HELp problems with new tank

[turtlefish]

I recently aquired a 50 gallon tank and filled it with water about 3 days ago. the filter on the tank is the aquaclear 500. The tank has no heater stays about 65-68 degrees. The filter is a established one, full of live bacteria. i put it on my tank too soon and i think the chlorine in the tank water killed all my biomedia. *SICK*
So now I am starting from scratch and have some problems. When you have no bacteria is it usual for the tank to smell really bad? I put a comet goldfish in there and the tank smells like sh*t. I do have carbon running and its new but the smell is overpowering! Also the fish is not doing to well. It was healthy as i got it from another tank of mine and since i put it in there it seems lifeless. It often quivers and lies at the very bottom on top of the stones! Is it too clod for him? I know goldfish should be able to stand these temps. but I v had him for several months in a 75 degree tank. What can I do? Is this all normal?

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

Hi TurtleFish. Welcome to our wet corner of the Internet.

You have come to the right place for answers. We are always eager to help out those with questions.

Your bacteria colony is likely dead on the filter since it was subjected to 50 gallons of chlorinated water. If you acclimated the fish slowly to the 10*F temp drop the new lower temp shouldn't be a problem. THe smell is something to worry about. Your water ideally should be colorless, odorless, and tasteless, yes, tasteless. You should probably put the fish back in the other tank he came from and do a fishless cycle in the tank. FIshless cycles are the FASTEST way to cycle a tank and build up bacteria colonies to consume fish wastes turning them into nitrates, a relatively harmless chemical in ow quantities. Go to the beginner section and at the top are some sticky threads, Read up on them, especially the ones about setting up new tanks and cycling.

 

[turtlefish]

Fishless cycles are fastest? What do the bacteria feed on then? I will add some substrate from my old tank to help it out. Any idea on how long this will take? I think my filter gave the water that fishy smell in the beginning but with a fish in there it has increased alot.

 

[Kuroshio]

The smell could be decompossing bacteria, like any dead organic. (ever small a dead animal?) I'd change the filter out since it is dead and smelling anyway. You can do a fishless or a fish-in. Fishless is cheaper, but more time consuming. Fish-in with the aid of bio-spira or Stability from Seachem is the quickest in terms of adding fish (add fish on day one with the bottled bacteria) but many like to stay the naturel way and go fishless. Do a forum search for fishless cycling if you choose to go that route. There are alot of useful threads out there. I use Seachem and it has always come through for me. you may need to keep more than one fish in there to feed the bacteria colony for a 55 gallon though. Do you plan on keeping goldfish in this tank as well?
Good luck-tina

 

[revfred]

Don't forget to dechlor the water.

 

[turtlefish]

Yea i think you hit it- dead stuff. Iv got algae and bacteria carried from the filter, all dead. I will clean it soon. And yes from now on i will dechlorinated the water. Is there any single water conditioner you use? my problem with them is they say do not use with fish meant for human consuption- which means if my turtles eat the fish they might get sick. Any good ones you recommend that dont say that?

 

[FroggyFox]

turtles eat feeder fish right? I would doubt that any declor will really hurt your turtles. Check with the lfs where you buy feeder fish for the turtles and see what they use in their water? I'm definitely not a turtle expert.

When you do a fishless cycle I would say that it is actually LESS time consuming than a fish in cycle...unless you use biospira. With a fishless cycle you add artificial ammonia to simulate the tank being full of fish...but when the ammonia and nitrite levels go up you dont have to do water changes to get them down to a liveable level for the fish because THERE ARENT ANY A fish-in cycle takes much longer because water changes get in the way of the building levels of ammonia/nitrite...there are many fish that dont make it through a cycle.

Also...bacteria wont multiply very quickly in such cold water...I'd get a heater for your tank and get that temperature up to around 80 degrees until your tank is finished cycling. You could start fishless cycling before you clean that filter pad and see if there's any bacteria left alive in there...that stuff is pretty amazing...unless you soaked it for a couple hours in extremely cold chlorinated water...I'd say you're probably ok

 

[turtlefish]

its a 50 gallon tank. Think my fish wont make it? How often should i do water changes? At this point iv moved everything in so...