# New at this



## Skyeli (Feb 22, 2012)

Good day guys.
I recently started my new hobby of pet fish, which i am loving at the moment.
But sadly am having troubles with the tank itself.

I realised i should of googled more about pet fish before taking advice from a regular pet shop. 

I bough a tank, gravel, filter, bubbles, heater for tropical fish, fake plants and decorations.
The guy mentioned i needed to let my tank stand for 3 days. Which i did. i realise now that the tank never had its cycle, judging from what i read now. 

The result was i had bought 4 platies and since buying them only one had survived, from then till now i have added a few more fish (because things were looking up since the platies death).

I had 2 ghost knife fish, 5 glass catfish, 2 platys and 2 gourmies. 

I only realised today that my ghost knife fish had severe fin rot. Which i had to put down. (was hiding in his cave its why i didnt notice till today) 

I cleaned the gravel on monday and siphoned about 50% of the water out to get the dirt out, testing the water a few hours later showed the PH to be perfect, Tuesday yet again was high in Alkaline and Amonia, i then used PH down and tested it later and it seems fine, today also seems fine. The filter i cleaned the week previously. 

Just incase i will be buying fin rot medicine to treat the tank incase the others might get it and i will buy aquairum salt as i hear its very good for the fish.

Please help me figure out what is going wrong?

:crying:


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

How did you clean the filter?


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## Skyeli (Feb 22, 2012)

My filter is as described:

top foam, then charcoal bits then more bottom foam.

The top foam i squeezed out in the tank water itself and placed it aside. the charcoal i didnt rince, the bottom part of the foam was very dirty: slimey and gunky which i cleaned under the tap.


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

Charcoal is ok while it works but there is no way of knowing when it is full and it can dump everything it has absorbed back into the water at any time. I wold throw the carbon away and replace it with a polyfilter from underworld. That will change to different colours depending on what it absorbs and let you know when its full. 
If your PH keeps rising I would be checking the gravel and any rock and if the are the cause removing those, ammonia is much more dangerous at a high ph.
I would forget the salt and work on the ammonia and resulting nitrite problem


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## Skyeli (Feb 22, 2012)

Ok thank you for the tip on the filter. 

If it were the gravel or rocks how would i go about testing it for sure?


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

Testing rocks for carbonates | The Skeptical Aquarist


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## Skyeli (Feb 22, 2012)

Thank you so much, i would never have thought that rocks/gravel could be the cause.

How do i combat the ammonia? Sihpon the gravel?


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## hawksport (Dec 27, 2009)

I would do 20% water changes every day until the ammonia and nitrite are zero


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## Skyeli (Feb 22, 2012)

So happy i found this site. Thank you soooo much!!!!


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