ammonia level

[taiter42]

My 37g tank seems to be going well, I have added 3 glofish. I woke up this morning to find on of the died. I have tested my water and also had PetSmart test it while i was replacing my GloFish. Well it seems my ammonia level is high its between .5 and 1 i believe. The store clerk told me to get some ammonia chips and add to the filter or do a 10% water change i opted for the water change atm what do you guys suggest.

 

[Laser]

Water changes are the best advice but you need to much more than 10 percent to be effective. 50% is the recommended amount of water to change. However, I would do 60 or 70 percent if I were in your place. If your ammonia level is at 1.0 a 10 percent change is only going to bring it back to . 9. Any level of detectable ammonia, but especially over .25 is harmful and deadly to fish.

What kind of water conditioner are you using? If you are using Prime I would dose the amount it recommends to detoxify ammonia for the whole tank before adding the water back in.'

Also, take care to not overfeed them as this will cause your ammonia to go up faster.

 

[Rivercats]

Was the tank cycled before adding the fish? You shouldn't have ammonia unless you have it in your tap water if the tank was cycled. What is your ph also?

 

[taiter42]

I had cycled it through adding the stailizer to it the Ph if i rember right was 7.8.
I took fish back to pet smart today and got a replacement did about a 30% water change hoping that would help add the stress coat for the tap water i added in introduced the fish to. seemed fine to start with havn't done another water test yet though. Just looked at the tank and the new fish didn't make it. Not sure if it was just stress on the fish or if i am doing something wrong.

 

[Rivercats]

How long did you cycle the tank for exactly? Did you do a fish in or fishless cycle? Did you test your water daily to be sure it went through the different stages of cycling with ammonia spike, the to nitrite spike, to finally nitrates (this is a very oversimplified very of cycling)? Also what kind of stabilizer are you talking about?

Honestly you tank doesn't sound cycled and ammonia is very toxic to fish which means you shouldn't add fish until your ammonia is 0. Or if you add fish you need to be testing your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates daily and do a 50% WC anytime your ammonia or nitrite readings get above .25ppm.

 

[taiter42]

I have cycled the tank for the 7 days with Stability as directed on the bottle. I didn't have my test kit so i couldn't be testing the water. I did take some samples to PetSmart and they told me i would be able to add my fish. I added my fish everything seem fine then i lost one of them. I got a replacement from petsmart. I have changed 30% of the water and added the stresscoat to treat the water.

Now my Fish are spending there time hiding in the bottom of the tank.

 

[taiter42]

API Master Freshwater test kit results

Just tested my water today. the water change doesn't seem to have done anything for the ammonia level.

 

[Rivercats]

Your tanks not cycled, that is the problem. Read this article if you plan on doing a fish in cycle.... I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice.