# New Tank setup - All 10 goldfish dead in 2 hours



## bollejo98 (Aug 23, 2006)

:rip: 
Last night I added water and gold fish to tank and they all died within 2 hours. 
I bought a used 135 gallon tank and a wet/dry filter from a fish store. I built the tank into the wall in my living room. During construction of wall I had a plastic bag over the top of the tank in an attempt to limit debris from getting in. I know some debris did get in, but very little. Debris would be from drywall mud dust, wood filler dust, fumes from paint and maybe dust from cut wood. All paint has been dry for over 2 weeks. Before I added water I got a wet towel and cleaned the interior of the tank. I also bought 100 pounds of natural gravel from a fish store. I put it all in a bucket and ran a hose in it for an hour or so while stirring the rocks. I also added (I think its called) slate rocks for caves, purchased at a pond/landscaping company. I used silicon to glue caves together. I let silicon dry for 3 days before adding water. When I filled the tank up it was cloudy for a while. 

Any thoughts to what could have killed the fish. Not all fished died at once. A couple died within 30 minutes and some maid it for 2 hours. 

Any thoughts on what I should do next. 

Thanks


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## Andy_Dufresne (Mar 19, 2006)

When you added the water did you add any dechlorinator? And did you use tank grade silicone?

Nick


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## Vermifugert (Jun 15, 2006)

Never use bathtub silicone RTV (caulk) instead of fishtank safe RTV. The bathroom stuff has mildicide and will make a tank a fish killer


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## Dr_House (Aug 15, 2006)

I'm sorry to hear about your fish, bollejo. The two suggestions mentioned are what immediately came to mind for me, too. 

Welcome to FF. Sorry it had to be due to such a frustrating situation.


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

Hopefully you are on well water, if not added a dechlorinator /water treatment of some sort. Being gold fish, temp wouldn't be too much of an issue as long as they weren’t in a heated tank at the LFS. 

Aside from that it's never a good idea to add water to a NEW tank and dump fish right in the tank. This is one of the biggest mistakes new folks to the hobby make. Do a search on "fishless cycling" on here or even google. If you're too impatient for that then get gold fish a few days AFTER adding water and start with them. EXPECT losses, heavy losses in the first 3 weeks if you are doing a live cycle on your tank. It's called "new tank syndrome" if you haven't heard of that I'd recommend searching it on here and google as well. New tank syndrome is a result of the "nitrogen cycle" getting started and established in your new environment, another good subject to look up if you are unfamiliar with it. 

Unfortunately most LFS employees are just out of HS or in college and never had a tank themselves (parents might have had one so they're an "expert") or have been in the bis for a short time. the owners, if it's a mom and pop, might have some good knowledge but are usually tied up with running the whole store, if you have a fish only or one that specializes in fish you're lucky and might be able to get some good advice ... depending on whose working that day  

In short you have here a wealth of knowledge so ask questions and we'll give you some good direction and help, for the most part. There are some "know it alls" on here but 1 thing I've learned in my 20+ years keeping fish is that there is more than 1 way to do things successfully as far as aquariums are concerned. Listen to all the advice try out a few of the ideas and find what works for you and fits your budget. You don't have to have Oceanic, Eheim, and Rolls Royce to keep fish healthy and happy. With proper maintenance Odell, Hertz, and Pinto will suffice. It might require more input from you but you'll have to judge how much time you have for maintenance versus how often you will need to mess with the filtration etc.


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2006)

Ron V made a good post on the nitrogen cycle. You can finding it by searching around here.


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## Ownager2004 (Apr 4, 2005)

Definately read up on the nitrogen cycle like mentioned above and get a dechlorinator if your not using well water. Goldfish are pretty hardy if they are not diseased to start with so you could cycle the tank with a fish or two. Id get a small one or two. You may also want to take a water sample into your local petstore and see if they will test it.
I wouldn't ever add 10 fish at once to any tank.. especially goldfish. They are very dirty fish. Also make sure your not overfeeding... im not sure how experienced you are with aquarium fish, but they dont need as much food as a lot of people think they do. Overfeeding leads to rotting food in the tank and increased waste production by your fish.

Also make sure you get a good gravel vac. You are going to need it.


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## joe kool (Jan 24, 2005)

HOnestly I dont' do alot of water changing and gravel vacing when starting a new tank ... in my experiance it drags out the nitrogen cycle. Again I try and do fishless cycling or at worst a few gold fish that are spared from munchville for a month or so. This gets the good bacteria going quicker and usually shortens my cycling by a week or so. 

Try not to mess with water too much when first getting things going. Again if you start with fish you'll have no choice but to keep things out of the "leathal" category to keep from killing the fish. I'm a firm believer that less is more when it come to messing with water and parameters etc. the more you have to adjust the more you will have to play with things to keep them where you're trying to get them.


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## bollejo98 (Aug 23, 2006)

Last night I put a bag of 4 gold fish in tank for 15 minutes, so that they could adjust to the temperature, then added them to the tank. They are still alive this morning. So the others must have went into shock from the extremely cold tap water.

Thanks for all your help.


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## comedykicks (Aug 26, 2005)

bollejo98 said:


> Last night I put a bag of 4 gold fish in tank for 15 minutes, so that they could adjust to the temperature, then added them to the tank. They are still alive this morning. So the others must have went into shock from the extremely cold tap water.
> 
> Thanks for all your help.


It's also not wise to add more than two to three fish to a tank at a time....that could have added to the problem with your first goldfish


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