# Newb... What do I do???



## lewer72 (Jan 11, 2011)

Hello,
I obviously am having troubles with my tank... thought I was an expert till today...
I have 65 gallon tank. 8-9 weeks running. I first filled it, added filter, substrate, some driftwood from a local lake, four ferns, and 1 week later i added a dozen goldfish. One died on day 5 getting caught between the filter inlet and tank wall, and my amonia spike hard. I got it under control with amo-lock, and was running a 3.0ppm. It then proceeded to run great with the water turning crystal clear for weeks. Yesterday, i fed the fish at 8am and left the house, coming home at 1pm to find my tank with white clouds. It looked like cigarette smoke rolling over in the tank.
After reading a days worth of info i have figured it best to get tests and hope for some advice.
I found my amonia test acting funny... It has light to dark green chart from 0-6ppm. When I test the pad goes a purple color that i can't compare to the chart. Previous tests have shown all proper readings.

GH - 30
KH - 0
PH - 6.0 from 7.0 two weeks ago (well water in country)
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
small patch of algae on driftwood gets me hoping to add pleco soon as i get my problem cured.

If you've read this far, Thanks, and I hope to be able to help others in the future.

I forget to mention my lighting... I have one 42" standard white 40W bulb on a timer from 8am to 10 pm and
6 blue moonlight l.e.d.s, that another timer runs from 10pm till 8am.
not sure if this is relevant or not but hey, i'm new...


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Nice drift wood.
Start by going to the beginner section and read through the stickies.
Understand what a cycle means as it seems your tank is not establish and is going through a cycle.
What kind of filter are you running?
How do you do water change?
Also, have you clean your driftwood? There might be hitch hikers.
kH = 0? That's odd.
Where do you live? Ontario well water should be hard like 8.x pH. So I am wondering where did you get 6 - 7 pH!

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## lewer72 (Jan 11, 2011)

I am running a filter I received with the tank (used) its an ez-change #3 30-60 gallons. The driftwood, I cleaned and soaked in the basement bathtub for about a week. It was pulled from near frozen waters, then frozen outside for 3 days. I live in Huntsville, about two and a half hours north of Toronto. Well water here is about 7.2 to start. The tank water also smells normal, unlike the stinking i found from over-feeding and the one goldfish dying. I have read a good thirty hours worth of info over the last week learning about this, I think I may have over-loaded. Not sure why my KH is 0. I do water change once per week with a gravel funnel from the pet store to my dedicated fish water bucket. About 4-5 inches of water out of my 18" high tank. Also my fish do not seem phased by this event its hide under the driftwood at night and out playing eating and roaming by day, its hard to see them right now though.

Thanks for your help, pl3co
very much apreciated!


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## lewer72 (Jan 11, 2011)

*update*

Tonight, I did a 25% water change, not touching the filter at all. I am guessing my bad bacteria has exploded in population, and I am supposed to wait till my beneficial bacteria can catch up and start the cycle. Still have 11 happy goldfish.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Ah, I see. "gravel funnel from the pet store"? huh? Sorry, I can't seem to visualize what that would look like.
Well, it's going through a bacteria bloom. May turn into green water next. I am guessing it's probably from the the driftwood. Freezing temperature only put the bacteria in statis.
One way to approach this would be to change %10 or %20 water every day. Keep this up for about a week and see what happens.  I hope it's not too much of a problem for you to do water changes. I guess you just need time for the cycle to kick in (actually, you're probably some where in the middle or near the end of the cycle.)
Keeping the temperature at 20C also helps keep the bacteria bloom in check as well. But may not benefit the plants though.
Also, if you chlorinate your well water, you may need to let it sit for a day to let the chlorine dissipate.
Good luck.

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## bae (May 11, 2007)

I think he means a gravel siphon.

Check the pH, GH and KH of your well water as it comes from the tap after sitting in a glass over night. It's quite possible to have very soft well water in Ontario if you're up on the Shield with granitic bedrock. Well water can also have a lot of dissolved CO2, which will lower pH until it gasses off overnight. If your water is very soft and/or has a low KH, you probably want to keep some limey material in the tank to help stabilize pH.The cheapest is finely crushed limestone or dolomite, which is sold for adding to gardens (grit, not powder) or crushed oyster shell from a local feed store -- It's used to provide calcium for poultry. Or you can get crushed coral, etc, from a pet store. Goldfish like hard water but will tolerate almost anything.

Eleven goldfish will be too many for your tank once they grow up, but I assume you just got them for cycling, and don't intend to keep them up to pan fish size.

If you do have soft water, you're in luck once you get into the hobby because many wonderful fish do best in soft water. One thing to bear in mind, however, if you have soft water and get your fish from somewhere with hard water, is that you will have to acclimate them gradually when you bring them home because going suddenly from hard to soft water can fatally injure the gills.


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## Kerohime (Jan 10, 2011)

When you do add new fish, I would also suggest setting up a drip to acclimate the fish into the new tank water with a bucket and an air bubble tube if there are major concerns about the differences in water composition.


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