I have a 55 gallon freshwater aquarium. We set it up about 3 months ago. We have had high levels of everything for the last 6 weeks. I take my water weekly to petsmart for testing. I use a gravel vac weekly with water change about 10-15%. They told me to use Amo lock and stresszyme and one other that puts good bacteria in. I am using all of these and now this last water change caused it to cloud up really bad, just as it was about clear for the first time in 6 weeks. There is a white scum growing on the glass inside the tank and also a scum floating on top of the water. I have black mollies, gold platys, zebra danios and cherry barbs in the tank. I am losing one fish about every week. I have no algea eater as it died too. I dont want to add fish until the levels are normal. What can I do?
Help 55 gallon problems
- Thread starter rmusicpixie
- Start date
when did you add all your fish? your more than likely going thru a bacteria bloom. you will go in and out of those for a little while when first set up. it is fine. with your water changes start doing everyday at 25% for a week or so or until the bad levels come down. stop using the ammo lock and DONT LISTEN TO PET STORE ASSOCIATES. most of the time they dont know what the heck they are talking about. your fish are probably dying because you didnt cycle your tank first or do a fish in cycle correctly and therefore are probably having HIGH ammonia levels. without the proper bacteria built up in your filters the ammonia is not able to break itself down therefore you have high levels. what are you using when you do water changes? you should try using prime and it will take all the bad out of the new water and start to help leveling your tank out.
when you do water changes daily take the reading before you do it with either a LIQUID TEST KIT (not strips because they are not accurate and a waste of your money) or take it to the fish store. dont let them tell you all looks good or its bad or whatever, tell them to write ALL levels of everything on a piece of scratch paper and post those readings here. once we have accurate readings we can help assist you in getting your tank back to safe levels and cleared up.
when you do water changes daily take the reading before you do it with either a LIQUID TEST KIT (not strips because they are not accurate and a waste of your money) or take it to the fish store. dont let them tell you all looks good or its bad or whatever, tell them to write ALL levels of everything on a piece of scratch paper and post those readings here. once we have accurate readings we can help assist you in getting your tank back to safe levels and cleared up.
also dont add anymore fish until you can reach safe levels for a little while or you will throw money down the drain. trust me i did it when i first started up my 55
you have found a good site with lots of knowledgable people. no more store associates bring your questions to a active forum like this where people wont tell you lies
you have found a good site with lots of knowledgable people. no more store associates bring your questions to a active forum like this where people wont tell you lies
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Here are last weeks readings. The petsmart store asks if you want them written down. I will buy a kit this weekend for myself. Ammonia 1.5mg/L Nitrite 10mg/L Nitrate 10+mg/L PH 8.4+mg/L And Alkalinity 300+mg/L Hardness 300mg/L Everything is on the high end. I am using PRIME. We set up the tank and 2 weeks later had the water tested and it was normal so we added fish for the next couple weeks. 5 at a time as the cherry barbs and danios are school fish. It wasnt until we put the 5 mollies in there that we started having problems. We have not added any other fish since the tank went out of wack. I will start doing the daily changes tomorrow should I be using the rock vac when I am doing this? It stirs up the crud in the bottom really bad. I am also considering an undergravel filter. Thoughts? Thanks for all the input!
the vac will help suck out that crud and water at the same time then if you have the correct connection it can fill it back up w/ the vac. if you dont vaccum the crud will continuely build up (although i have a planted tank and i NEVER vac, but i also have a lot of bottom feeders). you dont need an undergravel filter but more/extra filters ALWAYS help. i have 2 filters rated at 30-60g at 440gph. really i could use just one but i like extra filtration. also it helps if you keep more fish than your tank can handle.
when you use the vac be a little more gentler with it and not so rough and you will decrease that but either way you want to look at you will stir it up. you are getting a lot of crud from poo and probably left over food. that is what all that crud is
when you use the vac be a little more gentler with it and not so rough and you will decrease that but either way you want to look at you will stir it up. you are getting a lot of crud from poo and probably left over food. that is what all that crud is
about your readings, if im reading ammonia right thats not bad you want to be close to the 0 mark, nitrite i believe is fine (someone correct me if wrong), nitrate is a little high, PH could come down a little but seems not too bad, idk about alkalinity, and hardness (i have EXTREMELY hard tap water here you could get some salt i believe and that will soften the water a little bit) but dont follow me on the salt someone else we need your input here.
also when adding fish you really only want to add 5 max per week to 2 weeks. it gives time for the water levels to equal themself out rather than getting a shock overload of ammonia and all that good stuff. when your tank is more established you could add fish in shorter intervals or more at the same time (ive done this numerous times and been fine although i will say sometimes when i added too many fish at once i got a algae bloom and tank went cloudy for a couple days then was clear as clear could be)
also when adding fish you really only want to add 5 max per week to 2 weeks. it gives time for the water levels to equal themself out rather than getting a shock overload of ammonia and all that good stuff. when your tank is more established you could add fish in shorter intervals or more at the same time (ive done this numerous times and been fine although i will say sometimes when i added too many fish at once i got a algae bloom and tank went cloudy for a couple days then was clear as clear could be)
You did not wait long enough to add fish. Cycling takes between 4 to 6 weeks. Also, were you adding pure ammonia to the tank before you added fish? If not, your tank never cycled. This explains why you got "normal" readings. There was nothing in your water because you didn't add anything to make the tank cycle. Like tropical said, never add more than a couple fish at once. Continue to do water changes. I wouldn't add an undergravel filter. If you want to control the issue, add plants with large root systems like sword plants and hygrophilia. This will help a bit but you still might need to vacuum the gravel weekly, depending on how many plants you add. However, plants can sometimes be as difficult to take care of as fish, if you're just starting out.
I'd be curious what test kit the store used to get readings in mg/L. Are the readings perhaps ppm (parts per million)?
Regardless, the ammonia is very high and the nitrite is OFF THE CHART high. Ammonia and nitrite should both be zero. Anything higher and the fish are suffering and not able to take in oxygen properly.
Please get a liquid test kit (API Master Freshwater test kit is a good one), and do your own tests. Stores want to sell you something, so will either say your water is fine or really bad, to sell you more fish, or more chemicals.
Regardless, the ammonia is very high and the nitrite is OFF THE CHART high. Ammonia and nitrite should both be zero. Anything higher and the fish are suffering and not able to take in oxygen properly.
Please get a liquid test kit (API Master Freshwater test kit is a good one), and do your own tests. Stores want to sell you something, so will either say your water is fine or really bad, to sell you more fish, or more chemicals.
Amonia off the charts high, pH 8.2, Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 0-5ppm I purchased a liquid test kit and the numbers all came out the same as the strips used at petsmart. They have not mislead me yet with my tank. Just to let you all know that. It was Petco that sold me the fish knowing the tank had not cycled all the way the first time. I had no clue. Also I have found out that the Ammo-lock will cause high ammonia readings even though the ammonia isnt toxic anymore. It also causes the ammonia to be cycled into Nitrates and will make those numbers higher for awhile. I have stopped using teh Ammo-lock now and am relying on Prime and Stress-Zyme.
looks like the numbers are coming down and things are looking up for our tank. We lost our 3 cherry barbs during this process but hope to keep the 4 mollies 2 danios and 4 gold platys alive and kicking. Any suggestions out there for bottom feeders? When the time comes to add new fish of course.
looks like the numbers are coming down and things are looking up for our tank. We lost our 3 cherry barbs during this process but hope to keep the 4 mollies 2 danios and 4 gold platys alive and kicking. Any suggestions out there for bottom feeders? When the time comes to add new fish of course.
if you ever want to go planted i would get these ahead of time because they are good for planted and not planted but oto's are GREAT. they only get up to 2" and their bioload is minimal. you can count 5 of them as 1 fish in wise of stocking. i would get 10-15 for your tank. also you could add a bristlenose pleco (albino max size 3-4" regular max 4-6") and they are efficient at cleaning. i know you have a larger tank but i would still stay away from larger pleco's. you wont like them in the future if you have certain plans because they can become destructive by how big they get.
when levels level out, i would not add anymore mollies or platy's. do know that they can breed fairly often and can shoot out a ton of offspring. you may want to consider a couple fish that will eat the fry at a young age so you dont become quickly overpopulated. i would say a gourami or a rainbow shark or both. not sure how a german ram would do with those fish. im assuming they would be fine and an efficient fry eater.
when you can i would bring your danio count up to like 7-10 (the more smaller fish you have the more beautiful display it is. im now realizing that with my tank (i used to have a lot of larger fish so quickly became full stocking on my tank now ive got lots of small fish in larger schools.)
maybe get a couple swordtails 2-3 females 1 male (dont get 2 males they will fight), get another school of like 7-10 barbs.
good thing you stopped using ammo lock. if i also remember correctly danios can be a good fish to do a fish in cycle.
well best thing i can say is watch your levels for the next week to 2 weeks and see if they stabilize them out. if they are not stable and you go to add more fish they will start going bonkers again and you will go thru algae/bacterial blooms. when you go to add more fish only do it 3-5 max at one time and only do that max of 1 time a week to every other week.
and when you are doing water changes, make sure you are not cleaning your filters out also. i would leave your filters alone for a little while until they can build up that beneficial bacteria. if it starts building up stuff on them, dont rinse just take off with your hand for a couple weeks until that can build up efficiently and level you water out.
hope this all helps
when levels level out, i would not add anymore mollies or platy's. do know that they can breed fairly often and can shoot out a ton of offspring. you may want to consider a couple fish that will eat the fry at a young age so you dont become quickly overpopulated. i would say a gourami or a rainbow shark or both. not sure how a german ram would do with those fish. im assuming they would be fine and an efficient fry eater.
when you can i would bring your danio count up to like 7-10 (the more smaller fish you have the more beautiful display it is. im now realizing that with my tank (i used to have a lot of larger fish so quickly became full stocking on my tank now ive got lots of small fish in larger schools.)
maybe get a couple swordtails 2-3 females 1 male (dont get 2 males they will fight), get another school of like 7-10 barbs.
good thing you stopped using ammo lock. if i also remember correctly danios can be a good fish to do a fish in cycle.
well best thing i can say is watch your levels for the next week to 2 weeks and see if they stabilize them out. if they are not stable and you go to add more fish they will start going bonkers again and you will go thru algae/bacterial blooms. when you go to add more fish only do it 3-5 max at one time and only do that max of 1 time a week to every other week.
and when you are doing water changes, make sure you are not cleaning your filters out also. i would leave your filters alone for a little while until they can build up that beneficial bacteria. if it starts building up stuff on them, dont rinse just take off with your hand for a couple weeks until that can build up efficiently and level you water out.
hope this all helps
having a large group of neon tetras is very nice and beautiful too. i should bring my group up to 15-20 of them. they also do not put out a huge bioload but it is more than the oto's i believe.
my best advice and what ive learned with the 55g is that with having a larger tank, adding larger fish in there isnt that great although it is nice, but having smaller fish in larger schools is a BEAUTIFUL display. and since we have larger tanks we can put multiple large schools and still have room to do other fish and lots of bottom feeders
my best advice and what ive learned with the 55g is that with having a larger tank, adding larger fish in there isnt that great although it is nice, but having smaller fish in larger schools is a BEAUTIFUL display. and since we have larger tanks we can put multiple large schools and still have room to do other fish and lots of bottom feeders