90 Gal Tank Disaster

[Bubble_B0y]

Plants are another reason the goldfish are happy in their pond, assuming there are plants, because the plants will uptake the ammonium.

I am having a bit of trouble with the notion that Ammo-Loc will instantly crash the tank biofilter and immediately (or almost so) kill all of the fish. Many people use this product without such results, though over time it does work against you, IMO.

i think overdosing of the product is the problem with ammo-lock.
Not many people measure EXACTLY the amount of ammo-lock they add.
Some aquarists may add a little during one water change and a full cap the next.

also...
i believe green-maji said it quite succinctly.
"the product encourages overdosing if you test for ammonia"

meaning, the product instructs one to add ammo-lock during the detection of ammonia, and to continue adding it every 2 days.
Ofcourse, this will lead to a buildup and accumulation of the product in the tank - from which the problem the begins

 

[caudelfin]

It was not instantly, TG, but over a period of 24 hrs which IMHO is instantly in the aquarium world. You see, as someone else noted, the false readings cause one to keep adding the stuff to protect the fish against ammonia and then the tank becomes overloaded with the Hypo and other chemicals in the product. My guess: this is what killed all the bacteria in the bacteria filter. They sure died and this was the only thing different that I have done in the last two months. The 10 gal bacteria died quicker because of the smaller air filter held a smaller colony. And the fish was near overload with 4 Tigers and 2 Paradise Fish. Of course the Paradise Fish added to it because they are hearty eaters even if they are air breathers and provide a lot of waste to the tank.

For those that don't know, Hypo is short for sodium thiosulfate which is what takes care of the chlorine in the water. Hypo is what those of us who developed film and paper images in a dark room called it for short. It is also know in the darkroom as the fixer. As it fixes the image to some degree of permance if you wash it all off, all of it, when the image is fixed.
caudelfin

 

[coolchinchilla]

I have used AmQuel for years

How do AmQuel and Ammo-Lock differ? I have AmQuel Plus and I rarely use it. I keep it more for some emergency. (?) Is AmQuel Plus a bad product too?

 

[caudelfin]

I don't know as they will not tell the formulation of either. Each tsp of Ammo-Lock will detoxify 3.0 ppm of Ammonia. 7.0 ppm of chlorine and 5 ppm of chloramine. On the Ammo-Lock label contains no less than 17% of Aliphalic Amine Salts. It does not say that it does not contain formaldehyde (Amquel makes sure that you know it does not contain that product) so it may contain that as they have no disclaimer and if you get a little too much there goes the bacteria.

Amquel makes mention of the fact it contains NO formaaldehyde and does not remove O2. 1 tsp will detoxify 1ppm of ammonia, 3.2 ppm chloramine, or 2.1 ppm of chlorine. Not as strong, but works extremely well.

I no longer use it, for There are at least two better products if you are doing a fishless cycle and Amquel is not needed. In the olden days we used fish usually danios, to start and cycle an aquarium. Amquel kept the ammonia from harming them, but when the Nitrite started up the test kits listed a lethel range and long before it got there I would be doing 50% water changes daily to keep it from hurting my fish too much. Some days when it peaked I would do two 50% water changes in a 12 hour period to remove most of the nitrite but not all. There was always enough in the water to start the nitrifying bacteria and the water changes did not bother it as long as you left some nitrite in the water and you could not get it all out. The nitrite part of the cycle lasted and lasted and lasted. Then when I was about ready to give up I would take a nitrite reading and get almost nothing. By the next morning there would be no reading of nitrite so the tank had cycled. I had some cycles of 28 days and most were around 35 and one went 42 days.

The amquel kept the fish going unharmed through the ammonia part of the cycle. IMHO Prime is the best one you can buy but I am sure others will have their own favorite.
caudelfin.

 

[greenmaji]

salt, sutible for FW use, helps with nitrite poisioning.. for those that have fish in there cycle currently.. If they are useing Amquel and would like to stay on the causious side..