ammonia and nitrate

[gman42]

my ammonia levels & nitrate levels went crazy & my tank clouded up. i let my mon feed my fish for the past month and now my 5 neon tetras and my 4 von rio tetras are in a bucket with new water in it. I have a heater and filter in it. i changed the substrate in my tank, and took all of the snails out of the tank. after putting sand in the tank i put about 25 percent of the dosage in there to help it cycle. it does have a used filter cartridge in it. what chemicals should i put into the tank to make it okay for my fish, and how long will the fish be okay in the bucket, they seem fine and are moving alot. I would really appreciate some feedback, Thank you

 

[jlk]

Hi! I am trying to figure out where you are at right now. You put a 25% dosage of what in your tank? Did you replace all of the water in your tank? if so, did you dose water conditioner to the size of your tank? Check your tank levels for amm/nitrite/nitrate- if these look good (0,0, less 20), then check the temp of the tank water vs the bucket the fish are in- if the tank numbers are good & temp matches & you conditioned the water correctly, you should be fine to re-add your fish. Let us know & we will help you out!

 

[gman42]

sorry lol im doing this on my ipod and its kinda hard to remember what im thinking and what im typing. i added 25 percent of a dosage of a safe start. it adds beneficial bacteria to the filter and reduces ammonia and nitrate. and on the bottle it says prevents " new tank syndrome". also i added a full dosage of stress coat. it says that it makes tap water safe for fish, and it helps heal cuts, and stuff. atm i cant tell you were my parameters arr, i dont have a test kit, i have a ph kit, and my ph is normal. i wish i could say more but thays all the info i have available.

 

[gman42]

i did change all of the water, and the temp is the same.

 

[jlk]

Ok! The safestart really isnt needed but a test kit is a must have item if you are keeping fish. I suspect your tank is still cycling & the heavy feeding isnt helping matters. I would cut back meals to once a day or once every other day. If the temp of the tank water matches your fish bucket (use your hand, its a pretty close estimate), the tank should be good for fish. You really should be testing your levels of ammonia & nitrite daily & doing water changes as needed with conditioned, temp-matched water to keep these levels down until you know they are staying at zero. Weekly changes of 50% after that to keep nitrate levels in check. If you have more, questions, please ask & please consider investing in an API freshwater mster test kit in the meantime. They are about $10 cheaper on amazon/ebay than in the big chain stores.

 

[gman42]

thanks for the response. i did weekly changes and asked my mom to stop feeding them which helped. i switched to sand in my cichlid tank and i love it. im not a big fan of huge wc so i do about 25 percent every 2-3 days and i changed to sand because it is much easier to vaccume out old food & waste. the thermometer on the bucket & tank match. i was wanting to know about how long can the fish stay in the bucket with heating & filtration.

 

[jlk]

I wouldnt leave them in the bucket longer than an hr or two max with no heat or filter or aeration. You should be fine to return them to the tank.

 

[gman42]

there is heating and filtration. would they be okay until morning it is 10 i o clock pm atm

 

[jlk]

Hmm...with heat & filtration, they should survive the night. I dont know this absoltuely, but fish are shipped in boxes overnight or 2-day mail without heat or filtration and they have always arrived on my doorstep alive & well. They should be ok but get them moved back as soon as you can manage.

 

[gman42]

i moved them into the tank, and i hope they will make it. i also turned the lights off so they wont be too stressed. wish me luck

 

[jlk]

Did they do ok?

 

[librarygirl]

How are they doing now? It could have been a mini-cycle from too much uneaten food. Cleaning the substrate was a good idea. Weekly substrate vacuuming with water changes is a good practice to suck up uneaten food and waste that can cause issues. Not overfeeding helps too. I'd check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels over the next few days. If ammonia or nitrite rise again, do some water changes to keep them down and do more gravel vacuuming if you need to. Hopefully the cycle will re-establish itself soon. Also just use dechlorinator with the water changes, no need for fake bacteria products.

 

[gman42]

i added them to the new tank, after about 10 hours of being in the tank they all look normal. this wasnt exactly the safest move for the fish, but the levels in the tank would have killed them if i didnt do this. im going to do daily 10-25 percent water changes. ive kept the light off to reduce stress, and to prevent a algae boom. ill post a pic as soon as the water clears up a lil. the sand made it kinda milky like.

 

[gman42]

i got the bacteria thingy because it lowers the nitrates, and ammonia and it was actually working, but my fish were not looking too good. atm all the fish look okay

 

[jlk]

Stay on top of your water changes & look into investing into a test kit or individual tests for ammonia, nitrite, & nitrate.

 

[gman42]

thanks i will soon