Ammonia Spike

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

canuckaquarist

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
63
Hello all, another question or rather concern.

A few days ago one of my Mollies looked sick, was rubbing himself on gravel/decor/plastic plants. I took a water test, 7.6ish PH, 0 Ammonia/Nitrate/Nitrite. I did a partial water change of about 10% (I use AquaSafe with water changes) because I was getting ready to setup a QT incase I needed to add him to it to treat him.

I went out and bought medication to remove parasites/ich, and added the recommended dosage. Also added the recommended Aquarium Salt (Doc Wellfish) dosage. Have slowly raised the temperature up to 84F.

After about five hours, I did a water test. I got 7.8 PH, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate, but got around 4 Ammonia.

Is this a suitable Ammonia spike for a recently medicated aquarium with a recent 10% water change?

If not, what should I do?

Thank you,
-Blake
 
4 is incredibly high. Redo the test to be sure. You need to get that number down to .5. It could be a false reading from cholaromines in you tap water. Treat some tap water and test it. If it doesnt read 4 then you need to change your water, 75% a couple of times to get that number down.
 
What type of test are you using on your water? Test strips are notoriously error prone and could be a part of the problem if you are using them.

Also what medication did you use and was there a warning that it could harm your biofilter? Some medications are very good at killing of the biofilter at the same time as treating whatever problem you are trying to treat.
 
Using a Freshwater MasterTest Kit, water/drops.

I used Aquari-Sol by Aquarium Products (Fresh water cure & preventative for ick, closed fins, body fungus, velvet, and other parasite infestations.).

It said remove the carbon from my filter, which I did.
 
Tap water comes out 0.25 Ammonia, when the AquaSafe is added to the tap water, it comes out 0 Ammonia.
 
Start changing water. Do 75%. Wait a few hours test again and do another 75%. You need that number under 1 ppm, .5 is better. Keep testing and changing till you reduce the ammonia to a good safe number.
 
Just did a 75% change, how long should I wait to test again?

I'm sorry, just noticed you said wait a few hours to test again. Sorry my mind is going a mile a minute right now, I feel so bad that I endangered them with this ammonia spike 8O
 
I think it is more close to 1 to 2 range now, I will do another 75% when I get home from work in 9 hours.

Thanks again everyone.
 
How long has the tank been setup? If you have 0 Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates then it is not cycled. Also, you need to get that temperature up to 87. Do you have an airstone in your tank?
 
Fishyfanatic - do you think it's better to wait until the ammonia is down to raise the temp any higher as ammonia toxicity increases with pH and temperature.
 
Tank has been up and running for 6+ months now. I put my Mollies in around the third week because I was told at my LFS that they would help cycle it.

Yes I have an airstone in, have had it in for the past month.
 
It's basically a catch 22. If you increase the temp the ammonia has a higher toxicity. But if you leave the temp where it is, the ich is going to reproduce at a higher rate. Ich dies once temperatures reach 87 degrees. The closer you are to the 87 degrees, the faster it "spreads". Increase the percentage of water changes, keep the airstone in the tank for extra oxygen due to the increase temp, and turn the heat up. If you get that ammonia level down, it won't be as bad. Get it down to .25 or .5 ppm.
 
Just did another 75-80% water change. Ill do another test in a couple hours.

When the temperature hits 87 degrees, how long should I let it sit at that temperature to kill the bacteria (ich)?

I had it upwards of 86-88 yesterday for a good portion of the day.
 
You need to leave it at that temp for 2 wks AFTER you see the last signs of ich (spots or scratching). The fish get used to the high temps, so dont worry about them.
Water changes are great during the treatment since they remove some of the free floating ich, you can do gravel vacs to get even more of them out.
The water changes will also help to keep your ammonia levels down, so you'll probably be doing them anyway.
 
Sweet thanks, will do.

Should I keep the carbonless filter in? or go get one with carbon in it? This one is brand new, just cut a slit and dumped the carbon out yesterday for the medication.
 
Carbon is optional if you're using heat only. Most folks don't use carbon as a rule in their tanks except to remove medications. Since you used the meds you might want to use the carbon to remove it so that the fish don't get too stressed by the combo of meds plus heat. Carbon is only effective for about 7 - 10 days, so going forward you might want to consider filters that don't have carbon in them as a routine. If you can't find a filter pack w/out carbon for your filter you may be able to cut a piece of filter floss (its sold in sheets) to size.
 
Back
Top Bottom