Roo

Thanks guys!! Yeah we kept the original water, and that was the problem. It wasn't treated or cleaned as much as it should be and was a little neglected. His wife was the one that took care of the tank and she passed away about 2 months ago so it had those high levels from the get go. So far we've managed to drop the pH and Nitrite to an almost acceptable level, but the Nitrate is still through the roof. I've only done the one water change so far which was just under 10g. I'll do another 10g today with tests before and after to see where I'm at. As for the substrate, I replaced it with sand that I got second hand, I'm pretty sure the guy I got it from had a tank(s) break or something, because I've been finding bits of glass and other misc objects in it as I use it up. How long does the bacteria stay good for in substrate in storage? Luckily I've only lost the one albino rainbow shark so far, but I almost lost the second too. Same with the koi angels. I transfered them to my 20g temporarily, until we can stabalize the 55. As a side note, I'm beginning to think that doing a complete system cleaning isn't a good thing?? Like taking the filter apart etc and scrubbing all the gunk off of everything?? I'm still fairly new to the hobby, got my first tank 6 months ago.

So I copied and pasted the following from my post in the new comers forum :P I finished the water change mentioned and the water looks healthier, and I'll be doing a test later tonight. Also, the koi angel fish were looking pretty rough, so they too were transfered to a cleaner tank. I recently acquired a 55g tank, with a Rena xP2 canister filter, stand etc from my friends grandfather. He was giving it away because he couldn't bring it with him to his new apartment. We managed to bring most of the water with us, unfortunately his wife was the one who took care of it, and she passed about a month ago. So the tank was pretty dirty and in need of some TLC. I cleaned her up, replaced the gravel with sand, replaced the filter media and filter hoses. It's doing much better and the water is clearing up, but the Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia levels are off the chart. We bought roughly $100 worth of plants and a CO2 diffuser to help bring the Nitrite and Nitrate levels down as well as Stability and Prime by Seachem. We can notice the differance after only two days Oh!! Before I get too carried away, I should mention the tank came with 2 Sailfin Plecos, roughly 6" in length, a YoYo Loach, and a Pakistoli (sp? i could be completely off here :P its along those lines) Rainbow fish. My girlfriend and I knew better, but we were having a good day being a rained out payday and I just found out I got a raise, had no bills to pay and lots of money to spend. Any way, we ended up coming home with 11 Cardinal tetras, 4 Koi Angel fish, 4 Red Phantom tetras, 3 Galaxy Resboras, and 2 Albino Rainbow sharks as well as misc equipment. Sadly we lost one of the sharks, and to be honest, I'm surprised we haven't lost more fish already. With that being said, I know the plants and the chems can only do so much, and I'll be doing a bit of a water change and more over the next few weeks (only about 10-15g at a time), but is there anything else you can recommend to bring down the Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia levels? I've also talked with BrianCatfish (on these forums) in person, (who actually brought me back to this site!!!) and I remember him telling me about some precautions to take against infections and what not, unfortunately I can't recall what they were. About an hour ago my girlfriend noticed that all our fish now are showing signs of redness around the gills, and like I said, I've lost a shark and almost lost the other. What meds would you recommend to alleviate these symptons?? I've noticed some seem to have trouble "breathing" (gulping fairly fast, one sympton I saw in my last shark before I transfered him to a clean tank), would this result from the high levels of Nitrite and etc?? Any way, thats about all I can think of right now, any and all advice will gladly be received!! I can honestly say I won't let impatience or good moods get the better of me next time!!!

Howdy!! So I've been a member for probably a few months now, but never really had the time to come back to the site. Fortunately, as a landscaper, I've got a few days off because of this rain >.< Any way, the names Andrew, or Roo, or Rooster depending on who you ask :P I've wanted to start collecting aquariums for about the last 2 years with the intnent on building my own custom tank last summer. However, that kinda fell to the wayside. What probably saved that small spark of interest was my girlfriend buying me a very nice bi-color veil tail betta and a 1 gallon tank for our 1yr anniversary. Shortly after that I went out and bought a 10g setup, however, I didn't think to pick up a second hand tank at the time and by the time I was done and invested over $250 into it :P I am now currently running 3 tanks, and have 2 more in storage. My 10g is in storage, as well as a 65g I got free from kijiji. It needs a new glass canopy, lights and a heater. I also want to build a new stand for it out of solid wood, as the current one is cheap MDF with some water damage from its previous owners. My smallest is a divided 7g with our bettas in it (I bought my g/f one for valentines day :P), then I have a 20g half octagon tank by marineland which currently holds 5 Silver Tip tetras, 5 albino lemon tetras, an orange stripe corydora (used to be three but sadly me and my girlfriend both came home from work with fish and shocked the tank a bit), a flying fox, and an emergency addition albino rainbow shark. He wasn't doing to well in the 55g tank, so I pulled him out in probably the nick of time and transfered him. I recently acquired a 55g tank, with a Rena xP2 canister filter, stand etc from my friends grandfather. He was giving it away because he couldn't bring it with him to his new apartment. We managed to bring most of the water with us, unfortunately his wife was the one who took care of it, and she passed about a month ago. So the tank was pretty dirty and in need of some TLC. I cleaned her up, replaced the gravel with sand, replaced the filter media and filter hoses. It's doing much better and the water is clearing up, but the Nitrate, Nitrite and Ammonia levels are off the chart. We bought roughly $100 worth of plants and a CO2 diffuser to help bring the Nitrite and Nitrate levels down as well as Stability and Prime by Seachem. We can notice the differance after only two days Oh!! Before I get too carried away, I should mention the tank came with 2 Sailfin Plecos, roughly 6" in length, a YoYo Loach, and a Pakistoli (sp? i could be completely off here :P its along those lines) Rainbow fish. My girlfriend and I knew better, but we were having a good day being a rained out payday and I just found out I got a raise, had no bills to pay and lots of money to spend. Any way, we ended up coming home with 11 Cardinal tetras, 4 Koi Angel fish, 4 Red Phantom tetras, 3 Galaxy Resboras, and 2 Albino Rainbow sharks as well as misc equipment. Sadly we lost one of the sharks, and to be honest, I'm surprised we haven't lost more fish already. With that being said, I know the plants and the chems can only do so much, and I'll be doing a bit of a water change and more over the next few weeks (only about 10-15g at a time), but is there anything else you can recommend to bring down the Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia levels? I've also talked with BrianCatfish (on these forums) in person, (who actually brought me back to this site!!!) and I remember him telling me about some precautions to take against infections and what not, unfortunately I can't recall what they were. Just 45mins ago my girlfriend noticed that all our fish now are showing signs of redness around the gills, and like I said, I've lost a shark and almost lost the other. What meds would you recommend to alleviate these symptons?? I've noticed some seem to have trouble "breathing" (gulping fairly fast, one sympton I saw in my last shark before I transfered him to a clean tank), would this result from the high levels of Nitrite and etc?? Any way, thats about all I can think of right now, any and all advice will gladly be received!! I can honestly say I won't let impatience or good moods get the better of me next time :P Cheers, Andrew