Illness, Health & Nutrition • fish are not doing so good

[finfan1133]

Ok so i have a 75 gallon and its been running for about a year.i dicided to change to cichlids and add afew to tank and eventually take my comunity fish back to pet store. So i added rocks to make caves and totally rearanged decor. i know now i did things wrong so please bare with me. I have 2 angels 1 silver dollar 1 pictus all able to handle themselves. 1 baloon ram 1 cory 2 glass catfish and 3 rosbaros. I added 1 acei 1 yellow lab 1kenyi 1 red zebra 1 not sure and a giraffe cichlid. I know now after purchasing from chain pet store that half of these cichlids are not compatible with each other. Well four days later the zebra died.wasnt eating and became clear and puffy lips and blind. Next day balloon started acting wierd and going blind.so i started treatment with maracyn and maracyn 2. Day four of treatment. Ballon died acei died angel fish are about to.they all started hovering top even pictus wich never comes out but to feed.so i stopped treatment did water change and they started to swim around.still look bad though.cant even see to the back of the tank its so cloudy.i did test with api results are amon. 0.25 nitrate 20 nitrite. 50 and ph 7.8. Also before adding new fish i made the mistake of changing everything in my canister but ceramic rings.......please help what should i do

[DJRansome]

Are you sure nitrite is 20 and nitrate is 0.25? Usually it is the other way around.

Since your tank is not cycled, not much you CAN do except lots of water changes to keep the toxins down.

[finfan1133]

Amonia is0.25. Nitrate is 20. And nitrite is 0.50

[Robin]

Using a good quality dechlorinator such as Seachem Prime or Amquel Plus will help to remove ammonia and detoxify nitrite. Also: adding a small amount of salt will help detoxify nitrite--just 1-2 teaspoons per five gallon--dissolve it first and then add it gradually. Feed the fish sparingly until the water conditions improve. And like DJ already said, tons of partial water changes. Any dead fish should be removed quickly to cut down on ammonia.

Robin

[13razorbackfan]

Yep....do water changes every couple days on the order of 35-40% and add back in prime. Do this until ammonia and nitrite are zero and you have some nitrate readings.

Also...don't test for at least 24hrs after using prime or other dechlorinators. It will show false positives.

That is pretty much all you can do.

[finfan1133]

Thanks for the responses. Fingers crossed