What went wrong?

I got a 10 gallon tank, added organic miracle grow with gravel on top, a few plants from petco, and four green tetra. The fish all died, the plants look almost dead, and the water always looks stirred up. I changed the about a third of the water every other day. What went wrong?

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Permalink Reply by Peter on July 27, 2014 at 6:39pm

well according to u Everything went wrong..lol. but on a serious note, did u cycle ur tank and filter b4 u added ur fish? What types of bulbs do u have? are they rated to grow plants? and for ur stirred up look, u probably used to big of size of gravel or ur cap was just too small. u should cap dirt w/ 1 1/2" - 2" of sand or small gravel or w/e u chose. it would be best to add like sand to ur cap to fill in small gaps if u used gravel that was 2 big in size. or just add more cap if ur cap was 2 small

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Permalink Reply by Tanner on July 28, 2014 at 11:27pm

Everything did go wrong. Thank you, Peter. I have done a lot more research now. Too bad for the first round of fish and plants. I think maybe dirt isn't all it was cracked up to be. If I stick with it, I will as sand to my cap. I didn't really cycle the tank because I used a water cycling kit from petco. I also just have the T8 fixtures that came with my tank. I am leaning toward just gravel. Obviously, I need to do more research before I try again. Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by LED on July 31, 2014 at 3:12pm

research is always good. Remember dont always trust a chemical to do everything because it cant. When keeping a dirted a tank, you must have patience AND MORE PLANTS than you ever thought you'd need

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Permalink Reply by Johanan Micaiah on August 5, 2014 at 4:41am

Did u test your water b4 adding fish? Also, dirt will release a lot of nutrients unlike in normal tank, so even the chemical may not be enough.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Talamantes on August 6, 2014 at 2:54am

Did you soak the soil first? When you don't a bunch of gases get stuck at the bottom that release once you fill it up that might be toxic for fish. You should mix some dirt or sand in and some clay to get a nice substrate, Also, petco sells their plants and fish in pretty bad condition so their pretty fragile so that might be why the fish died.. Typically, some plants melt away their leaves that are accustomed to a different setting and start growing new greens, so if you see that its a good sign it'll come back. The good thing is that Petco as a 30 day exchange policy on plants so you can get some new ones. Also, what kind of lighting are you running? Pink lights 6 hours a day is best. Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by john walden on August 17, 2014 at 1:41am

Depends what you local petco is like . I happen to be in very good standing with petco in my areas every fish i got from them survived . The manager personally ran this area of petco and made sure that every plant and fish was in good condition due to the fact that he was a planted tank keeper and want customers to have just as nice of a choice as he had.

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Permalink Reply by john walden on August 17, 2014 at 1:39am

Did you do this all at one time. Or did you cycle the tank a little first? Sounds like you had no bacteria established yet and the fish didnt survive the first night . Also some fish need a certain temperature ,including the plants. Now what im really wondering is did you buy topfin plants in the packages or did you buy potted. With planted tanks you can expect some plants to die off a bit before they become conditioned to the climate you have them in .So you should expect some melting . The water looks stirred up because you have dirt in it takes a little while to clear up. If you want to clear it up faster i would say water change at 50% . that should help.

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Permalink Reply by Calvin on August 19, 2014 at 2:37am

pretty mcuh

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Permalink Reply by Tanner on September 7, 2014 at 9:34pm

I fail. I am all settled in a new home and they are going to allow me to set up a tank. I think skip the dirt and just stick with gravel this time n wait to put my fish in for some weeks.