[fishnewbie12]

Hey guys so I'm new to this whole fish thing but my friend has had a tank for about a year now and I wanted to start my own finally after helping my friend take care of his.

I took his old 20 gallon tank, it was only offline for about 1 1/2 weeks. I cycled the tank for 3 weeks and then tried adding fish and they died within a day. My friend said that my fish were pretty young when I added them to the tank but to check my nitrate, nitrite, etc. Ive tested everything but ammonia and I was curious about what ammonia level is acceptable? Also if I should add fish again before I test the ammonia levels?

 

[willow]

hello and welcome.
please don't add fish just yet....my advise would be to ask your friend
if he would donate some filter media from his filter to yours,that would be
a fantastic way to start your aquarium,and enable you to add fish slowly :-D
win win situation.
best water test results would be Amonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates below 20
if my memory is working.

 

[rexpepper651]

exactly!^^^ old filter media to seed the new filter! also zero is the only acceptable level of ammonia. also adding live plants also helps with the cycling.

 

[Boredomb]

Willow is correct here. You want the the lvls to be as she has said.
Unless you had a food source (ammonia) for the bacteria in the tank you did lil more then just added water and let it sit.
I would see if your friend would give ya some bacteria from his tank and add it to yours as Willow as said already. Then I would add a few fish and monitor the tank every day by testing the waters for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. The fish will provide the ammonia for the bacteria to grow during this stage. Everyday when you check the parameters of the water if you notice anything raising then you need to do a water change. I would do this for a couple of weeks till you see 0,0,20 or less nitrates. Nitrates are the last to show up in the cycling process and will consume the ammonia and nitrites. Doing it this way you shouldn'tsee a full cycling oprocess but a mini cycle isnt out of the question where you see ammonia showing up.

The other way is get pure ammonia and add it to your tank without fish in there till you see nitrites showing up and then nitrates. After the nitrates show up the nitrites should go down till they are not showing up in the test kit. The end result will be the same 0 ammonia, 0, nitrites, and something like 20-40 nitrates. At the end you can do a water change to get the nitrates down and add some fish. Not alot but some. Either way you still have to stock slowly for the bacteria to grow and take care of the new bio load of each new addition of fish added.

 

[fishnewbie12]

Thanks Everyone for the advice! Ill contact him immediately!

 

[willow]

what filter do you have ?
any chance of some tank pictures ?:-D

 

[Hallyx]

Prime---Seachem Prime. Detoxifies ammonia and dechlorinates. Essential for cycling with livestock. Add Prime with water changes @ 2-drops/gal of tank size. Every two days otherwise.

Once your tank is cycled, you can decide if you want to continue using it.