please help

[AllThatIs]

i just started a new aquarium, and I wanted to give you my readings to tell me if they are good, or what i should do please.

No3= 10
Ph=6.2
no2= 1 and above
ammonia= 2.0
alkalinity= card just says low

[AllThatIs]

Oh, it is my first time doing this, so i went to a petsmart, and they told me i could put fish in right away with my set up. I have a dragon goby, silver tipped shark, three mollies a pleco and two snails. I have had them for two weeks and they seem to be doing great

[ron v]

I'm sorry to tell you but your tank is not cycled and your fish are in serious danger of ammonia poisioning. Your fish shop ( sadly ) is guilty of being more interested in making a sale than in taking care of you and your fish. Please do a google search for "nitrogen cycle" or "new tank syndrome" to learn more about your problem. BTW, I'm glad you came to this forum. Do some reading and then come back here.

[fish_doc]

What size tank do you have these fish in? It seems like a bit much as far as putting into a new tank all at once. To keep them in good health I would do a partial water change it seems your ammonia is a bit high and that is typical in new tank setups but it can be deadly for the fish.

[AllThatIs]

i feel absolutely aweful, what can i do....will water changes help

[fish_doc]

Do you know anyone nearby with a fishtank? If so you can try and jumpstart the biological filtration by "borrowing" some benefical bacteria. You do this by taking their filter media and running it in your tank or getting some gravel and putting it in a mesh bag and setting it in your tank. This will help jump start the cycle in your tank.

Water changes will help keep the ammonia levels down. But do not do a gravel vac when you change the water. By cleaning the gravel you will only hurt any bacteria trying to get established.

[mousey]

aMQUEL FOR EMERGENCY REDUCTION OF AMMONIA AND A BIT OF SALT FOR NITRITIE POISONING ALONG WITH WATER CHANGES.

[JustOneMore20]

What size tank is it? You could be seriously overstocked if this is a small tank, which will only make the situation worse.

I hope you have a huge tank. A dragon goby will get about 12 inches and is brackish (fresh with a little salt). I assume you have a common pleco (another 12 inches, but completely freshwater). A silver-tipped shark is also brackish and can get close to 24 inches. I hope you have close to a 125g tank for all these guys. If not, I would take the goby, the pleco, and the shark back. The pleco requires different conditions than the other two, so they can't live together.

Please research before buying fish, so you know what will work and what won't.

[AllThatIs]

THe shark, and goby can adapt to freshwater tanks, i add a little salt to my tank, about 12 teaspoons to a 55 gallon. I did research these fish.

[JustOneMore20]

A 24 inch silver-tipped shark won't fit in a 55g...so I hope you plan to upgrade in the next year or so.

[Ringo]

i made the same mistake. only two fish though.

your tank has to cycle, it takes 36 days the old fashioned way, before a tank is truely safe. you can speed it up a few ways by, adding a used filter cartigde, adding start right, and a little bit of salt.

dont fret over adding fish to soon, my fish did surive for 3 weeks, but i did a bad check your ph every day, twice a day for about a week, record the changes, and stuff like that. the fish should survive as long as you keep a close I on the tank and ph, etc. your ph is very low, it needs to be 7.0 it can stray to 6.8---7.3 but no more than that. i imagine your mollies will be getting ick very kwik with all of the stress going on in your tank. do not do any water changes for about 10 days, if you do u will go back to square one.

your fish should survive, you may lose a few though (mollies most likely)

[Fishfirst]

I'd like to point out some things that should be corrected and clarified, and to give you some personal advice. 1) Don't ever listen to a fish store, especially petsmart. Most fish stores don't care about how your tank does, they just want to make a sale, OR they are just plain ignorant. (I've been employed by petsmart before and their training books/care sheets ect are all wrong) 2) always research fish before you buy.

Okay on with the corrections:
"THe shark, and goby can adapt to freshwater tanks"
False, the shark and goby cannot. I've not come across one in 16 years of fish keeping that has survived longer than a year in freshwater. After that, their kidneys fail, immune system drops, and death proceeds.

"A 24 inch silver-tipped shark won't fit in a 55g...so I hope you plan to upgrade in the next year or so."
I have to agree. These sharks definately need at least 75 gallons to 125 gallons minimum.

"your tank has to cycle, it takes 36 days the old fashioned way, before a tank is truely safe. you can speed it up a few ways by, adding a used filter cartigde, adding start right, and a little bit of salt.

dont fret over adding fish to soon, my fish did surive for 3 weeks, but i did a bad check your ph every day, twice a day for about a week, record the changes, and stuff like that. the fish should survive as long as you keep a close I on the tank and ph, etc. your ph is very low, it needs to be 7.0 it can stray to 6.8---7.3 but no more than that. i imagine your mollies will be getting ick very kwik with all of the stress going on in your tank. do not do any water changes for about 10 days, if you do u will go back to square one."

I'd like to comment about the pH. pH is not the problem here, it is ammonia nitrites and nitrates... pH will become important when trying to get your fish to thrive, for now, you need to concentrate on more important things than pH. Although mollys like a higher pH, you should not worry about it at the moment.

[emc7]

ammonia= 2.0

That's dangerous, change half the water everytime it reaches 2 and even though it may lenghthen the cycle time, you will have fish alive at the end.

[emc7]

Ph=6.2

In general, I agree with not messing with buffers during cycling, but if you have low alkalinity pH crash is a real danger during cycling. What is the pH of your tap water? If the tank pH start to move away from that, change more water the pH drop is prob. due to nitrite or nitrate anyway.

[AllThatIs]

I wanted to thank you all for your input. I do plan on upgrading to a bigger tank very soon. I put salt in my tank for all of the fish. I found out all of them live well in brackish water. Except the pleco. I plan on taking him back.

[Fishfirst]

what kind of salt? "aquarium salt" or "marine salt" you want the marine salt but your snails won't like it very much (any salt too for that matter)

[AllThatIs]

Im using Aquarium salt, whats the difference, and should i switch

[Fishfirst]

aquarium salt is not what they need, they need marine salt, which ups the pH and creates actual brackish conditions, aquarium salt does not do this and will not help your guys out. Glad that you are taking the effort to put these guys in a suitable home! I'd get some instant ocean and start slowly adding it every day for a week until your specific gravity is around 1.015ish (I'd look into getting a hydrometer which will tell you this parameter)