starting over.

Question
QUESTION:   I had a 10 gallon aquarium platys and mollies.  I started the aquarium up on feb 10 of this year..  I cycled with only 3 start up fish..  all wnet fine during the cycling process and i added 2 mollys still all was well and went well till about last week all the fish died 1 after the other.  I done 10-15 [ercent water change every week vac my gravel at the sametime.  And added back to water.  It was very stressful the see one fish died everyday till there was none left.  I had a filter that suppose to be good for up to 15 gallons.  Air stone,heater,thermeter,But i was useing bottled distilled water because a was scared that the pipes in the older model home would be dangerous.  So since I didn't know what killed the fish,  I tore all of this down and cleaned it all and put it all back together.  i used aquarium salt,water conditioner, and regular tap water instead.  Before because of the distilled water i didn't add any chemicals at all.  Now I bought a better filter it has something with a tube that sucks up and back in the water.  A bio something.A clean the air stone with new toothbrush because it picked up fish poo and  other things in the water.  Let it run for 24 Hours and then i added 3 tiger barbs to start the cycle all over again.  Is there anything that that maybe i did wrong before so i might do something different this time around i very new at this.   Thanks for any help you have... I need it bad..
ANSWER: Hi Shirley
Sorry for your problems with your first try.  Sometimes it's so hard, and definitely frustrating!  
What kind of symptoms were the fish showing before they died?  A 10 gallon is better then a smaller tank, but you're still limited on how many fish and what kind to put in it.  How many fish did you have in it?  Mollies get to be about 3-4 inches, platies about 2-3 inches, so really you'd only be able to safely put in three, no more then 5 fish really.  More then that would be too much bioload on the bacteria that built up during the cycle.  That may be what the problem was, overstocking.
 
Did you happen to test your water parameters at all(ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate)?  If so, what were those reading?  A properly cycled tank will have no ammonia or nitrites showing, and some nitrates, ideally under 20 ppm.  If you don't have a test kit to test those, I strongly recommend buying one.  There's a dropper test kit and a test strip kit, the dropper test kit is better and more accurate, AND more money.  But definitely worth it.

 
Now with distilled water, I've always heard it wasn't good for fish.  The distilling process removes all of the necessary elements from the water the fish need.  So, I think you'd be better off using the tap water, just use a dechlorinator.  If you do want to use a bottled water, use spring water instead.  

The filter you have sounds like a biowheel, has a wheel that spins around?  That will eventually grow with some of the beneficial bacteria the tank needs.  They're pretty good, I have a few of them on some of my tanks.  Eventually the wheel slows down or stops.  You just need to clean the outside where it spins(don't clean the paper  part).  

You're tiger barbs will get about 3 inches, and they like to be in schools of at least 3-5 minimum.  So, if you intend to keep them, I'd pick up maybe 1 or 2 more, and that's it-no more fish.  Or, if you want other fish instead, you could return them and cycle your tank with a cocktail/salad shrimp instead.  You just drop one shrimp into the water and let it rot basically lol :)  It'll put out ammonia which will start the cycle process.

The other thing, when you cycle with fish, you'll need to do more frequent water changes.  The ammonia and nitrite is toxic to them.  So really you should be doing small daily ones to help dilute the toxins in the water.  It does slow the cycle down a bit, but not much.  Then once the tank is cycled, you can go to the 25% once a week.  Here's a really good link with articles on how and what to do for that, need to copy/paste to your browser:

 http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/startupcycle/Step_5_The_Cycle.htm

Hope that helps, and good luck!  Let me know if you have any more questions!!

Christy


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

QUESTION: Christy the fish i have may soon need a water change.  I.m having a hard time measuring the water conditioner for only 2 gallons.  Tell me the best to measure and add the conditioner.  I have it in there but it was a capful per 10 gallons can you help? thanks again for all the advice

Answer
Hi Shirley
Looking at the cap, just figure where the 1/2 way mark is (usually they're notched) from the 10 gallon mark, then just figure where 1/2 of that is(1/2 of the 1/2), and use that amount.  A little over like that should be fine.  It's not something that has to be "exactly precise"(but the flip side, you don't want to dump a bunch of it in either), if that was the case they'd provide a better measuring device then a stupid little cap that you can barely read the little notches on :) I always go over a tad with my dechlorinator, our water seems to be really strong on the chlorine or chloramine-whichever they use...

Hope all's going well so far!!

Christy