High Nitrite, Sick Fish, No Ammonia!!

[MissMarr]

hi!
I bought my first tank about 2 months ago, a 10gallon. I didn't know any better about bigger sizes and now I wish I had bought a 20 gallon.
Anyhow, I totally overstocked the tank with everything cool in the store, including goldfish!! In total I had 19 fish. The man at the store led me to believe that if I added Nutrafin cycle the tank would cycle in 24hrs!
Of course most of the fish died, and I am left with just the hardiest 4 zebra danios, 3 glow lights, and 3 fan tail goldfish. I have 5 live plants, some seem very healthy, a couple not so much. The fish contracted that parasite disease called Ich? I think. So I medicated the tank with the filter removed. Although it seems to have gotten rid of the white spots on the fish, I think it destroyed the bacteria in the tank. My nitrite levels have been of the chart for 4 weeks now, with ammonia levels seemingly undetectable
I did a control test on my tap water and it has no nitrite level. It also has no chlorine in it and is that a problem?
Also do I have to dose the water with ammonia? I really want to keep a nice tank but I almost want to just dump the whole thing out and start over again!!
I need some help from experts because the books don't give all the variables.
One last thing, I do partial water changes, about 50% every 5 or 6 days.
Thanks for listening!

[fishmommie]

Wow. I can't believe someone in a fish store would let you buy so many fish for that small tank. Very sad. If possible, please post a photo of your tank.

First - what do you mean when you say you removed the filter? Do you mean the filter cartridge, not the actual filter?
In any event, you have to run a filter to clean the water. You need a filter cartridge to grow beneficial bacterial so that you won't have ammonia and or nitrites. You do water changes any time your ammonia and or nitrites approach .50 on the API liquid test kit.
So put the filter (or filter cartridge) back in. Check your water for ammonia and nitrites EVERY morning until you finally get readings of 0 for both. And as I said above, do a 50% water change each day that either ammonia or nitrites or BOTH approach .50. Once both are 0 you can switch to weekly water changes.

Next - take the gold fish back. They belong in nothing smaller than a 50 gallon tank and will eventually die in your small tank NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO. Do not add any more fish until you get this straightened out.

Never dose the tank with ammonia if there are fish in it. You'll kill them.

I don't know what ich medication you used but I suspect it told you to take the carbon out of your filter and that is probably why you removed your filter media. How long ago did you treat? How long has it been since the fish have had spots? do they still have spots?
get back with those answers and we'll go from there.

[Cliff]

You are now cycling your tank with fish, There is a link below in my sig to a thread that will help explain what you need to do next. There is nothing that will do that for you, you will still need to cycle your tank. You do not add ammonia to a tank with fish in it, the fish wast will provide the ammonia that you need to grow the bacteria.

Keep in mind you need to keep you ammonia and nitrite level at(or below) 0.25ppm. Test daily and if you level are above that, complete a big enough watercahge to lower it to or below 0.25ppm. For example, if you nitrites hit 1.0ppm, then you would need to do a 75% water change to lower it to 0.25ppm

Don't forget to use delchlorinator with each waterchange and do not clean the filter at all

[MissMarr]

ok thanks so much for the help!
to answer the questions above:
yes I put the filter substrate back in after the last three days of medicating but I didn't take the actual filter out :)
I am going to take the goldfish out and let my kids keep them or let them go in the pond down the street or something but my kids won't let me actually bring them back!
The ich spots appear to be gone, I waited until all the spots fell off the fish before I medicated but I noticed a small one on the goldfish tail a few days ago so I feel like I might have to medicate all over again in a few weeks.
I was changing the water almost every day but i felt like every time I did one of the fish would die so I thought maybe they were connected.
I will start changing it every day though until the levels drop.

[MissMarr]

sorry I mean the filter cartridge not the filter substrate:) Also should I change the filters or is that were the beneficial bacteria live?

[fishmommie]

Don't ever change out your filter cartridge. That is where your beneficial bacteria live. If you've had the same cartridge for over a month, the carbon is no longer doing anything so you don't have to remove it to medicate the tank.

Please consider returning the goldfish to the store after you cure the ich. Giving it to your kids to put in a bowl is just another sure way to kill it. Goldfish are very misunderstood. They grow huge if in the proper environment (a large tank) but will always die if kept in a small one.

[Cliff]

I will start changing it every day though until the levels drop.

I'm not too sure you understood the purpose of the water changes. It is to bring down the nitrite and/or ammonia down to 0.25ppm or less. You have to keep in mind both ammonia and nitrites are toxic to fish. I would suggest completeing a 75% waterchange tonight, and retest the water after about 20 minutes. If they levels are still above 0.25ppm, do another water change. The water changes will help to make the water safe for your

You have to do enough water changes to get the levels at or under 0.25ppm each day

[Kayfish]

One more note. Make sure the temperature of the water you are putting back into the tank matches the current temp in the tank. This could also contribute to stress and possible fish loss. As noted above use dechlorinator to treat the tap water.

[Cermet]

Never release a fish into a pond or stream - alien species are a disaster. If you can't return it, put it in a cup of water and freeze the fish.