Help needed on high ammonia!

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Newlyobsessed

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 17, 2017
Messages
23
Location
Texas
Hello! I'm new to keeping an aquarium. I rescued a goldfish from the fair. I didn't do research and bought a 7.5 gallon tank with filter. Filled it with purified water and put the fish in it. Now that I e done research I realize it really needs to be bigger and I should have cycled the tank ��. Either way the fish is now in there. I bought a stone to provide oxygen and did research on food and bought water test kit. I can't get the ammonia under control!! I've done 3 25% water changes and added ammolock once. What do I do? I really want to be good to this fish but my husband won't let me buy a bigger tank��

Please help!
Thank you
 
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defiantly going to need a larger tank as they wont stay small long
the smallest would probably be a 40b
as for the ammonia issue large water change gold fish are big ammonia factory's
so very frequently .
you could also consider a small pond in your garden outside
welcome to AA
 
you can go a little smaller I for some reason thought it said 3 than I saw it was water changes 20g would prob work
 
In a tank that small you are going to be doing a lot of water changes.

Don't feel like you have to limit yourself to 25% changes. A 25% change only removes 25% of the ammonia.

You are probably going to be looking at 75% or larger water changes.
 
So should I remove the goldfish from the tank and just do a full water change weekly? And if I do a full water change what do I need to be adding to the water every time? I have ordered ammolock but have been using filtered water from my fridge. The ph was a little too acidic until I added the fresh water API kit despite the fact that I was using filtered water. All the other levels are what they need to be at this point except ammonia. And do I change the filter? I made the mistakes of giving the goldfish seaweed which is now all over the bottom of the tank and on some of the filter.
 
Rinse the filter in conditioned tank water. Do not change it, it is where all of your beneficial bacteria will reside. Do not remove the fish for water changes. Do about 70+ %. Leave enough water for the fish to hang out. Make sure you vacuum and remove all debris and in eaten food it contributes to ammonia as well. Stop using fridge filtered water. Fish need minerals in their water. Unless you are planning on remineralizing with something like Seachem Equalibrium. Feed sparingly.

If the 70% water change doesn't reduce to ammonia, do another change in a few hours.

If that still doesn't do the trick, test your source water. It may have ammonia in it. Not uncommon for filtered or tap water.
 
I was able to keep my daughters goldfish from the fair alive for a year. I have a 30 gal tank but if i put the golsfish in there i fear my cichlid would make quick work of it. I have a 2 gal and a 1 gal bowl that i used. I would put the fish in 1 bowl and wash the other and let water sit in it while the fish was in there other bowl. I would keep the fish in the 2 gal for a week and in the 1 gal for 4 days. This lasted a year until my schedule changed and i was unable to keep up with the water changes. Hope this helps. It can be done in a small tank or fish bowl just a lot of water changes needed.
 
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