Ammonia Emergency!!!

[dsilvers]

Hello! I have written here before for myself, but this time I am writing for my friends who have a 29 gallon tank. They've had it for a few weeks now. Bit more than a month. They cycled it, added fish slowly. Did everything right. I saw the set up, it's very nice. They tested pH, ammonia, etc...the whole run down. They got some irridescent sharks and plecos...and BAM...the died. Right before they died, the ammonia level shot up. The new filter had a burning smell and got jammed, so they took it back to the pet shop and declared it broken. So they figured that was the reason for the ammonia spike. They had been doing regular water changes, etc. so it seemed logical at the time. New filter, all the fish died, so they were cycling again. They cleaned out the tank, etc. The tank cycled and they started with a few rosey barbs, a tetra here or there. Everyone seemed ok. Levels were all ok. They put in a few sharks and otto cats for cleaning BAM...ammonia levels spike again. They are at their wits end. They are technically doing everything right. Now b/c of all the ammonia chaos, everyone has ICH!! So they are treating with Quick Cure, half dose due to the Tetras. Everyone is still alive--but why would this be happening. We reviewed everything with them and they are really great about all maintenance. It's a freshwater set up by the by. Any thoughts??

 

[justDIY]

well, when you say "cycled" ... what you do mean exactly?

normally cycling a tank means providing a source of ammonia and allowing bacteria colonies to grow that reduce ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate.

these colonies will not develop without ammonia - so running a tank just filled with water will not accomplish much, whether given a week or a month.

if you search this site for "fishless cycling" you will find a wealth of information.

You can also use "hardy" fish such as dannios or goldfish to cycle your setup, however, then the problem of what to do with the fish after they've served their purpose arises. This is why a lot of people choose the fishless method.

an ammonia spike indicates the beginning of a cycle - this will start a bacterial growth to handle fish waste product; first your ammonia rises and then declines as nitrites rise. as nitrites begin to decline there will be a rise in nitrates. for most setups this is the end of the cycle.

however, lets say you setup a 30 gallon tank and cycled it properly with 3 fish. you cannot add a bunch more fish and expect them to survive ... the tank will have another cycle because of the huge increase in "bio-load"... you have to add more fish gradually allowing time for the bacteria that handle the waste time to increase their numbers to match the added "food"

my recommendation would be to not add any chemicals or medications, as these can distrupt or even destroy your tank's biological filtration. Instead, just do regular water changes - try to do it daily or every two days change 3 gallons. This will help keep your water safe for the fish and they should recover from their ich naturally.

also, instead of using chemicals to dechlorinate your water, let it sit in a bucket with an airstone for at least 4 hours, or without one for at least 24 hours... this will drive off almost all the chlorine and chloramine that may be in your water.

best of luck to you and your friend - hopefully you'll be able to stabilize things quickly!

 

[Allivymar]

Just out of curiosity, how did they "cycle" the tank before adding fish? I'm going to bet the tank was not cycled in the way glmclell described. A tank cannot "cycle" until there is an ammonia supply, which usually means fish wastes. Also, I'm guessing the initial fish carried a small bio-load, and there was not a lot of ammonia (and consequently not a lot of nitrifying bacteria). The plecs however, are one of the biggest waste producing fish in aquaria, and that big increase in waste kicked up their ammonia, especially if they added the sharks and plecs very soon after adding the first guys.

Please make sure they understand (if they don't already) cycling the tank means the nitrogen cycle (growing the bacteria colony which will take care of nitrogenous waste) and not moving water around the tank. If you would rather not explain it LOL print the info off here as glmclell suggested, as well as this site: http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Oh and aerating the water will NOT remove chloramines (sorry glmclell). Only chlorine. If there are chloramines in the water, a dechlorinator which removes chloramine is a MUST.