Tank crashed. Fish DIED!! :(

[DesoShade]

I have a 10 gallon tank, freshwater. And a 30 gallon tank I just bought for a saltwater setup. I just got my filter, heater and otherthings in the mail today for it. Anyway, I'm off topic.

So there's my 10 gallon tank. Had it for a month and everything was fine. Until today. One of my fish, a molly, died recently. Uh oh, I thought. checked my ammonia level. Way too high. I'm talking 8.0 high. Uh oh. So I did a 50% water change and added some stuff to remove the chlorine (tapwater), some more stuff to treat ammonia (and then some extra since my levels were high) and a dose of cycle (ads good bacteria to the water), then a little tablespoon of aquarium salt. Next day. Uh oh. Another dead fish. Tested water, high ammonia. So, I'm gonna beat this I thought to myself.

Here we go again. another 50% water and some chemicals to treat the chlorine and ammonia. 15 min later, this awful crap smell in the tank. As my girlfriend described it, it made the entire apartment smell like... rotten butt, oh yeah, and another dead tetra. I net him out. 10 min later, even more worse rotten butt smell and another dead tetra. 5 min later, another dead tetra. 5 min later, my 2 glass catfish, dead. They are all dead. Only my dwarf frog and sucker fish still alive. I had to net them out and stick them in a small small hermit crab container and empty the rotten butt tank.

Why did my tank suddenly go clear to ? It had been perfectly fine for a month with no problems at all. Why did all my fish die within minutes?I'm afraid to start my 30 gallon saltwater tank now because I will probably end up ruining that one, too. Any ideas what happened to my tank? What was that awful smell?

[Piggy]

Did you cycle the tank before you set it up? Did you test your water? How many fish did you have in the tank? Did you use any water conditioners? What kind of filter system do you have on the tank? I have a freshwater tank and I've had the same fish for over 6 years I can't belive they lived this long.

[DesoShade]

Well, I cycled the tank for about 3 days before adding fish. At first, I added a fruit tetra and 2 mollies and 2 phantom tail tetras. About 2 weeks later, since all was perfectly ok, I added 2 glass catfish and 3 teeny ghost shrimp. Later, since everything was still ok, I added a dwarf frog and a snail. My tank setup was a walmart starter tank. Had everything in it to get started. Heater, Aqua-Tech filter, just basic stuff.

The chemicals I added to the water are: Cycle, ACE (Ammonia Chloramine Eliminater), Doc Wellfish's Aquarium Salt (freshwater) and TetraAqua AquaSafe.

I might ad tho, the filter in there hasn't been changed in 4 weeks, so I was due for a filter/carbon change.

[Rcpilot]

3 days?

Here. Read this:
Beginner FAQ: The Nitrogen Cycle

Google
Google all this and READ IT:
aerobic bacteria
anaerobic bacteria
nitrifying bacteria
cycle fish tank
nitrite
nitrate
ammonia

[Piggy]

Looks like you didn't cycle the tank and added too many fish in such a short period of time.

[simpleman]

When cycling a FW tank 3 weeks is good 4 is better. Did you check nitrite level? Nitrite is generally present early in a cycle. I have started FW tanks in the past with a hardy pleco and waited for ph to set, nitrate to lower and 0 nitrite and ammo. Good luck!

[simpleman]

RC's post is right on the $!

[DesoShade]

4 weeks for freshwater? hum. I knew it was a long time for saltwater, but I didn't know it was so long for a freshwater, too. The fish seemed fine for a month then all of a sudden, they all died at once. ouch. hmm. I'll have to look over those links. but what was that awful smell?

[reeffreak]

Desoshade,stop doing water changes.You are only removing the bacteria thats trying to breakdown the ammonia.Sorry for your lost,In your case,I would of bought live bacteria.The first fish that died probably cause the ammonia to go thru the roof.As far as the smell,I don;t know for sure.Anerobic bacteria releases nitrogen gas that can smell like rotten eggs.

[DesoShade]

rotten eggs... hmm. sounds about right. And it went throgh the entire apartment. So you think the water changes were a bit too much? I always thought that's what you had to do in order to lower ammonia levels. It's confusing. So when I do the water change i'm removing both good and bad bacteria. Makes sense. So how do I remove just the bad? You mentioned live bacteria. Would that be the same thing as that bottle of "Cycle" and "A.C.E." that I have? or is that more of a chemical substitute? You don't think it was too much chlorine do you? Because after that last water change, they all died within minutes.