Must start over.

[DerekInChandler]

As some have read previously, my ammonia levels were pretty bad. Today, it has become out of control. I had to use an ammonia test from my company... 26ppm. Unbelievable.
Losing fish now. I am going buy a used tank to try and move the remaining fish to this temporary tank.
I can't understand the levels it has gotten to. Will rip out everything from the tank and buy all new stuff and start over....

 

[KFav93]

As some have read previously, my ammonia levels were pretty bad. Today, it has become out of control. I had to use an ammonia test from my company... 26ppm. Unbelievable.
Losing fish now. I am going buy a used tank to try and move the remaining fish to this temporary tank.
I can't understand the levels it has gotten to. Will rip out everything from the tank and buy all new stuff and start over....

Hi, I don't remember if I seen your recent post. But do you know what's causing the high ammonia? Did you overstock? Or is your tank cycling? I recently just had my tank cycle while I had fish in. I lost a few due to the high ammonia. I did daily water changes, 25%, and used prime to detoxify the ammonia. What water conditioner do you use? If you get another tank. You can't throw the remaining fish in there right away. You'll have the same problem. You need to get the bacteria established before you stock a new tank. It has to go through a nitrogen cycle. You don't have to get a whole new tank.

 

[Toad]

Basically OP overstocked without cycling and has been having issues since. At this point it was recommended that a temporary tank be set up so they can keep up with decent water changes and give fish a break from such high levels while trying to get original tank to at least start to cycle properly. At this point it's a last ditch effort to reduce the harm on the fish good luck OP

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[HooKooDooKu]

Don't see the need to get a 2nd tank just to start over.

The sort of thing I've done when wanting to start a tank over is to simply move everything over to a bucket temporarily while I get the old tank cleaned up. (In the case of a cycled tank, that also means keeping the filter media wet by placing it in the bucket while I clean the rest of the filter to the new tank won't have to cycle again).

Once you've got a clean tank and fresh water, you move the fish from the bucket back to the tank, and then do daily tests for ammonia combined with daily water changes until the tank cycles.

Of course if you've already go two tanks, you might want to consider setting them both up and running them in parallel until you get ammonia levels under control. If the tank is way over stocked, then I could see where even daily water changes wouldn't be enough to keep ammonia levels in the safe zone. In that case, having two tanks running to split the fish would help reduce the ammonia levels (but you still might be doing daily water changes... and actually two daily water changes since you have two tanks).

If you have the time and only want to maintain one tank, you could do morning and evening maintenance... test the water and do partial water changes in the morning and again in the evening until the tank gets to a point where one water change per day is good.

Of course as the tank cycles, you will need to test for more than just ammonia. As your ammonia levels go down, you still have to test and do water changes to keep nitrite levels at a safe level until the tank has cycled enough that ammonia and nitrite levels can stay in the safe zone without daily water changes.

 

[abw0004]

I would suggest to just do 50% water changes everyday. I made the same exact mistake with overstocking and not cycling when I got into the hobby 3 years ago. It will take 4-6 weeks, but in the end it will all work out. I know it is stressful at the time, and never seems to end, but the tank will cycle if you give it time and don't start over.