1.0 Ammonia With Fish Inside--HELP

[codyl1121]

Yesterday I noticed all my levels were good and there was no ammonia in my tank. I cycled the tank for 5 days. I had ammonia problems for about 3 days but they had vanished. I have a 25 gallon tank and got 3 Neons, a fancy guppy and a regular guppy. I took them home put them in the tank, they were all good the whole day. Today I woke up with one dead Neon. He was on the side of the driftwood. I'm not sure what happened to him. Maybe I made the mistake of new fish tank syndrome? Anyways, none of the fish have been acting too weird. The guppies hang out at the top and come down occasionally and swim around he tank. The Neons are always together but one of them bullies the other. I did an Ammonia test just now, and I'm not sure why but its now a 1.0!

I'm thinking of going to Pet Supermarket and getting my water tested and maybe buying Ammo-Lock? My water is a little cloudy, not too bad. The guy at my LFS said it was probably the combination of new bacteria, the driftwood and the fluorite. He advised me against doing water changes as I will need the bacteria for long term.

I'm not sure what to do at this point

 

[bud29]

Chances are that your tank is not fully cycled because cycles ordinarily take longer than 5 days. (Mine so far has taken 7 weeks!) You are probably going through something called a fish-in cycle. The name of the game of a fish-in cycle is water change, water change water change! Here is a link that will help you out.
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

Also, pertaining to what the fish store worker said: you need to do water changes, and it will not take your bacteria out. The bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water.

 

[codyl1121]

Chances are that your tank is not fully cycled because cycles ordinarily take longer than 5 days. (Mine so far has taken 7 weeks!) You are probably going through something called a fish-in cycle. The name of the game of a fish-in cycle is water change, water change water change! Here is a link that will help you out.
I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

Also, pertaining to what the fish store worker said: you need to do water changes, and it will not take your bacteria out. The bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water.

Thank you so much for this!

 

[bud29]

Glad I could help!

 

[tamtam]

exactly what bud said. It will go over it all in that article but remember to keep those level down, nitrite is just as dangerous as ammo so you want to keep both of these no higher than .5, anything above .25 will usually stress your fish.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Unfortunately I see lots and lots of water changes in your future.

 

[jetajockey]

A 25 with 5 little fish in it will be pretty easy to deal with, just feed sparsely and keep testing and doing wc as needed.

 

[bloodlucky]

1.0 is obscenely high! If your fish's activity isn't changing, your water tester kit could just be mistaken though...

Water changes bro

 

[codyl1121]

Their all just kind of chasing each other lol. Their all swimming around the tank. Guess I'll get on those water changes