Ammonia D:

[Flake]

I've always liked fish and recently a friend decided to start keeping fish. He's jumped right in with several tanks quite fast. I've recently decided I wanted to start a reef tank and have been researching it. A friend set up a freshwater for me to play with so I could start learning about fish. Unfortunately this isn't turning out to be quite as much of a favor as i'd hoped.

He is keeping his other tanks far over stocked due to a pair of fighting angelfish. He asked if I wanted to take a few fish. I agreed. We went to go buy a hood and a few other fish of my choice before I picked up the tank. After getting there, it's a lot more fish. He had 12 red eye tetras and 2 pearl gouramis in the tank before I added 2 ottos, 2 snails, a black angelfish and a calico oranda. (planned on moving them to as bigger tank once they got too big for this one) I don't believe the tank fully finished it's cycle before adding the other fish to it and then I added more, adding a ridiculous strain to the tank. Ammonia is deathly high and the water is very cloudy. I'll be getting a new tank today and letting it cycle for a week if not more to try and cut down on the load in this tank.

I did a 10% water change last night after testing the ammonia and realizing it was that high. I added a bit of prime to try and cut it down. Is there a better regiment I could use to keep these fish alive while cycling the other tank and a better way to cycle this tank better?

 

[goldfishlover101]

I would try doing a 25% water change every day until you get the ammonia down because the ammonia may kill some of your fish and when you added more fish, that means the ammonia will go up even more. Very cloudy water can also be a sign of high ammonia. Just keep doing daily water changes and everything should start to get better.

 

[Flake]

that's what I thought. I'm just going to keep at it until the tank rights itself or I can get some out of this poor overstocked tank. Thanks.

 

[neurotik]

The cloudiness in the water is most likely a bacterial bloom due to the tank not being cycled yet. It should clear up on its own once your nitrifying bacteria get themselves established to take care of the ammonia and nitrites. As for what to do in the meantime, I would say do partial water changes every single day until the tank is fully cycled. Test your water EVERY day both before and after you do your water changes so that you can keep track of how the tank is progressing. 25% water changes would be a good amount to change each day, as you don't want to remove too much water each time because that will only make things more difficult on your bacteria colony that is trying to establish itself.

Once you've been doing partial water changes for a while and you have managed to bring your ammonia levels down to reasonable levels, keep testing your water each day and continue doing partial water changes any time that your ammonia levels are at 1.0ppm or above. Once you're past the ammonia stage where the bacteria is breaking down your ammonia and you begin seeing nitrite reading in your water, do partial water changes every day as long as your nitrite readings are at 0.5ppm or above. Continue that until your tank can break down all of the ammonia and nitrites on its own each day and the only readings you are getting are some nitrates which are left over from the ammonia -> nitrite -> breakdown.

Lastly, remember to be patient with this hobby. Things will not happen over night, especially when it comes to cycling your tank. You will probably have several days, possibly even weeks, where you will wake up, test your water, have ammonia, no nitrites, and no nitrates, and you'll do a 25% water change, wake up the next day to the same thing and repeat that process over again every single day for however long it takes. And whatever you do, do NOT add any more fish in to the tank at this point, and be very careful not to over feed them either, as this can increase the ammonia in the tank even higher and make it more difficult on your bacteria.

Good luck!

 

[WhiskeyD]

You should ask your friend if you can have one of his established filter pads or even some gravel from one of his tanks. Put it in your tank and it will really help speed up the cycle and help lower your levels in the mean time.

 

[Flake]

This all was from his tanks. I've since noticed all the mistakes he's passed on. Nitrates are skyrocketing from the overcrowdedness. This tank is not a 20 gallon at all. It's closer to a 10. Seems I won't be trusting him for more advice. I'm doing a 50% water change today and 25% water changes daily to keep these poor guys alive until I can move them to the larger tank. I went and got about a 60g tank today that i'm starting to cycle so they'll have room shortly.