Ammonia poisoning?

[JenMorri88]

I’m sorry, but I don’t agree here. I don’t think the tank is producing Nitrites faster than the system can handle,

He had an ammonia spike, and therefor will have a subsequent nitrite spike, because there isn’t enough beneficial bacterial.

It’s unlikely the nitrites will continue to be as high once the Nitrogen cycle is caught up and established. What the spike tells me, is the ammonia is starting to be processed, and the nitrates are being processed.

You need both to cycle, because it’s two processes involving different bacteria.

My concern is changing that much water that often is going to stress out the fish, and potentially do more harm than good.

Don’t get me wrong, Nitrites are bad, but a stressed-out, already I’ll fish is just as bad.

I maintain, don’t fead AT ALL, for 2-3 days, and feed very sparingly when necessary. Uneaten food will cause waste spikes also.

If you’re doing 25-30% a day, that will reduce those nitrites sufficiently, in a sufficient amount of time, as long as those beneficial bacteria are now doing their job.

If you decide to do double water changes to remove that nitrite faster, just be conscious of the fish, and do it in the most relaxed, calm, and gentle way possible.

Totally agree with you.

 

[JenMorri88]

Today is the second day of not feeding them, luckily my fish are confident and greedy which allows me to hand feed them the pellets. So no extra waste is lurking about, when I next feed them. I’m going to test the waters when I’m home from work, and depending on the results depends on if I’ll do a water change, as I agree with stressing fish out. I believe is causes then to be susceptible to more diseases and so on. Which is the last thing I need.

Sorry, but what do you mean?

 

[Maxiharls]

Sorry, but what do you mean?

Sorry you didn’t understand,

I don’t over feed my fish, so I don’t believe this is the problem. I hand feed them, the fish take the food from my fingers, allowing me to monitor how much they eat so there is no uneaten food rotting in the tank.

Also if there was a dramatic change in nitrite meaning 0, then I wouldn’t do a water change. But that is irrelevant because the nitrite was still high, so I done a 70-80% water change.

I’ve read that doing many water changes a day can cause stress on the fish, especially if the temperature of the new water doesn’t match the tanks temperature. Last thing I want is for them to be stressed and cause more problems.

Hope this is more understandable.

 

[squirrilah fish]

So done another test, no change in nitrite and ammonia is now .25. I done 70-80% water change added nitrite remover, ammonia remover and beneficial bacteria. The redness on the fish has gone down significantly, but still flashing. Today is day 3 with no food, but fish are still pooing. Think they’re eating the moss balls, as the poo is green.

What are you testing with?

 

[Maxiharls]

API testing kit.

 

[squirrilah fish]

API testing kit.

Dang, that’s usually pretty good.

Where you did such a large water change, but nitrites are testing the same, that makes me wonder if it’s the testing.

Try testing just some plan old tap water and see what you get.