Ammonia jumped to 8.0ppm overnight?!

[MurderComplication]

Hi everyone!

I have a 55G with 6 neons, 3 drawf gouramis, three angels and a pleco. All are fuly grown - but the pleco is 12inches long.

I did a 50% water change yesterday at around 10am when I noticed that my pleco hasn 't been eating his waffers. So I moved all of the rocks, the plants, the drift wood, and the bridge in the tank out and gravel vacced all the parts that my Mom couldn't reach when she was babysitting my tank for the past four months. I replanted all the plants, put the rocks back and all the other as before mentioned things. I didn't add anything else at all.

When I added in the new water - due to the high choline levels in my town's water, I do a triple dose of Prime.

I checked the water levels this morning after yesterday's water change and it went from 0ppm yesterday to 8ppm at 12 today! I did a 30% water change with a 4x dose of prime, and I'm planning on doing that same change again tomorrow.

At the moment everyone seems fine but for the Gouramis. They're all at the top of the tank vertical.... :[

 

[Cardex]

Probably stirred stuff up when you cleaned keep up the water change and using prime it will help detox the ammonia if the levels don't drop quick it's possible the water was treated with something that killed your cycle but its not likely

 

[MurderComplication]

So, I did a 35% last night, the same this morning, and after I returned home from my errands - found all three gouramis dead on the bottom on the tank, and one dead neon hiding in the back. I just finished a 75% water change and will be doing another test in the morning.

 

[Cardex]

After treating your water but before putting it in the tank test for chlorine if you don't have a test kit check the pool section of your local big box store its possible they have over chlorinated and somehow killed your cycle I had it happen a few years ago when the local lake had some strange outbreak

 

[MurderComplication]

I know for a fact that my town has extremely chlorinated water - so I do a double dose of prime. I just tested my tap water for ammonia - and it read 2.0ppm. Currently in my tank it's at 4.0ppm. I'm heading out to get some prime and possibly some melaflax which I've been told previously that it will help with ammonia levels.

Also - my fish show almost no signs of ammonia poisoning besides for not eating, and the gouramis which were gasping for air at the top. Although, I had a gourami die three weeks ago from, my best guess it was DGD, what seemed like a huge quarter sized lump in the chest region. Although we still have no idea how he died - but the others started to show signs of it as well.

At the moment here are my readings :[

pH 6.2
Ammonia 4.0ppm
Nitrate 0.ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm

I suspect from these that my cycle was indeed interrupted...

Thanks by the way hun :]

 

[Cardex]

Is the ph level normal for your area it seems low but my tap is liquid rock ph 8.1 so my view is a little off

 

[MurderComplication]

So, the chlorine level is 3.0ppm, and the pH is at 6.4 from my tap water.

I lost one tetra while I was out at Petsmart - they don't carry melaflax here. Or the little guy is hiding... hope he's just hiding. My pleco was doing strange movements this morning. He'd go to the top of the water, start swishing his fins like he's trying to stay above the water level - then when he jumps, he hits his head on the top of the tank.... poor Albert.

 

[MurderComplication]

-sigh- my Pleco didn't make it :[ he wasn't even fully grown and fat albert went to the big waffer in the sky....

Stock left: 3 Angels, 1 wild silver stripped, 1 platinum angel, 1 half plat half koi angel
4 Neons
After this ordels done I'll have to restock and make pseudo graves for those lost :[
<3

 

[Cardex]

-sigh- my Pleco didn't make it :[ he wasn't even fully grown and fat albert went to the big waffer in the sky....

Stock left: 3 Angels, 1 wild silver stripped, 1 platinum angel, 1 half plat half koi angel
4 Neons
After this ordels done I'll have to restock and make pseudo graves for those lost :[
<3

It's strange the angles lived but the pleco did not

 

[patrickriley2010]

Hi everyone!

I have a 55G with 6 neons, 3 drawf gouramis, three angels and a pleco. All are fuly grown - but the pleco is 12inches long.

I did a 50% water change yesterday at around 10am when I noticed that my pleco hasn 't been eating his waffers. So I moved all of the rocks, the plants, the drift wood, and the bridge in the tank out and gravel vacced all the parts that my Mom couldn't reach when she was babysitting my tank for the past four months. I replanted all the plants, put the rocks back and all the other as before mentioned things. I didn't add anything else at all.

When I added in the new water - due to the high choline levels in my town's water, I do a triple dose of Prime.

I checked the water levels this morning after yesterday's water change and it went from 0ppm yesterday to 8ppm at 12 today! I did a 30% water change with a 4x dose of prime, and I'm planning on doing that same change again tomorrow.

At the moment everyone seems fine but for the Gouramis. They're all at the top of the tank vertical.... :[

You me and someone else have had amonia problems after pwc wtf is going on?

 

[MurderComplication]

You me and someone else have had ammonia problems after pwc wtf is going on?

Ah HA! My mom was blaming me for killing her 'baby' pleco, saying I do too many water changes and there's no such thing as ammonia poisoning. So glad that other people have had this problem as well.

I guess it'll be a mystery for a bit - just like when one fish will seem to have a spazz attack after a pwc, then die shortly after.... :[ unfortunately - that happened to me as well when my mom did a pwc two months after we added fish to out tank, and a gourami died in the as before mentioned fashion.

 

[mzzguillory]

Wow....a lot to take in. How about get water from somewhere else....that could help. Our water is very chlorinated too. I usually just double up the dechlorinater and it helps. Not sure what your having...deadly water lol

 

[MurderComplication]

I wish I could, all the Water in BC comes from the same four sources, and each town adds in their own additives set by BC standards. And no pet stores sell RODI water, and I can't afford to set one up, nor have the room for it. Our water's apparently good since it's one of the main four sources in BC where the rest of the province gets their water from, so it can't be that bad.... I hope -shrug-.

Although, I'm been looking online for why and what this is: I woke up this morning and found kind of fuffy white stuff on one of my Angels, mainly his fins, and this evening - it's on his eye and the other fins of the other fish. So far my searches are turning up nothing.

I've kept fish before and never had this short of thing happen :[

 

[mzzguillory]

Hmmm...you need a new tank with new ornaments and filter and fish. Amd do a cycle first. Yep thatll solve it lol. J/k. Did u put shrjmp in there? I read somewhere that can spjke the ammonia

 

[Cardex]

Take a pic of the angel it may be ammonia burn or could be an infection

 

[MurderComplication]

So, I woke up this morning, and the angel that seemed to originally have it seems fine besides for a cataract type thing on this eye. My Koi/Platnium seems to have it full blown D:

My picture didn't post through here - so here's the link :[

http://s651.photobucket.com/user/Nekopanther/media/P5240015.jpg.html

 

[MurderComplication]

Hmmm...you need a new tank with new ornaments and filter and fish. Amd do a cycle first. Yep thatll solve it lol. J/k. Did u put shrjmp in there? I read somewhere that can spjke the ammonia

No, I've read and heard from others that in far too many instances that the angels will just eat them, so I havn't put one in to this big tank.

 

[Cardex]

It looks like what came up when I did a google image search for ammonia burns on angelfish the treatment is reduce ammonia levels and do lots of water changes, you are already doing that so good start, I know ammonia is more toxic in low ph then high

 

[Autumnsky]

That is an awful thing to have happen.

Earlier in a post did you say your ammonia out of the tap is 3??? If that isn't what you meant, check and see how bad it is out of the tap.

Maybe you can post a plea - local aquarium club or CL? for someone living around you who has a RO system to give/sell you some water. Lots of times restaurants have a system for their sodas and bar taps.

 

[MurderComplication]

That is an awful thing to have happen.

Earlier in a post did you say your ammonia out of the tap is 3??? If that isn't what you meant, check and see how bad it is out of the tap.

Maybe you can post a plea - local aquarium club or CL? for someone living around you who has a RO system to give/sell you some water. Lots of times restaurants have a system for their sodas and bar taps.

Ammonia out of the tap is 0.25ppm, The chlorine level is 3ppm. Unfortunately - there's no clubs in my area, although I tried to start one up and no one has bothered to join yet. I am part of one in the area where my University is, but that's a good 8 hour drive away, I can't make that trip every time I need to do a water change unfortunately :[

The pet stores around here don't even have an RO system - excluding the one single family owned one which doesn't sell RO water to the public.