# Fish dying! Cloudy water and overfeeding?



## aquanut7 (Dec 8, 2015)

Help me! I have four molly fish and one just died. The tank was set up on Saturday, and the water has been cloudy ever since. Some idiot came to a party in my apartment and poured wayyy too much food in. Now I am fearing the ammonia levels are too high or something, although I do not have test equipment.

The tank is 5 gallons, and has a heater and a medium tetra whisper filter. The water is always between 74 and 78 degrees, usually around 76. I have been feeding the fish tropical food flakes, and the other three seem to be eating fine but are gulping for air a lot which worries me. What should I do? How do I clean the water if I don't have a gravel cleaner? Do I need one? 

I was toying with the idea of risking it and taking the fish out, dumping everything and putting in all new gravel. But if I did that I am worried the problem would just come back. I know cloudy water can be normal but given the circumstances I am inclined to think it's not. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated! I want to take good care of these fish....

Thanks a lot in advance! :fish10:


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

Hello, sounds like your tank is not cycled if you just set it up saturday. The ammonia level will rise until the tank completes the nitrogen cycle. The BEST thing you can do right now are large and frequent water changes to give the fish fresh water. DO NOT take out the gravel, as that is what will contain the beneficial bacteria that is required to cycle the tank. I reccomend a test kit, however right now you can watch your fish. If they are looking lethargic or gasping for air at the surface, do a water change--75%.


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## vreugy (May 1, 2013)

One more thought. Make sure the water is the same temperature as the tank and treat the water for chlorine. Good luck


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## aquanut7 (Dec 8, 2015)

Thank you very much for the support and advice! I did not realize we had to cycle the tank. What we ended up doing was replacing the water and gravel with new gravel, let the tank get to the right temperature after treating it, and putting the fish back in. So far the water has remained crystal clear and the three mollies seem very happy. They are eating, and no longer gasping for air. I will be sure to keep a close eye on the tank though, and I will be purchasing a gravel vacuum and a pH tester. Thanks again!


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

Ph is the least of your concern, you need to test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate until the cycle finishes. The cloudy water was a bacteria bloom, which has to happen. Essentially, by changing everything you started the process over again.


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

Since your tank was only set up a few days ago and is only a 5g tank, I think starting it over was a good thing to remove all of that extra food. That is a very small tank which makes it more difficult to manage the water parameters when things go wrong, like the addition of that extra food.

However, you now have 3 mollies in that tank, which I think will be a little crowded as they grow, and even more so if you have both sexes. You are now doing a "fish-in" cycle for that tank, so you really should be testing your ammonia nearly every day. Once this starts to climb above .25, you need to do a water change of 50%. 

After regular ammonia increases for a while, you should start to see this stay around 0 and the nitrites will climb. Again, these have to be managed at a level no greater than .25, so daily water changes could be needed.

Most of the beneficial bacteria will be building in your filter media. If done properly, this fish-in cycle will take several weeks, given that you would be doing multiple water changes to keep ammonia and nitrites at .25 or less.

You should be purchasing the API Freshwater Testing Kit seen here:
http://www.amazon.com/API-Freshwate...qid=1449681049&sr=8-1&keywords=API+Freshwater


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