dying fish and plants

Question
QUESTION: 15 gal set up 3 months ago (for father's day). initially set up with soil, drift wood, plants, sm rocks, zoo med TC-30 filter. advised to wait 1 week before adding fish.  after 1 week, added 5 small tetras and 5 tiny shrimps (ghosts?.  All have died except for 1 tetra.  Added 10 more shrimps and with in a week or so, all die. After about 45 days, noticed many small snails, added 1 tiny puffer fish, it too has died within a week. Some plants are failing too, all red color plants have died. The only thing that is growing great is the moss looking plant on the drift wood and in other spots and the snails plus the 1 surviving tetra.
Tested water, everything is great, ph, ammonia, nitrate levels.  The only thing that was off was the hardness of the water, was too soft so changed water to increase hardness. I also add water additive to eliminate the chlorine, etc. as directed on bottle. tubing for filter is filthy, sponge not too bad.  Was advised not to touch the filter and it will be fine, now i'm not too sure about that advise.  At this point I don't know what is going on and what to do. Any advise is appreciated. Aloha!

ANSWER: Aloha Lorraine;

The first losses within the first two months were due to New Tank Syndrome I'm sure. It is very hard on fish. I think you are adding too many fish/shrimp all at once too. In a new tank there is no beneficial bacteria to consume waste and to provide a biological balance yet. It takes time to develop and you have to take it very slow and be patient. The first fish to be introduced should be a very small population that consists of about one inch of fish for every ten gallons of tank water. Don't add any new ones until the break-in has finished. It can take up to 8 weeks for it to get through it. Once it is time to add more fish, add only one inch of fish for ten gallons once a week. The beneficial bacteria needs time grow larger populations with each new additional "bio-load" of new fish.

Here is a link to my own web page that will tell you more about that;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

Try to add only two tiny fish that are the same kind as your tetra. Wait a week and see what happens. If he is still the "lone survivor", he may be a particularly nasty fella for his kind and assassinating his own tank mates. Watch them from a distance and see what happens.

Something else to look into is acclimation of your new fish to your tank. When you buy new fish, take them straight home. They should never be in the bags for longer than an hour-and-a-half. Float the transport bags on top of your tank water for 5 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, open the bag and add about 1/4 more of tank water to the bag. Re-seal the bag with a big air bubble in the top. Let it float there for another 5 minutes. After they have floated there for 10 or 15 minutes and have had one or two additions of tank water to the bag, net the fish from the bag. Do not add the transport water to the tank, dump it out in the sink or something. It has waste toxins an stress hormones in it that could really foul your tank and cause big spikes of toxins that take a week or two to settle down.

Make weekly 25% water changes in your tank. All tanks really need this weekly change. Vacuum the gravel at the same time.

Here is a link to a page that tells you about stocking your tank too;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/capacity.php

I hope the next new fish you get do well...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sincerely appreciate the great advice, didn't realize it was so complicated! One last question, the zoo med filter TC-30, I have not done anything to the filter since it was set up 3 months ago.  The tube is practically black and the bagged charcoal on top of the ceramic tubes is also filthy. How often do I need to clean the tubes, sponge, ceramic tubes and charcoal?  Thank you again!

Answer
Hi Lorraine;

It's okay to leave your filter alone as long as it flows freely. It may look pretty yucky but the media (the stuff inside the filter) is where microscopic beneficial bacteria grows to consume fish waste toxins. When it slows down in flow and it's time to clean, just rinse the media in a bucket of fish tank water. It clears the gunk but helps leave the beneficial bacteria intact.

My big filters get cleaned only about every 4 months, or sooner if I've been naughty and overfeeding. I rinse all the gunk out and put them all back together. My fish are always healthy and my tanks crystal clear.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins