Post by jocie1976 on Apr 22, 2015 1:38:19 GMT -5
Why Are My Fish Dying in My New Aquarium? (The First Tank Guide)
What Is 'New Tank Syndrome?'
New tank syndrome is a generic and all-encomping explanation for loss of fish and other things like the white fog that shows up in an aquarium that is under two months old. Many times it will also be used to explain problems in a new tank when cycling with fish in your tank.
There are really a wide number of things that these losses could be more accurately attributed to, but the fact that many new fish tank owners encounter these problems has resulted in getting them all lumped together.
So What Really Causes 'New Tank syndrome?'
Though the actual cause of death in a new tank can range from poisoning to disease, or from improper water conditions to stocking problems, the root of all these is two-fold.
Elevated ammonia levels due to an ineffective biological filter.
Poor care due to an inexperienced owner or care-giver.
Adding fish in too fast (putting fish in there before it's fully cycled).
When you first set up your aquarium, the biological filter is not ready to handle the waste the fish are producing. Getting the biological filter up-to-speed requires putting the tank through a process called cycling the aquarium. This allows naturally occurring and ubiquitous bacteria to populate the filter media in the aquarium's filter and begin processing the ammonia produced by the fish into (eventually) relatively harmless nitrate which you can then remove with your regular weekly water changes.
Until the biological filter can process the fish's waste, the fish are swimming in it. This is stressful to the fish.
Directly, the elevated ammonia in the water reduces the availability of oxygen, making it harder for the fish to breathe. It also can cause a variety of other health problems directly, not the least of which is blindness. For these reasons, it is important to keep up with extra water changes while the tank is still cycling.
In addition to the ammonia poisoning issues, the fact that an inexperienced aquarium owner does not have experience caring for a fish tank and the fish in it also contributes to this stress and loss.
New aquarium owners are more likely to make simple mistakes, such as over feeding the fish, which will contribute to poor water quality, increasing the waste related
problems explained above, or having the temperature wrong, which increases the general stress the fish are under.
What Can I Do to Avoid 'New Tank Syndrome?'
1. Understand the nitrogen cycle and cycling process.
To read up on Cycling your tank click this link:
Fishless Cycling (recommended)
www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
2. Keep the population in your tank low until the tank has cycled or do a fishless cycle.
3. Keep up with the extra water changes necessary during the cycling process.
4. Do some research on the care requirements of the fish you are interested in keeping before purchasing the fish.
5. Be careful with your tank maintenance.
6. Watch your feeding, make sure the fish eat everything offered in under two minutes.
These simple tips should help you avoid unnecessary losses to 'new tank syndrome' while your new aquarium is cycling.
Can't I Just Add Something to the Tank to Avoid 'New Tank Syndrome' altogether?
Unless you cycle your tank without fish, simply put, no, you can't. There are people that will try to sell you ammonia removers which will remove the ammonia, but may make the cycling process more difficult or take longer. Others will try to sell you bacteria boosters to make the tank magically cycle overnight, but these take about the same amount of time as naturally cycling your tank in the end.
Your best bet is to carefully cycle the tank with a small number of hearty fish, and keep up with the necessary extra water changes while you do so.
A note on adding Quick Start Nitrifying Bacteria Products to Your Aquarium:
First, nitrifying bacteria is the positive or good bacteria that breaks down ammonia into nitrites and finally into the less harmful nitrates. They cycle the aquarium basically so that it's processing the harmful stuff properly.
There are a lot of products that claim to cycle your tank and have it fish ready in as little as several hours. Others say that these products will cause your tank to take even longer to cycle.
I've read quite a bit about it and even tried it myself. This is what I've found and read about in a couple of places and experienced myself.
Will they harm the cycling process. Not really. Will they instantly cycle the aquarium. Definitely not. I find that when cycling your tank with fish in it (setting it up and putting fish in right away) - using an instant start product or not has about the same length to properly cycle - about a month.
I couldn't wait for fish and stocked about 7 fish in my tank within the first week - it was a 10g tank.
The instructions on the bottle were to add a double dose of the positive bacteria the first day and then a single dose of it for the next seven days. After the first does was put in the tank it would be ready for fish within 4 hours.
I added the product as I was supposed to and got my test kit stuff. I tested it every day to see what the ammonia and nitrite levels were. For almost the first two weeks I had ammonia showing every day and had to do large daily water changes.
By the second week Nitrites were starting to show up in low levels with the ammonia.
In the third week I was starting to only see any ammonia or nitrites every second day and did water changes every two days.
On the fourth and a little into the fifth week I was starting to see nitrites show up but no ammonia. And it went from every three or so days to four to not seeing any ammonia or nitrites.
It helped that I had a ton of live water plants (they always help) but it was still a crap load of work and I never want to change water again that my life.
In conclusion it takes about the same amount of time to cycle your tank whether you use this stuff or not when putting fish in right away. I would like to note that I didn't loose one fish either but I choose hardy fish to go in my tank. It can help if you do a really thorough cleaning or have to a major clean out the filter by helping to lower the ammonia and nitrite levels but it's not a replacement for nature.
Source: www.firsttankguide.net/newtanksyndrome.php
What Is 'New Tank Syndrome?'
New tank syndrome is a generic and all-encomping explanation for loss of fish and other things like the white fog that shows up in an aquarium that is under two months old. Many times it will also be used to explain problems in a new tank when cycling with fish in your tank.
There are really a wide number of things that these losses could be more accurately attributed to, but the fact that many new fish tank owners encounter these problems has resulted in getting them all lumped together.
So What Really Causes 'New Tank syndrome?'
Though the actual cause of death in a new tank can range from poisoning to disease, or from improper water conditions to stocking problems, the root of all these is two-fold.
Elevated ammonia levels due to an ineffective biological filter.
Poor care due to an inexperienced owner or care-giver.
Adding fish in too fast (putting fish in there before it's fully cycled).
When you first set up your aquarium, the biological filter is not ready to handle the waste the fish are producing. Getting the biological filter up-to-speed requires putting the tank through a process called cycling the aquarium. This allows naturally occurring and ubiquitous bacteria to populate the filter media in the aquarium's filter and begin processing the ammonia produced by the fish into (eventually) relatively harmless nitrate which you can then remove with your regular weekly water changes.
Until the biological filter can process the fish's waste, the fish are swimming in it. This is stressful to the fish.
Directly, the elevated ammonia in the water reduces the availability of oxygen, making it harder for the fish to breathe. It also can cause a variety of other health problems directly, not the least of which is blindness. For these reasons, it is important to keep up with extra water changes while the tank is still cycling.
In addition to the ammonia poisoning issues, the fact that an inexperienced aquarium owner does not have experience caring for a fish tank and the fish in it also contributes to this stress and loss.
New aquarium owners are more likely to make simple mistakes, such as over feeding the fish, which will contribute to poor water quality, increasing the waste related
problems explained above, or having the temperature wrong, which increases the general stress the fish are under.
What Can I Do to Avoid 'New Tank Syndrome?'
1. Understand the nitrogen cycle and cycling process.
To read up on Cycling your tank click this link:
Fishless Cycling (recommended)
www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/the-almost-complete-guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html
2. Keep the population in your tank low until the tank has cycled or do a fishless cycle.
3. Keep up with the extra water changes necessary during the cycling process.
4. Do some research on the care requirements of the fish you are interested in keeping before purchasing the fish.
5. Be careful with your tank maintenance.
6. Watch your feeding, make sure the fish eat everything offered in under two minutes.
These simple tips should help you avoid unnecessary losses to 'new tank syndrome' while your new aquarium is cycling.
Can't I Just Add Something to the Tank to Avoid 'New Tank Syndrome' altogether?
Unless you cycle your tank without fish, simply put, no, you can't. There are people that will try to sell you ammonia removers which will remove the ammonia, but may make the cycling process more difficult or take longer. Others will try to sell you bacteria boosters to make the tank magically cycle overnight, but these take about the same amount of time as naturally cycling your tank in the end.
Your best bet is to carefully cycle the tank with a small number of hearty fish, and keep up with the necessary extra water changes while you do so.
A note on adding Quick Start Nitrifying Bacteria Products to Your Aquarium:
First, nitrifying bacteria is the positive or good bacteria that breaks down ammonia into nitrites and finally into the less harmful nitrates. They cycle the aquarium basically so that it's processing the harmful stuff properly.
There are a lot of products that claim to cycle your tank and have it fish ready in as little as several hours. Others say that these products will cause your tank to take even longer to cycle.
I've read quite a bit about it and even tried it myself. This is what I've found and read about in a couple of places and experienced myself.
Will they harm the cycling process. Not really. Will they instantly cycle the aquarium. Definitely not. I find that when cycling your tank with fish in it (setting it up and putting fish in right away) - using an instant start product or not has about the same length to properly cycle - about a month.
I couldn't wait for fish and stocked about 7 fish in my tank within the first week - it was a 10g tank.
The instructions on the bottle were to add a double dose of the positive bacteria the first day and then a single dose of it for the next seven days. After the first does was put in the tank it would be ready for fish within 4 hours.
I added the product as I was supposed to and got my test kit stuff. I tested it every day to see what the ammonia and nitrite levels were. For almost the first two weeks I had ammonia showing every day and had to do large daily water changes.
By the second week Nitrites were starting to show up in low levels with the ammonia.
In the third week I was starting to only see any ammonia or nitrites every second day and did water changes every two days.
On the fourth and a little into the fifth week I was starting to see nitrites show up but no ammonia. And it went from every three or so days to four to not seeing any ammonia or nitrites.
It helped that I had a ton of live water plants (they always help) but it was still a crap load of work and I never want to change water again that my life.
In conclusion it takes about the same amount of time to cycle your tank whether you use this stuff or not when putting fish in right away. I would like to note that I didn't loose one fish either but I choose hardy fish to go in my tank. It can help if you do a really thorough cleaning or have to a major clean out the filter by helping to lower the ammonia and nitrite levels but it's not a replacement for nature.
Source: www.firsttankguide.net/newtanksyndrome.php
