jodirren

@Flipper Yes, I actually was thinking the same thing after I've noticed that, exactly as you said, I get lots of algae only in the part of the tank that's in the sun. This is a temporary setup and the new location will be out of the sun. Thanks for affirmig this.

Thanks for the excellent (and quick) responses. A couple responses ... My understanding is that my tap water (San Francisco) has chloramine added and that will prevent the beneficial bacteria from growing, so conditioning the water is necessary. I actually use some water conditioner from Imaginarium when I add water. But, again, I've not done many water changes: 1x 50% and 2x 25% so this has come into play too much. However, per the owner at Ocean Aquarium, I've been adding tiny amounts of Neutral Regulator and Discus Buffer every couple days (he told me to do daily but I haven't been). To be honest, that's the only reason I'm adding those two products. Honestly, I don't know that it's necessary and I remember the day I came home with all these products I thought, "Did I just get scammed?". I also try to add the Special Blend bacteria daily, but it's more like every 2-3 days. Yeah, there's no doubt that some is tannins, but when I stir up the water (say from gravel vaccing), all this junk gets stirred up and really clouds the water brown. And this brown powder is also growing all over everything. I'm pretty sure most of the brown cloudiness is this stuff, which I assume to be brown algae. Per my original post, they all read 0, nada, nothing. The nitrate and ammonia are bright yellow just like the card shows for 0 ppm. You know, I did clean the inside of the tank with glass cleaner when I first took it out of the box. But after I wiped it off with a clean rag really good. I guess there could have been some residue, but it seems like it would be very diluted in a 20 gallon tank. And wouldn't the carbon filter I've been using remove that over the 2 days I let the tank sit? Yeah, I only did it once or twice. I added literally 3-4 flakes the first time and then a good "pinch" of maybe 20 flakes the 2nd time a few days later. I didn't do it after because I figured all the plants in the tank, which have some dying leafs, would create decomposing material for bacteria. But I guess decomposing plant matter doesn't count? Okay, I'm going to start adding fish flakes regularly. I'll look into maybe getting ammonia explicitly. There is definitely a consensus here that I'm not getting any ammonia to start the cycle. But I thought decomposing plant matter would start that process but I guess not?

I bought a new 20 gal tank from a chain pet store for my kids for Christmas 1.5 months ago. I knew absolutely nothing about aquariums but the chain pet store employee told me to let the tank sit for two days after getting it all setup. I put in 1” of substrate, used the water conditioner as directed, installed the heater and filter, and let it set for two days. After duly following what I was told, I took my very excited kids to said chain pet store and we picked out 4 mollies that looked healthy and a couple plants and a piece of driftwood. We let the bag of the fish sit in the tank water for 20 minutes, then released the fish. To the horror of my kids, 8 hrs later, all 4 mollies were belly-up dead. I immediately went back to the chain pet store with a water sample, they did a dipstick test and said everything looked good. They refunded my money for the fish, talked about this whole “cycling” thing, but didn’t really have a good explanation of what happened. I decided to do some research and put buying more fish on hold. Fast forward to now: I’ve spent 1.5 months studying the nitrogen cycle and learning all about how to start a new tank (when I bought this tank, I had *no* idea how involved this would be!). I bought another 4 plants from Aquarium Co-op a month ago and planted them. Not long after the fish died, I went to Ocean Aquarium, a local independent aquarium store here in San Francisco, and the owner told me I needed much more substrate (4-6”) to serve as a home for bacteria and that I needed to let the tank sit for a month to start the cycle. He sold me substrate, some Microbe Lift Special Blend, Seachem Neutral Regulator, Seachem Discuss buffer, and told me to dose with them in small amounts daily and then in a month I can get fish. His planted tanks, which he claims to never have changed the water in, looked great, so I’ve duly followed his directions. In addition, I've been occasionally adding some Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel for the plants. I’ve changed the water a couple times to 30-50%. I changed the filter once about a month ago because it was clogged (and have since learned I can just rinse it out in aquarium water rather than replacing it). Summary: for the last month, the tank has just been sitting with plants that seem to be doing fairly well and no fish except the water has gone completely brown with brown algae/diatom (though some of the brown may be due to tannins from the couple small pieces of driftwood I have, I can see the powdery brown stuff all over everything). I've attached a picture of how my tank looks today. I also bought the API Freshwater Master Kit and have been testing my water once a week for the past month. And here’s the thing: I’ve never gotten anything but 0 ppm for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. My ph is in the mid 7’s. But basically, it seems like my tank won’t cycle. I’ve been using the bacteria starter from Ocean Aquarium as well as one from the chain pet store, and I’ve tried adding some flakes of fish food in hopes their decomposing would start the nitrogen cycle. But I can’t get any of the 3 chemicals of the nitrogen cycle to read. I’ve got the light on the tank on a timer that provides about 10 hrs of light a day. So to be honest, after hours and hours of research, I feel like I’m doing everything right enough that my tank should have started cycling. So here are my questions to this forum that, in all my research, I can’t find answers to: Why did my fish die in 8 hrs? I’ve since learned all about New Tank Syndrome, but that sounds like it usually causes the fish to slowly die over days or weeks, not hours. And to be honest, there are tons of people out there who buy fish tanks and do what I did and don’t have dead fish in hours. I get that these people may not be able to keep fish alive for months, but having fish die in hours seems what out of the normal. Why isn’t my tank cycling, i.e. why do my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings continue to show 0 ppm? I’ve followed the API testing kit directions to the T, including vigorously shaking the nitrate solutions for as long as directed. Could it be that the whole test kit is somehow bad? That seems unlikely to me. But everything I’ve read online says my tank should have started cycling by now. The water is very brown and cloudy (see attached pic), with the brown algae “powder” on everything, but should I just go ahead and get some fish and hopefully just getting more aquatic creatures in there will provide some better balance? Thanks for your time, and looking forward to any suggestions. Jonathan