Hello From SC

[InsanePyrDragon]

I've been watching Fish For Thought and saw tank on sale at christmas so I went ahead and got a 10 gallon kit from petsmart. Put in a couple Java Ferns, fluval plant stratum, filled it with tap water, added some leaf zone and tetra safe start, then put in 10 neon tetras. Everything was going great for the first week until I noticed a bunch of white spots on my fish. I did some googling and yup they had ick so I started treating them with super ick cure, added a tablespoon of salt to the tank and set the heat to 80 F. Well all but one of my 10 tetras died but my last fish seemed to have recovered and while I was continuing to treat with ick cure I know that tetras need a school to not get stressed. So I got him 10 new neon tetra friends put the bag in to acclimate them and then added them to the tank. They were all dead within 48 hours all of the new fish, my loner is still swimming around. I put a test strip in the tank then GH is 30 the KH is 0 the PH is 6.0 the NO2 and NO3 is 0.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I do hope to be able to keep fish alive in my tank.

 

[DaniV]

From what I've read, Neon Tetras are very sensitive to water parameters, and if you just got the tank then the cycling process may not be done yet.  When I was setting up my first tank, one of them employees at a LFS told me that some fish can handle the cycling process much easier than others, such as goldfish, mollies, and platies.  If you really want to keep Tetras, then it sounds like you need to wait for the tank to be more seasoned for it, otherwise try out a hardier fish that can handle the changing parameters as it cycles.

[Schuyler]

Sorry to hear that... Where did you get them? Did you order them online or pick them up from a store?

Do you have a picture of your tank?

[Levi_Aquatics]

I

On 1/11/2023 at 11:33 AM, Schuyler said:

Do you have a picture of your tank?

Welcome! I'm sorry to hear about your losses. And yep, would love to see some pictures!

[Tonyp814]

I am so sorry to hear about the problems you're having. I wonder I what @DaniVis saying is correct. It sounds like the the fish may be struggling because the tank hasn't cycled yet. I am no expert but there are some great videos on YouTube about cycling an aquarium and how it all works. Just don't give up, this is such a rewarding hobby and worth it in the end.