HELP!

[dkpate]

Ok, I know I am proably getting annoying by now....But I was told to do a 50% water change, so I did that about 4 hours ago. I just redid ALL my tests WITH a water test kit, and now my ammonia is HIGHER! 0-NO3, 0-NO2, pH-7.6, and Ammonia is up to 1.0! Before I did the 50% water change it was only .50! What do I do? Help!

 

[Etunes]

What water did you change it with? Maybe tap or well water. Well/tap water can have ammonia in it and it could have higher ammonia then your tank. The thing to do is test your tap/well water.

 

[taylorodw]

There are a couple things you should try.

1: Test the water straight out of the tap. Is the ammonia high?
2: Make sure you are testing correctly, with a test tube kit (not the strips - they're inaccurate and that could cause the bad readings). If you have the test tubes, fill to the line, use the droppers vertically (try sitting the test tube on a table), use the cap, and follow the instructions as the shaking/timing of each test is different!

Hope this helps.

 

[dkpate]

I tested the tap water (I used 1/2 tap water and 1/2 spring water from the store when I changed the tank water) and it is reading 0. I did another test on the tank water and it is still 1.0. I am using the test tubes and filling them to the line and followed the directions. I am afraid to do another water change because I don't want to shock the fish.

 

[dkpate]

Also, I noticed when I put new water in, there was a lot of leftover brine and bloodworms that came up out of the gravel. Shoul I vacuum the bottom and get rid of them?

 

[Etunes]

Yes, vac like crazy if you have ammonia like that. I would do another water change tommorrow because it is kinda late right now and you don't want to interupt the fish sleeping but if you don't do it tommorrow the fish could die from ammonia poisoning. Also how often do you do water changes? also be careful for over feeding.

 

[dkpate]

It is late! LOL! And I have to get up in 5 hours for work, but I am so stressed out! I vacuumed 25% like the directions said and got SOME out. I will for SURE do another water change tomorrow. He is a noctournal Black Ghost fish so he is awake, he just doesn't like it when the lights are on. This is my first water change, I just got him 5 days ago. I went to town and bought a water test kit with the vials and everything is good except the ammonia. Should I just keep doing 50% water changes? And use the dechlorinator every time? I sincerely appreciate your help on this! I am a basketcase over this right now....I will be careful of overfeeding in the future! I looked up the fish and saw how often to feed him, but I am not too sure about how MUCH to feed him. The brine comes in little frozen cubes and I was just putting one in a day. The bloodworms come in a bag and I was giving him probably about 1/4 tsp a day also. The sites said to feed them 2-3 times a day but never said how much.

 

[marchmaxima]

When you feed, only feed the fish what they will gobble up in around 30 seconds. And you don't have to feed 3 times daily unless you have fry or specialised species that specifically require that. Once or twice a day is fine. And once a week, skip a day altogether. Left over food rots and causes ammonia especially the live and rozen foods. No wonder you're having problems.

When I feed brine shrimp to my fish, I suck up the brine shrimp into a syringe and drip in a few drops and then repeat a few times until I am satisfied everyone has had a little bit. If there's leftovers throw it away.

Also, mix up the feeds with flake foods and other dry foods. You'll find the fish are happy for the variety and it's better on your hip pocket too

Don't dispair! We've all overfed our fish and had to clean up the results later. Do another PWC as soon as you can and vac up as much of that leftover food as you can get. Things shoukd then get better.

 

[dkpate]

Thank you SO much! I have been up ALL night fretting over this! As soon as I get home from work, I will vac the tank and do a water change. Thank you also for the feeding info! Also, how often can I do a PWC until the ammonia is at a safe level?

 

[marchmaxima]

You can do 25-50% changes morning and evening if you have to. The important thing is to get that ammonia level down. Anything above 0.5ppm needs a pwc. Getting rid of all that excess food should make a big difference.

 

[dkpate]

Thank you for also putting things in "laymans" terms for me! I sincerely appreciate your help in this matter! I feel much better now, and hope the fish can make it another 8 hours until I get home from work. What kind of flakes should I get for him? He is a BGK named Elvis and I love him!

 

[DragonFish71]

I use tetra color fish food flakes (in the yellow can) and tetra-min color crisps (green and yellow can) or tetra color granules when I'm feeding ours something different. Ours get a huge variety of foods. Live, frozen, freeze dried, crisps and flakes. I've gone to feeding every other day. One day will be crisps, the next freeze dried, then flake etc. (you get the idea)

 

[dkpate]

Ok sounds good! Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated!

 

[dkpate]

Ok, one more question. Should I vacuum the tank until all of the leftover food is out and then still not feed him for a few days? That was the advice I got before to bring the ammonia down.

 

[mfdrookie516]

i only feed once every 2 or 3 days, so i would do a thorough vac then just skip feedinguntil monday or tuesday

 

[dkpate]

Ok sounds good! Thanks so much for your quick replies! I can't wait to get him into the 60G, and I think I found someone local who has an aquarium I can borrow stuff from to seed it! If not, I will find someone going into town and have them go to the pet store and grab me some gravel!

 

[dkpate]

I just read this article, was wondering if I should pick some of this up to help with the ammonia problem?

"Honestly in my tests Cycle or Stress Zyme are really only useful to aid in breakdown of excess wastes from over feeding, poor filtration, etc. (Cycle can also be used as an aid to organic breakdown while waiting for your aquarium Nitrogen Cycle to get started from other means when fish are present). The Heterotrophic Bacteria within these products can aid in the decomposing of excess organic waste however they are basically useless for actually seeding an aquarium and this is a FACT."

 

[mfdrookie516]

Honestly, i have used stress-zyme a few times myself and have had good luck with them, but other people havent so they dont recommend it. Im sure there are alot of people here that will tell you it cant have live bacteria in it after sitting on the shelf for who knows how long, but i personally have had good luck with it, and a few other people on here have as well. It just depends on who you ask, but imo at $3 a bottle, why not give it a try?

 

[dkpate]

I found someone going into town today and they are going to pick some up for me. YAYY! Things are coming together! My poor little baby, I feel so bad and you can be sure I will never make this mistake again!

 

[mfdrookie516]

it happens. i think the majority of us started an aquarium with no knowledge of cycling. I can thank some of the big chain stores for that, telling me that all a tank needed to do was set for 24 hours and it was ready for fish