Too much ammonia

[Dooboedoo12]

Have a 30 gal tank, 5 days ago my ammonia spiked to 8.0 when my biggest fish died. I was expecting it to rise but not to 8.0. I did a 50% change waited 24 hours did another 50% and than added natural bacteria to help. I waited another 24 hours and than checked. My ammonia was down to 4.0 so I bought an ammonia blocker to help and bought 2 African spears. I waited another 24 hours and it was still 4.0. I added another dose of ammonia blocker and waited another 24 hours I'm at day 5 and it's still 4.0 (my filter was cleaned 5 weeks ago but it's supposed to be changed every 3 months and I don't clean the bottom biofilter layer) (I also have hand fed my fish pellet by pellet so no food is floating around and no more than 5 pellets each so less waste). Any advice?

 

[jlk]

Welcome to AA!!!

What type and how many fish do you have? The best thing you can do right now are water changes- lots and lots of them. No more chemicals or ammonia blockers or anything else except for a good water conditioner such as Prime or Amquel Plus. Its going to take a couple of large water changes (50+%) over the course of one day to drop your ammonia own to a reasonable level of .25ppm or less. Make sure you temperature match and properly condition all new water. You will then need to continue to test daily and do big water changes anytime your toxin levels spike to keep your fish healthy as you are now starting a fish-in cycle due to changing your filter media. Please read the link below as well and ask any questions!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I have 3 fish, a 6 inch oscar a 4 inch jack Dempsey and a gourami. I will discontinue using the ammonia blocker (amQuel plus) and smart start complete. The gourami won't make it the night it seems. He just ate for the fist time in 3 days so i can only cross my fingers.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Pics of my fish. The oscar I think is going blind. He can't see his food. This just happened today

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Someone please help I don't want my fish to die! I hope it's the ammonia problem I'm handling and not something else

 

[jlk]

The eye clouding is from ammonia exposure. The Amquel Plus is fine to use as I mentioned above in my previous post and please continue to use it dosed to your tank size with every single water change. They need lots and lots of healthy water in order to have hope of recovery but you honestly need to work on a much larger tank for these guys. Most oscar enthusiasts recommend 125+g for two Oscars, 75+g just for a single oscar. Please feel free to ask for further help in our 'Cichlid' subforum for specific information on these guys and their needs!

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Thank you very much for this! For Xmas I will be upgrading to a 90 gallon tank. I just want them to live until than! And so I don't make more mistakes

 

[jlk]

Christmas is around the corner which is good news for your fish! Keep testing and continue to do constant water changes in the interim. You really need to bring the ammonia way down and keep it there. If you need help with moving them to their new home or anything else, do not hesitate to ask! We are here to help!

 

[demonicbrittany]

Water changes! I don't think those chemicals help for removing ammonia, they just mask the problem. They end up just making things worse. Changing a large amount of water to dilute the ammonia is the best thing. And do this daily. In a few days you should have it to a manageable level. I was told to use ph down to lower the ph in my tank and it lowered it for about 2 days and than it spiked back up to higher than it was in the first place.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I've done sooooo many water changes. I think that my tank is just over stocked is all and the filter can't keep up anymore. I'll have to do daily water changes until the new one is done

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Btw new tank- day 9 the amonia still hasn't lowered. Nitrites and nitrates are still 0 and the ph and high range ph are off the chart high.

Though the plants in there look great

 

[Matt68005]

nah, its just a big new tank and going thru a big new cycle....might I recommend next time you put some cheap common goldfish and some Benifical bacteria in there like Stress Zyme or Stability for 2-3 weeks before adding expensive fish..... britanny is right, those chemicals mask the problem more than they are a "suddenly okay" type of thing. When ever you cycle a tank you must do water changes until they water turns clear or yellowish, anything besides white cloudy. If water changes is too hard you should get a siphon that hooks to your faucet, I assume your carrying buket after bucket and cant keep up. I also recommend not overfeeding until its cycled.
ps. Im a big API fan, they make a product called "ammo lock" go to the petstore, grab the box (its like gravel) wash the approiate amount of rocks off with clear tap. and dump it in there, it will absorb excess Ammonia until the cyele is complete, that way you aint got to change so much water so often if its too hard for you, but still you must change water in every new tank.

 

[Delapool]

Btw new tank- day 9 the amonia still hasn't lowered. Nitrites and nitrates are still 0 and the ph and high range ph are off the chart high.

Though the plants in there look great

Well a silver lining on plants

Unfortunately you could have another week or so before the bb can catch up on ammonia and then nitrite should spike and then bb catch up. It just takes time, I'm not aware of any high ph restrictions on bb. It may be getting slowed down though. Also I believe that the bb are a little slower on converting ammonium. Also from memory the bb can handle up to 10ppm ammonia so they should still be active, just catching up.

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html


Have you checked your tap ph and ammonia levels? What's your tank ph now?

 

[Delapool]

nah, its just a big new tank and going thru a big new cycle....might I recommend next time you put some cheap common goldfish and some Benifical bacteria in there like Stress Zyme or Stability for 2-3 weeks before adding expensive fish..... britanny is right, those chemicals mask the problem more than they are a "suddenly okay" type of thing. When ever you cycle a tank you must do water changes until they water turns clear or yellowish, anything besides white cloudy. If water changes is too hard you should get a siphon that hooks to your faucet, I assume your carrying buket after bucket and cant keep up. I also recommend not overfeeding until its cycled.
ps. Im a big API fan, they make a product called "ammo lock" go to the petstore, grab the box (its like gravel) wash the approiate amount of rocks off with clear tap. and dump it in there, it will absorb excess Ammonia until the cyele is complete, that way you aint got to change so much water so often if its too hard for you, but still you must change water in every new tank.

Um, I assume here you mean starting with hardy fish that are planned to be kept or can be given away to community pond or such for a fish-in cycle?

I was also just curious on the Ammo lock. I also like API products although our options are limited. The ammo lock I have is a liquid. Would you have a product description as would be interested for QT. I do have a bag of nitra-zorb but it is annoyingly fine grained.

 

[Matt68005]

IDK, just google it, It comes in a big box like aquarium salt from petco or petsmart, its just White rocks you wash off in tap and then dump into the tank, they absorb ammonia for 1 week and turn purple and you take them out and put more in or wash them in salt water and use them again, its like $6 at petco/petsmart, I don't use the liquid stuff.....just regular api stress coat for declorinator. Im not sure what you have in Australia but some pet store somewhere should have some ammo lock gravel.
As far as the goldies, heck ya. Buy some 2" commons and put them in there for a few weeks or a month and you can do a fish in cycle. They are dirty fish and stir up the gravel all the time and are very tolerant of poor water, so the perfect fish for cycling a tank. After that just give them away or throw them in a pond. I don't use the prime or amquel right now but I use too...now all my tanks are cycled and I have no use for it, regular declorinator is better for tanks that are already cycled IMO.......Something that even fish store "experts" don't know is that prime will neutralize any other chemical you put into the water, such as one for parasites.

 

[Delapool]

Many thanks for the info, will check out - sounds ideal.

 

[gilpi]

Advice from an old timer...
Oscars are pretty tough fish, I have actually cycled filters with Oscars, though I don't recommend it, need lots of water changes while cycling.
Best thing is to use some sacrificial fish like feeder goldfish when cycling a tank/filter.
Stay away from chemicals except a good de-chlorinator, raise the temp in the tank say around 80f and lots of water changes while the filter cycles (when fish are in the cycling tank)
I always felt doing lots of water changes while cycling slows the process but at least you won't kill the fish with the high ammonia build up.
Hope this helps!

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I'm ordering the ammo lock today for my 30 gal. I still can't get it below a 1 but I've come to the conclusion it's just to small for them. I have the 90 gal almost done. The nitrates are finally showing up once I added some bait fish The 90 gal is on it's way to being done but the 30 gal is a hand full. The fish are all healthy now thank god but it's going to be a lot of work for another 2 weeks if say til the driftwood is done and the cycle is complete

 

[Matt68005]

The one with white sand...wow beautiful tank! How much did the drift rocks cost? might have to try that some time....