Ammonia Blindness? Please help!

[abw0004]

Well I need to swallow my pride on this one and admit a HUGE mistake I should have never pulled because I definitely knew better, and feel dumb for doing it.

As everyone probably knows because of my multiple threads, I am rebuilding my tank. I have a German Blue Ram in it, among Neon Tetras, Honey Gourami, Clown Pleco, and Nerite Snails.

When I tore down and rebuilt the tank two weekends ago, I kept a good 5" of tank water that was full of detritus and (I thought) BB. I put the plants I was going to reuse in a 10 gallon QT tank I have with the fish.

With the main tank I put the new gravel in with the tank water I left in so it was mixed in with the BB. Once it was all set up, I also took an extra step and put two Solo cups full of the old gravel in the tank to further help the tank not cycle. The new filter had also been running for a week prior and had been used with a few old pieces filter media with the new media to jumpstart it as well.

"This will not cycle," I thought and put all of the fish in the tank the next morning after I did a 70% water change. Well, for the past week it has been at .25 PPM (never gone higher than that) ammonia, and yesterday has finally registered Nitrates. With that, I kept the GBR in the tank, knowing well enough GBR's do not tolerate cycling tanks. I did 50% water changes everyday to try and help her out (she is 2 years old by the way).

Saturday morning I noticed she was at the bottom of the tank with some stress bars showing, and seemed to not know where she was going and would run into things. She would also not eat.

I immediately set up the QT tank, put her in with the temperature at 82 degrees, half dose of aquarium salt, and Prime as the conditioner. She would just lay on the gravel upright with the stress bars, and would keep bumping into things when she did move around. Her breathing is normal, and will not eat. What have I done, and can I reverse the damage? I love this fish to death, and am kicking myself so don't harp on me too bad. Thank you.

EDIT: The other fish are fine, eating, and acting normal. The ammonia has never been above .25 PPM. Strangely, Nitrites have never once registered, but Nitrates are registering now like I stated.

[fishliker]

Sorry you are having this trouble. So is the ammonia 0 in the quarantine tank? . What I would say is keep her as free of stress as possible, keep tank lights off, use prime every 24 hours to keep whatever ammonia at bay. Do a partial water change daily as quietly and quickly as you can. That's all I can think of. See if she can recover. If the quarantine tank is not cycled I might just put her back in the other tank. Continue monitoring the water parameters and do a pwc until ammonia and nitrites are 0.

I have learned the hard way that changing the gravel or sand is disruptive and often leads to a mini cycle. And I would not do more than a 50!percent Pwc, and that's only if three fish were accustomed to that much of a change. The fish. Good luck.

[abw0004]

Thank you for the advice. The QT tank is not cycled, and has not registered ammonia yet. The lighting has been darker than normal to help keep her calm. She is used to 50% water changes as I do those weekly anyways before I underwent this project. When I do the water changes, I always do it on the opposite tank as her. When I get home from work, I will try to feed her again with Garlic Guard on it. I just can't tell if she is truly blind, or just super sluggish, or both. I know these fish really only live 2 years anyways, and she is already past that, but I do not want her to go out like this if I can help it.

[fishliker]

Sounds like you are doing a good job. I wish you and the fish the best.

I keep pearl gourami and just had one die at about 2 years. Pearls, at least the females, develop some bloat in their last few months which she had, but she was fine until the day before when she didn't come to the top to eat like usual. The next day I found her dead. Again, good luck.

[abw0004]

Hello again,
So I just tested the water and ammonia and nitrite are 0 PPM. The QT registered about .10 PPM ammonia. There is some Nitrate, but not much. I will transfer the GBR back to the main tank unless you disagree. Or will moving tanks again in three days be worse?

[Brookster123]

Just dose 2x prime daily and change water.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

[fishliker]

I see Brookster has answered you. Glad to see that as Brookster knows what he is doing for sure. I'd follow his advice. Hopefully he will continue to help you!

[abw0004]

I dosed up to 5x after my water change. If my ammonia and nitrites are zero still tomorrow I will try to move her back since I know there will not be ammonia there. I know Prime can alter ammonia readings for the API Liquid test, but does it still affect it after 24 hours?

[Brookster123]

Think it only recommends a certain overage in dosing?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

[abw0004]

Yes, up to 5x's and I really only did 4x's to give some room for error. I did not do that for the main tank, maybe 2x's dosage. But I did not know how much that affected the readings 24 hours later