nitrite ammonia spike after treating for bacterial infection

[mattmathis]

I had to treat my 75 gallon aquarium for a bacterial infection the other day. This was on a completely cycled and established tank. I thought maybe it would not hurt the beneficial bacteria too much since it was an established tank but I was wrong.

My ammonia slowly went up last night, only to 1.5 or 2 though. I did a 40-50% water change and added ammonia clear by jungle. I did another 35-40% water change this morning and added more ammonia clear but the ammonia stays. Now the nitrite are going up to. still only .1 but I'm scared it's going to keep going up. I added some stress zyme this morning too, just to try and help the bacteria. oh, and I added charcoal to my eheim 2217, and I have 2 whisper 60's with charcoal in them running now too.

Do you think this is going to keep getting worse or is there a chance it could turn around?

If it does, what do I do?

75 gallon
ph = 7.6.
ammonia = 1.5
nitrite = .10
nitrate = 20

 

[DragonFish71]

A mini cycle can happen when you treat a tank. The treatments can kill the good bacteria. The tank needs to right itself again. Keep doing your water changes to get the ammonia down to at lease .25 so it doesn't burn the fish's gills. Don't use ammonia clearing products, the tank needs to go through that cycle again. Just treat the water for the size of the tank each time you do the water changes.

 

[fort384]

+1 for dragonfish.
While the common medications treat gram negative strains of bacteria (which account for the majority of aquatic diseases), and most of the good bacteria are gram positive, it is not uncommon for your bio filter to be severely degraded post-treatment.