Dave Peck wrote:
Greetings!

I have a 37 gal Oceanic that is 11 days old. Long story short, day one I
put in chlorine treated and stress coated water, 2 live plants, a tiny
snail, 2 small decorations and some decorative 'river' glass, and 3 smallish
tiger barbs that I had gotten at Wal-Mart and nearly suffocated when I put
them in a small Beta tank over night (the things we do for our kids :-)).
About 5 days later I did a 20% water change. Also, at some point about 9
days ago one of the tigers died. Five or six days ago I added a packet of
Bio-Spiro (sp?) from a LFS, but they weren't very friendly or informative.
Then 2 days later added 2 green barbs, 2 albino tiger barbs, 2 good sized
snails, another plant, and 2 more small decoration (from PetsMart). I
probably did not do a good job of choosing fish, but now we are attached,
especially to the 2 little Wal-Mart tigers. Yesterday I went to another
LFS, friendly and helpful, and I got a MagnaFloat and a test kit.

My water had been a bit cloudy but it cleared up yesterday. I was probably
feeding them too much. This evening I test the water and I was surprised to
find that it isn't in great shape. Maybe 11 days isn't enough time and if I
am doing the right things it will all work out. The fish look happy, even
if they are a bit mean to each other.

The PH is 7.75.
The Ammonia is around 1 ppm.
The nitrite is between 2 and 5 ppm.

What do you recommend? Also, any advice on when I can add fish and what
kinds would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave Peck



I wouldn't add any more fish until your ammonia and nitrite levels are
at zero. It could two or three more weeks. If you add more fish now, you
risk overloading your biological filtration. This would result in a
spike in ammonia and/or nitrite levels. Be patient and keep testing your
water. When conditions are right, then you could slowly add to the
number of fish.