I need help with my fish tank!

Did you cycle the tank? You have way to many fish for a new tank. Try this link:
[link to freshaquarium.about.com]

Saltwater or fresh?

Did you put a chemical in the water that takes metals out?

Get a Ph tester and ammonia tester. Live plants will help regulate the ammonia because it will fix the nitrogen. Coral (even dead) will regulate the Ph, but you will need to get the Ph and ammonia to tolerable levels before the plants and coral will help. There are chemical additives to fix Ph and ammonia problems.

Make sure your air pump is working properly, too, and check your filters. Never, EVER, totally empty and clean an established tank. At most, 50% drain and replace.

Forget the chemicals, you don't need them unless its a salt water tank.

If there is high chlorination in your water, this may be the cause.

Put 20 gal. of water in buckets, washtubs, whatever you have. Let them stand for 24 hours. This will allow the chlorine to evaporate off. Then put the water in the tanks.

We used well water whenever we could. It solved a lot of our fish tank problems we had when I was growing up.

It sounds like the ammonia level is to high to me as well.

I'm not sure if you're talking freshwater or saltwater.


I know absolutely zero about salt water fish.

I had freshwater tanks for years. They're pretty much indestructable once you get them going. Be patient. You need to get the bed going. Put cheap fish in there. Feed them sparinlyly at first. They'll do the rest. Make sure you have a couple inches of gravel.

And a good filtration system.

Some water companies switched from chlorine to chloramine

[link to www.cpau.com]
14. How can I remove chloramine from my water?
Chloramine cannot be removed by boiling water, adding salt, or letting water stand still. Treatment devices to reduce chloramine levels are available. These devices should be independently tested and specifically certified to reduce chloramine. Although home filtration systems will reduce the level of chloramine from water, it will not remove it completely.


I think a good charcol filter will reduce the chloramine or chlorine levels down to a level that won't kill the fish (too fast at least). That's what I used when I had a tank and the fish did Ok.