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Question
Hi, I recently bought a small tank to keep a few smaller, gentle fish in (brand new). It's only 36x20x20 so a really small tank compared to my 60x30x30 which i've had a few months. When i got the tank home i cleaned it and the gravel, with the water from the larger tank. Then i set it up, filter, heater and air stone. Got the heat right, then played around with PH and got it to 7.0.

After about 2 hours of it being left (everything still running) i put the fish carefully in. 1 hour later i checked the PH and then again another hour after that, still 7.0. The fish that went in were x3 Upside-Down Catfish, x2 Electric Yellows (Cichlids), x2 Glass Catfish, x2 Golden Sucker Catfish, x1 medium Bristle Nose, x1 small Bristle Nose, x1 Siamese Fighting Fish.

The next morning i woke up to, both the Glass Catfish and Electric Yellows dead. Then as the day progressed (checking PH every 2 hours), slowly the Upside-Down Catfish died off. I removed the fish as they died to avoid decay. That was all the deaths for that day. Then today (30,06,06) I woke up too the Golden Catfish dead. All that leaves is the Fighter and Bristle Nose. My mum thought it may have been the Amonia levels but i just shunted because it was too soon for that too be high and i have no testing kit for it.

If you could please help me it would be great because as i am only a beginner i would like to minamilise my death count. (it's been quite costly $856.65 and somehow i feel the pet shop neglected to mention a few things....)

Answer
Dear Kyle,
Wow, I'm sorry to hear about your problems!
I'm afraid where your problem lies is perhaps the petshop failed to inform you about the importance of extremely gradual stocking and the ever important cycling of your aquarium.

Cycling means to allow your aquarium to establish a good working colony of special beneficial bacteria which convert dangerous fish waste into harmless compounds. These bacteria are present in all healthy aquariums, without them and without allowing them time to establish, completely stocking a new aquarium would cause the pollution levels to rise to terribly high levels so much that the fish would succumb.
*I'm afraid your Mum could be right about ammonia levels.

Most certainly because you stocked your aquarium suddenly with about a dozen fish the absence of a sufficient colony of bacteria caused a vicious ammonia spike that could have builtup so fast that this is most certainly what caused the unfortunate loss of your fish.

It is vital for all newly setup aquariums to be cycled with just a few hardy fish until it is completely established. Or go fishless cycling. I noticed you mentioned having a second aquarium, if it is established and running well, take some of that aquarium's gravel (not all) and some dirty filter material (but not all either) and place it in your newly setup aquarium. This will "seed" your aquarium with bacteria and can help jumpstart your bacteria to establishing.

Fortunately, the Siamese Fighter and Bristlenose would be Ok in that aquarium but you MUST above all do 50% water changes everyday to insure they are not subject to ammonia levels or at least until you can get a ammonia test kit. If you can (please, that would be best!) test everyday and make those vital 50% water changes when levels are above safe bounds. Remember when doing water changes to always make the replacement water equal in temperature to that of your aquarium and to properly dechlorinate it with a good water conditioner every time.

So where do you go from here?
You'll need to finish cycling your aquarium-
1.) Change 50% of aquarium water everyday (in case)
2.)Try to get an ammonia test kit
3.) Finish cycling your aquarium before adding anymore aquatic life
4.) Once cycled, you can gradually add a few fish per week and test after each new arrival to insure there is no ammonia spike due to that extra bioload being put on the bacterial colony. If this happens, a water change and patience are in order for this "mini-cycle" to finish.

~*Also, please do not try to adjust your pH anymore. This is most likely uneccesary because the huge majority of fish in petshops are well adapted to different water chemistrys and most likely have adapted to your current locations water. Adjusting pH can do much more harm than good. If you have hard water, this makes it even harder to adjust pH because of your naturally high buffering capacity which absorbs any acid you add to make the pH lower and in turn only works and short while. All in all adjusting pH is not essential and causes much stress on the fish. It's more important to remember that fish thrive better in a stable not specific water chemistry, as long as it's clean with plenty of water changes...That is all most fish will ever need.

(I'm truly very sorry to hear you spent so much money and lost all those wonderful fish... But I do hope this helps!

Only my very best wishes and feel free to write with anymore concerns!
Karen~
(For great reliable info on fishkeeping visit-
"www.fishtanksandponds.com")