EVERYTIME! XC

xXPanicXx

i had a tank, about a year ago, and everytime i got a fish, they all died, so i gave up. now im starting again, with only a one gallon. i started with a heater, heating it up to the perfect temp, and i used water from my moms tank, (healthy water(has the right bacteria needed)) and i made a misttake of getting 3 fish to start with a one gallon. they all died. then i got 2 guppies, and they seemed fine, nice heat temperature, they were eating, and the water was clean. they died a day later. why is this happening???
i will show u the steps of my setting up tank, and u see if i did somthing wrong.
1.cleaned gravle, and objects.
2.filled up with tank water,
3.put in heater and let it sit for 30 min befor turing on,
4.fish floated in bag for about 15 min befor entering water.

i dont put the store water in the aquarium at all. so anyone no what im doing wrong??? its frusterating.

Falina

Do you have a filter in the tank? If you son't you should probably get one as almost all the beneficial bacteria lives in the filter.

Did you cycle the tank?
What are your water parameters?

A 1g is too small IMHO for any fish. Perhaps you could upgrade to a 5g or a 10g? This would give any fish you get some room to swim and is a little more forgiving when it comes to water parameters. The smaller tha tank, the more unstable it is likely to be.

If you go for a 5g, try a betta. If you go for a 10g you could have some guppies, like you seem to like, or some pygmy cories for the bottom perhaps.

xXPanicXx

well, thats why im using my parents water, cuz its already cycled, and yes i have a filter. i have no idea what the other thing u talking about is tho..

Falina

A negligible amount of beneficial bacteria lives in the water itself, the most lives in the filter, and some in gravel and on arnaments etc so using water form another tank, when everything else is new isn't going to make any difference unfortunately.

It sounds to me that your tank was uncycled and this is why the fish died.

The best way would be to run your filter in your parents tank for 2-4 weeks before outting it in your tank, making sure the filter stays wet, in tank water, while you switch them over.

Water parameters are amonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, gh and kh. For the purposes of fish illnesses the first 3 are the ones we will need to know.

I'd recommend a liquid test kit for these over test strips because the test strips are very unreliable. If you plan to get a test kit for these I'd suggest a master kit because these usually have tests for amonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph which are the most important ones.

jeaninel

You could also take a scoop of the gravel from your parents tank, put it in a nylon stocking or some kind of mesh bag and put that in your filter. This will help to "seed" your filter with the beneficial bacteria. Or, you could get some of the filter media from your parents tank and put it in your filter. This will speed up the cycle. Read the article about how to cycle your tank in this forum.

Like Falina said get a test kit. It's important to test your water often especially in the first month or two.

Good luck and don't get discouraged! This forum is a great place to get information so don't hesitate to ask questions.

willow

just to echo the above really
if you follow that advise you will be up and running
in no time at all.
the other thing i will say is to deffinatly go with
a bigger tank if you can,you will enjoy it more. :)