tested water and things are crazy

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dwint

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
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I have a 29 gallon with two big goldfish for almost a year and no problems until I used water from somewhere else.I did about a 40% water change and used prime about ten hours ago and everything was fine.I checked this morning and my ammonia is high and nitrates are high but nitrites are 0.Is tank going through a cycling process since the spike in ammonia.One fish isn't eating and need help asap.
 
Hi, did you test tap water used for water change for ammonia?

Also did you get a ph reading as ammonia will be worse for fish at higher ph.

I'd test tap and then post that with what tank readings normally are to what they are now. Just as 'high readings' is different for different people.

Confirm if water used for changing is good or bad (or can you go back to usual water?). If water good, then water changes with prime to reduce / detoxify ammonia.
 
I have a 29 gallon with two big goldfish for almost a year and no problems until I used water from somewhere else.I did about a 40% water change and used prime about ten hours ago and everything was fine.I checked this morning and my ammonia is high and nitrates are high but nitrites are 0.Is tank going through a cycling process since the spike in ammonia.One fish isn't eating and need help asap.


Do you use dechlorinator?
 
Tap water tested very high for ammonia and did a change with tested water.i also put in api tap water conditioner.My water I've been using for 10 months is very high in iron so I wanted to start with better water and now I have sick fish and ammonia spiking.
 
Just something to check but if your water conditioner doesn't specifically say it detoxifies ammonia eg API ammo lock or seachem prime, it may not do it.
 
I believe that Prime binds the ammonia so that you get a false positive test result. That has been my experience.
 
From an old post by Seachem:

The "false positive" is only referring to showing a false positive for toxic free ammonia. Since Prime has bound all of the ammonia in a system to an ionized NH4 form, it will still show up on a test kit as total ammonia, but it will be present in the system in a form that is not toxic to the fish. The only way to differentiate between NH3 and NH4 ammonia in the presence of Prime will be by using gas exchange technology such as what is utilized in our Ammonia Alert or MultiTest: Ammonia test kit.
 
I used a full bottle of prime and since I ran out did three 50% water changes and all my tests have been good for 10 hours and my fish are swimming and eating so I guess I did good.:dance:
 
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