HELP! I'm new to this

A friend of mine gave me a 10 gal tank with everything except the fish. I took it home, cleaned the tank, decororations and gravel. Set it up and filled it up. Added chlorine and had it running for a day before adding 3 molly fish. After a few days the water got yellowish looking and the bottom of the tank in the rocks there is this scummy looking stuff there. Again I took everything out and cleaned it. Doing the same as I did the first time. in 3 days the water has a oder and is yellowish again. So I added some clear water solution to it and that didnt help. What do you think is going on and how do I go about fixing it? I dont want my new fish to die. Please help me! I'm very new to this, never owned a fish tank before.

You say you added chlorine? I think (hope) you have that wrong. Chlorine will kill your fish.

Is the tank being filtered at all? If not that is why the water is getting nasty & smelly. The fish poo and uneaten food needs to be filtered out of the water.

Don't dump a bunch of chemicals in the water. Slow down, do a 50% water change per day over the next few days until it clears up. The best thing to do is have a test kit. The reason that most of this is happening is that your tank is not cycled. Look up the nitogen cycle on google. This will explain so much of what is going wrong in your tank. And not to be a downer but your fish most likely will not survive this. :(

Sorry, I used chlorine remover to the tap water, not straight up chlorine..lol It does have a filter, the filter is cycling.

Sorry, but most first timers over look the cycling of their tanks. A new tank is going to be haywire for a while. Ah, I miss that new tank smell...lol

edit: Really the best thing is to do gradual water changes. What types of decorations do you have? Any wood decor? Wood often leaches out tannins, giving the water that yellowy tea-like color, but it doesn't harm fish.

the best thing you can do for the fish is bring them back to the store.
then setup your 10 gallon tank with a good carbon filter and your gravel and whatever esle you want in there fill it with water from your local fish store then go get your fish back. most stores wont mind giving you seed water.
thats what I would do. it also wouldn't hurt to pick up a bottle of Stability while youre there.

some stores do that? it'd be nice if they can....

fishface30 wrote:

edit: Really the best thing is to do gradual water changes. What types of decorations do you have? Any wood decor? Wood often leaches out tannins, giving the water that yellowy tea-like color, but it doesn't harm fish.

.... What I should have said was do a 50% change followed by small changes daily or every other day until your tank is more settled.

fishface30 wrote:

some stores do that? it'd be nice if they can....

sure any desent lfs will just tell them what you did...

It must not be a St. Louis LFS thing LOL

kimberlyk: you said the gravel was included? is the scum possibly the muck stirred up in the gravel that's settling on the surface?

Fishface30: the muck sits on the gravel. I just changed out 50% of the water with a vac and filled it back up. The filter was so nasty and stinky that I changed it out too.I need to run to the pet store and get a tester. I think the muck is uneaten food. I feed the fish once every 12 hrs, is this to much for molly fish?

No wood in the tank, just plastic/resin type decor

Yeah I think that once every 12 hours is a bit excessive. fish can go for a period of time without food. I must admit, I sometimes get in the habit of forgetting to feed my fish regularly! I try to feed them sparingly once a day or so.

So the scum is from the gravel and the filter. For now it can be a good thing! The bacteria from the scum should help cycle the tank really quick. Embrace the scum(for now).

I have a smaller top fin filter, is it possiable I need a bigger filter?

Hmmm probably not, but I'm also not familiar with Top Fin filters.. You just inherited a gunky filter and really gunky gravel LOL. If I were in this situation, I'd do gravel cleaning with the water change, putting the mucky water in a large bucket for the water to settle, then by the next day the water's settled, I'd use that water to shake and rinse the filter muck out. ORRrrrr, go by a new cartridge for the filter and filter the gravel muck over time. I don't think you're in danger to shocking the tank with new media because it sounds like you already have a tank well seeded with bacteria for the nitrogen cycle.

[quote="kimberlyk"]A friend of mine gave me a 10 gal tank with everything except the fish. I took it home, cleaned the tank, decororations and gravel. Set it up and filled it up. Added chlorine and had it running for a day ......


added chlorine? as in bleach?

shes talking about chlorine remover

fishface30 wrote:

I don't think you're in danger to shocking the tank with new media because it sounds like you already have a tank well seeded with bacteria for the nitrogen cycle.

I wonder about this . As she said she "cleaned the tank , decorations ,and gravel" . I would believe that by cleaning the Gravel and decorations , she removed the original "muck".
Just a thought ,,,Ray

affected, most definitely. I'm thinking because there is muck even after a cleaning that there is much bacteria left behind to recolonize pretty quickly.

Take it all apart again. Put the fish in a bowl overnight. Rinse the gravel in a strainer with hot HOT water, stirring it, sifting it - until water is running totally clean through it.

Go to lfs with several empty gallon jugs. Buy/beg for tank waste water from established tanks. Buy a bottle of aquarium starter bacteria.

Bring it all home, reset up the aquarium, soak the filter sponge in the aquarium starter bacteria.

Starting with 1/2 'old water' will help to quick cycle your aquarium. This will eliminate many of the 'new aquarium' problems. I do it with ALL of mine, and have had no problems in buying a setup and having it fully complete w/fish in one day - and not having an ammonia spike. The aquarium can start already 'cycled'.

I really appreciate everyones help. This is what I'v done so far. Yesterday I took out 50% of the water and filled it back up. Used a tester, it showed no ammonia but, it did show a high level of Ph. So I dropped a ph tablet in the tank and tested it again 30 mins later. Ph level was much better. Changed out the filter. Today I did a 25% water change out. Tested, still no ammonia and the ph level was still good. Tank water is looking better but still not that clear. Smell has gone down alot. My molly fish seem fine, none dead yet...thank God to you all's help! Tomorrow I'll do a 15% water change out and test again.

While your tank is cycling it is best to not mess with the PH and in fact unless you really need to for a special case fish you should never mess with the PH. If your tap water has very low or very high PH this can be troublesome but remember if you put some kind of PH conditioner in the water and artificially lower it then you do your water change and the tap water your adding is very high it will only serve to stress the fish out more. Ideally chemical additives besides something to de-chlorinate the water should be avoided. It will only add to the complexity and chance of unbalancing something.

You said you changed out your filter?

I know someone before suggested reading up on cycling a tank and the nitrogen cycle. Please read more into this is will help you tremendously in understanding what is going on in your tank. The bits of pieces everyone is telling in on here is for the most part part of that cycle.

In short though that filter among nearly all porous spots in the tank are a home for beneficial bacteria. It is this bacteria that we need to establish in order to "cycle" the tank. If you change your filters out all the time you will lose that bacteria and effectively restart your cycle. If you need to clean it just rinse it in some of the water you drained during the water change NOT tap water.

A normal cycle will go something like this

Add fish---
ammonia produced by fish/fish waste
week 1 ammonia continues to increase,
1-2 weeks in you see signs of Nitrite and ammonia continues to be high,
End week 2-3 Nitrite levels rise ammonia levels fall,
Week 4-5 ammonia at 0 Nitrite level slowly deceases Nitrate levels increase.
weeks 5-6 ammonia and nitrite at 0 Nitrate high.
Water changes keep Nitrate under control
Everyone happy.


This is a fresh start scenario and time line will vary. What is important to note is that this is not an instant thing. Bacteria additives can aid in this as can "seed" water, gravel, established filters/filter media. These are not needed though and your tank can naturally cycle.

Since you already added fish you can continue to do partial water changes to keep the levels from becoming extremely toxic to the fish. You can also use products like Prime that will de chlorinate your water, convert ammonia to a less toxic form but still available for the bacteria to feed on, helps control nitrite.

During water changes the added water should be pre treated for chlorine and be roughly the same temperature as the tank water. Unless levels get very high I normally stick to 25% water changes. This coupled with products like Prime seem to work very well for me. I have yet to lose a healthy fish during a cycle this way.

Kim K.. do you recall the old tv ad about E.F. Hutton?.. When they speak, everyone listens.. Well my EF on cyclying is Strike. It behooves ya take note of his advice. But.. (me of the infamous buts)... It's my understanding that the water column itself is the least likely transferrer of the good bacteria to a new setup. Beg borrow or steal some substrate or filter media. Those two are the ultimate hosts for the bacteria colonies that you need. Good luck going forward and especially with so much advice!...
But then again,,, we ALL learn everyday.

Very true bill the free floating bacteria present in the water column at least from what I have read would be substantially less then that found in the filter media.
Substrate surface is a decent spot for bacteria to form and often times deeper layers of substrate can form anaerobic bacteria that aids in the decomposition of waste.
My LFS will sell some of the established filter balls they use in their giant sump system when asked nice enough!

Strike.. that's great advice for those new to the hobby.. Your Local Fish Store (LFS) will go out of their way to make the introduction to the hobby as painless as possible. It just drives business back to them as we all progress deeper and deeper into the hobby. Thankfully, I had a mentor in my re-introduction and in less than 3 months have gone from 0 gallons to now over 300 gallons... all seedings from a "sister/brother" tank. I just sold a 55 that was housing our discus and prepared a ziplock of the filter media for the buyer!.. He was talking about picking up 15 angels to put in the tank the very next day until we had a long chat about cycling. I gotta give that guy a call to see how things are progessing.. ummmm..