HELP! Water Parameters Bad! babies at risk!

[arminkropp]

Whats the best thing I can do? I did 10% waterchanges the last 2 days and ammonia,rates,rites are through the roof! The crappy thing is I have 8 newborn mollies and 2 newborn guppies in the tank. I dont want to do anything to the tank to hurt them.
I addded ammonia remover to the filter cart. yesterday and added some cycle aswell.
Any other suggestion!

TIA

 

[Kasakato]

Did you cycle your tank? Other than that, more water changes!

 

[Menagerie]

Larger water changes are needed. I would do 50% water changes daily for 3-5 days to get the levels down. How large is the tank? How many fish are in there? How long has it been set up? How often do you vacuum the gravel?
What are the exact values of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

 

[arminkropp]

Hey Meg,

Its a 10Gal Tank with 5 cardinal neons 2 guppies 2 lyre tail mollies and a cory.
But now i got 10 little babies in there too as of 3 days ago.
Yes I vacuum the gravel, every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks
Its been set up for about 2 months
All levels are off the chart
amm over 6.8
rites over 4
rates over 100

I'll be doing a massive water change in the next hour or so
It seem everything was fine till right after I added one of those food pyramids that you use to feed fish when your away from home.
I was gone for 4 days with the holidays and now the water is cloudy and levels are out of whack!

 

[Menagerie]

It seem everything was fine till right after I added one of those food pyramids that you use to feed fish when your away from home.

8O
The fish would have been better off not eating for four days. Even better than 50% changes would be two 25% PWC daily. Keep us updated!

 

[arminkropp]

Well I did a 40% waterchange.
Ammonia and nitrites are at 2.0 now
Nitrates are at 50
Fish look a bit better already. Cardinal tetras are starting to get some color back.
I used RO water this time cause I didn't have any water conditioner and the stores around here are closed on sundays.

I must say this is pretty discouraging! I almost ready to get my 50 Gal SW tank ready to go and I had this problem with a 10gal FW!! Makes me wonder if I'm prepared enough! Maybe I just need to pay closer attention.
Thanks for the advice on the food pyramid, Are they really that bad?
I let you know what everything is like tomorrow.

AK