. 

2. A 205 really isn't big enough for a 50 gallon tank. You always want to go bigger than the "up to x gallons" for a filter. 205's are good up to 40 gallons. 

3. When did you put the lobster in? Barbs are usually more resilient than lobsters, so if the lobster is new, I would take it out because it is ganna die soon.

4. Did you condition the water before you put it in. Kinda basic, but just covering all the basics.


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

1) cycled it for about 3 days. 
2) ...
3) lobster went in 2 days ago
4) yep, water was conditioned. 

any thoughts?


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

A tank can take up to six weeks to cycle without a good bacterial supplement. Your tanks is probably cycling now. The nitrite being at 0.5 with no nitrate shows that you're probably about 1/3 of the way into cycling. You can read more here:
http://www.fishforums.com/forum/general-freshwater/7125-nitrogen-cycle-basics.html


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## Sea-Agg2009 (Aug 2, 2008)

Next to ammonia, nitrites are the most dangerous to a fish. Depending on how your acclimated your fish, the nitrites could kill off the tiger barbs.


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## Guest (Aug 22, 2008)

most likely that amount of nitrites wouldnt kill off a fish that fast, BUT by only cycling the tank for 3 days (if you can even call that a cycle) you are going to see a big jump in ammonia if you dont stay on top of waterchanges. if you are showing nitrites this early, with out any ammonia, then i would check your tap water. unless something else was added to the tank to produce this nitrite, you should be seeing ammonia before nitrite. Check your water again.


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

so i read the thread about the importance of cycling the tank....

i almost killed myself from what i have done... :chair:


k, so here is the question, if i buy some of that bacteria liquid conditioner stuff, will it help to cycle the tank faster? now that i have a bunch of fish in an uncycled tank....  

any suggestions?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

> bacteria liquid conditioner stuff


Worth a try. There are a lot on the market now, some work, some don't, some work some of the time. 

I like Stability, but its one of the slower ones. Go get whatever they have near you and keep testing. Change enough water to keep both the ammonia and nitrite in the "safe" range. Add another dose when you see nitrites rise.


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## COM (Mar 15, 2008)

Bio-Spira will, if it has been properly handled from lab to wholesale to retailer to consumer to tank, most likely 'cycle' the tank in 4 to 6 hours. A new product, Tetra SafeStart, is supposed to work the same way.

Otherwise, I would recommend finding a friend with a well-established tank and taking some dirty filter media off of them.


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

one thing i learned the hard way: never trust what the guy at the pet store tells you, the chances are he doesn't have a clue himself...


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

I personally wouldn't waste money on it. A tank seems to cycle way faster if you get your hands on a sponge from a filter, not even, just a squeezed water from the sponge if you can. 

This prolly isn't the end of the death's, cycleing a tank with fish in it, usually takes it's toll, after a month things will begin to settle die usually. When adding fish take it kinda slow especially for a new tank. Water Changes will help keep the burden down on the fish but lengthens the cycle some. 

Another note, them kind of fish may not always weather well, as they prolly got them in not long ago from their fish farm, so may not be in the best of health, so some loss may be expected.

HTH


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

cheers all!!!!
thankfully after adding some sort of bacterial conditioner(don't hate, im to lazy to go get the name of the label) that said it will cycle the tank in 3 days, my fishies stopped dying   
i was waiting for a week or so, to find out for sure  


but here is another problem, some of my tiger barbs are angled downward... i thought it might be fish bladder, so i starved them for a day, and gave them boiled pees. but i dont think they like them. What could be causing this? 
btw im feeding them with flake food.


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