When you say that there is dust in the tank, it this stuff floating on the surface? Or is the water increasingly clouded? (See cloudy water in Immediate Help for other cases.)

Too often (and it is a team effort between the aquarium and fish sellers, the new aquarists and sometimes even older aquarium literature) that we are unclear about what properly preparing an aquarium and cycling a tank is all about. Treating the water with the proper conditioner (did your LFS -Live Fish Store- people tell you whether you should treat for chlorine or chloramines?) and letting the water season for a few days so as to absorb some oxygen, warm up and release free carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the
water is good, but it is not establishing a nitrogen cycle. When we have cycled the tank with a couple of fish over 4-6 weeks (or the fishless Cycling in as little as 7-10 days) where the very toxic ammonia given off by the fish is broken down by a colony of beneficial bacteria into the less toxic nitrites and eventually those are broken down into the only toxic nitrates.

When I first dropped by Guppylog, I wasn't used to giving the establishment of a nitrogen cycle much thought any more. Established aquarists who "breed fish" (ie set up conditions where THEY are comfortable breeding), often have more than one aquarium. When setting up a new tank, it becomes almost second nature to "import a cycle" into the new aquarium by covering the newly washed
gravel with some (bacteria rich) wet gravel from an established tank. I usually start the new tank with 60-70% water from established tanks and add it right after the gravel, so the wet stuff doesn't dry out. (Usually gently pour the water into a soap-less pint jar so as to not stir things up too much). Usually plants are also transplanted from another tank. Sometimes a sponge or box filter, which has run for a few weeks to months in an established tank, is also added. Once I actually did move a HOB (hang on back) power filter to a newer aquarium.

If one only starts that new aquarium with a pair of guppies (or whatever is to be allowed to reproduce) there is no dramatic rise in the number of toxins in there. In fact, there is no need to even test and monitor the water.

If I hurt fish from neglect, it is by not keeping up consistently with the periodical (weekly, biweekly, monthly...) partial water changes. Except for the measuring with a TDS meter (an increase in Totally Dissolved Solids indicates that waste material is increasing) one really doesn't need to fool around with test kits for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. (To my dismay, it became evident that even experienced aquarists can - and sometimes do - still lose fish to nitrate poisoning, where water changes are neglected. The fish slowwwww down, settle on the tank bottom and eventually suffocate as the nitrogenous wastes gets into their blood by way of the gills and prevents the hemoglobin from effectively picking up oxygen.)

To be blunt, I fear that your aquarium isn't completely cycled yet. If you lived in the far Southern 'burgs of Chicagoland  I'd be over with a half bucket of used gravel. ;)

Do you have a friend with a healthy, long established aquarium?

Now to your situation... Get on the phone and see if your shop does tests on the water. Even if they charge a modest fee, that is probably cost effective and not unfair.

Quick fixes can include continuing the partial water changes with treated, at least slightly seasoned water. You should have a gravel vacuum and that needs to be run through a section of your gravel at each partial water change.

Also, if ammonia proves to be a problem, you can put newly rinsed activated carbon in your filter. Understand though, that the effectiveness of that
activated carbon, seldom chemically effective beyond a week, will be effective for even fewer days if there is a fair amount of free waste material in the tank.

There are also more expensive materials one can put in the filter. I have used Polyfilter when I feared a 55-gallon tank was going south and it headed off the emergency. Your shop can probably show you some of those.

Once the immediate threat of the ammonia has been backed off, if you still trust that shop, ask them if they have one of the products which is supposed to store a dried bacteria culture (the beneficial stuff referred to above) which will revive and begin to process your fish's waste. There seems to be a lot of controversy over whether all of those products work. I haven't investigated them because I don't need them. What I do desperately need is to spend more time changing water on my tanks. ;)

You might want to consider getting a test kit. A three-in-one kit containing tests for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates is probably cheaper than three separate kits.

When time permits, click on the link (upper right of this page) for Immediate Help and check out the second section there.  

Is your aquarium a 10-gallon? Either a ten (because of cost) or a 20 (because of more stability in terms of water chemistry and temperature) are good first aquariums. How many fish and frogs are still alive in there?

With an eye on the future, are Boo Radly and Mr. Anderson the dwarf African aquatic frogs or the larger African aquatic frogs? The former are probably only a threat to guppy fry. The larger species will eventually consume everyone else. Our nephew has a 14-year old African aquatic frog that is way bigger than my hand, spread out.

If you Google search Guppylog and frogs, you will encounter some previous conversations on them.

I'm angry that you seemingly have been lead to set up an aquarium and spend a bunch of money only to endure the heartache of losing fish. I'm also disgruntled that you in all probability were miss-lead (perhaps as a sin of omission rather than a sin of commission - it is still wrong) about how to start the aquarium. More effort and probably a little more money will be needed to sort things out. I hope that you will be able to help the biological processes get to the point where they are working properly and all you have to do is look out for uneaten fish food, do partial water changes of 40% every week or two and worry about what to do with the fry.

By the way, the logs are an idea of the people who wrote the software Guppylog uses. A consensus has arisen here that it is quicker and less political to just submit a diary and see you question or comments immediately upon the front page here. A lot of us, when new, get stuck in a log-jam. Next time you raise a topic, just submit a diary.

We look forward to hearing how things work out for you and yours. :)