What precautions/medicine etc are necessary for a healthy fish tank?

V

Vampy

New member
I have a fish tank and have been taking real good care of it. I clean the water often, medicate it and supply my fish with high-quality food. But apparently I must be doing something wrong because my fish keep dying one after the other. Some get sick, 1 tiny one got stuck in the filter and one even jumped out of the tank and died. So, apparently my fish REALLY hate me. I only have 3 left when initially i had 9.
So i decided to start afresh. I cleaned the tank thoroughly and bought new accessories and pebbles and stuff. I decided not to add any live plants because I hear they carry a lot of parasites. My tank is 20ltrs [5 gallons]. What medications, precautions and that kind of stuff are necessary? Including pH, ammonia, bacteria and whatever else is a menace to my tank's wellbeing. I need a LIST of EVERYTHING i should have and do in order to be an good fish owner and finally stop my fish from getting sick and dying..

Most informative answer gets 10 points.
Thank you beforehand.
 
Here's what I did when I set up my 5 gallon betta tank.

What I started with
The tank (obviously)
filter
substrate
heater
thermometer
plant bulbs
one small decoration.
Seachem's Ammonia alert (why I got this will become apparent later)
water conditioner
A container of pure ammonia

What I did:
I added the substrate, filled the tank, added the conditioner, threw in the bulbs and decoration. All the standard stuff. I then added 2.5 ml of the ammonia solution. enough to take up to about 5ppm. I used filter squeezings from my tetra tank and poured it directly into my filter to jump start the bacteria. I kept an eye on the ammonia alert. When ever the ammonia was completely gone, I added another 2.5 ml. I did this for two weeks. After that two weeks, the nitrate levels were at 80 ppm, so I decided it was enough. I drained the tank completely, filled it, drained it again, filled it again, conditioned the water, got the fish.

The most important thing when starting a tank is to not cram it full of fish right away. Your tank needs time to cycle. Fish produce ammonia. Ammonia is toxic. Bacteria grow that break down ammonia into nitrites. Nitrites are still toxic. More bacteria grows that breaks nitrites down to nitrates. When kept low, nitrates are harmless. If you add a lot of fish to an uncycled tank, you have a massive ammonia spike that will kill the fish.

It's why I add ammonia into the tank when it has no fish in it. To allow the bacteria to grow so that when I do add fish, their waste is processed right away.

a 5 gallon can't hold much. It's really only good for one betta.
 
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