new to this....

[Gingerail]

Hi!
I'm new to the board, it's great to meet you all!
Here's my problem:
I am new to the whole fish thing.
I set up a standard 10 gallon aquarium and followed all the instructions. I used the Chlor-out stuff prior to getting any fish, I set up the filter system, and a heater for the water temp to stay between 76-80 degrees.
I felt like I did everything right and I had the aquarium set up for 3 days before getting any fish. I bought 3 small fresh tropical fish to go in the tank. I followed the instructions about how to interchange the water before putting them in the tank.
After all that, I put them in together. Everything seemed fine.(This has all happened last night). This morning when I got up, one of the fish was dead and the water was very cloudy. Next a second one died this morning and now the third one died.
I don't have a ph and mineral content checking system.
What do you guys think???
I was reading somewhere about cloudy water meaning a high concentration of ammonia in the water and that would kill them.
Thanks everyone!!

[Nightmare]

Amonia in the water will kill the fish, however if you had it set up for three days prior and you put chlor-out stuff in that usually handles the amonia also.

Sometimes it isn't anything you have done, but they could have already been sick from the pet store. where I live, I don't have a reliable place to buy fish. If the pet store uses what is called a swamp, then all the tanks share the same water. What one fish gets, they all get.

I have never been able to keep a fish from this store. The next time you buy fish, make sure the store doesn't use a swamp, and invest in a ph tester.

Nightmare.

[Gingerail]

Thank you for your reply.
We haven't bought anymore fish, yet.
I don't know if we will or not.
The thing is, they all came from seperate tanks at the fish store and the water was clear when we put them in, then it turned cloudy after7+ hours, then they all died.
Thanks,
Ginger

[BaileyGurl]

what type of fish did you start out with? some are more fragile than others and shouldn't be used to start a tank.
the cloudiness in the water was probably the start of the nitrogen/bacteria cycle, this happens to all new tanks and is perfectly normal, you just need hardy fish to endure the procces, another option would be to get a fishless cycling chemical from your local fish store.
please ask more questions if you have them, fish keeping is a very addictive/interesting hobby and i hate to see people get discouraged from a bad first experience.
kelsey

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~Bailey*Gurl~
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[Laura Foster]

Ginger-
What you are dealing with is an extremely common "problem" among new aquariasts- NTS, or New Tank Syndrome. NTS is actually just the chemical swing that occurs because the tank is new. When you put fish in the new tank, it is still sterile- bacterium haven't had time to grow yet. The fish immediately start producing waste, though, which causes a very sudden rise in ammonia levels- toxic to the fish. The fish waste that causes ammonia is "bacteria food"- which causes a bloom of beneficial bacteria in the tank. This makes the water cloudy. It takes awhile to get everything evened out, and during these rapid swing periods, it can be hard on fish that may be sick anyway.
The fish's death could have been caused by a number of things- don't worry about it too much. It sounds as if you did everything tight so far- the fish was probably not well to begin with. I would recommend changing some of the water every day until the NTS leaves. Don't worry- it's still happening to me everytime I set up a new tank- it'll go away in 2-4 days.
Don't get discouraged!
Best of wishes(for you and your fishes)
AquatiCraze (Laura)