Need help immediately!!!!!!!

[WiseGyeBri]

Ok, fish and plants have been acting weird so I tested the levels tonight and ammonia is off the charts! Over 8 ppm according to my test.

Tank specs :

75 gallon flourishing bowfront
Established for about 6 months.
Discus fish, rams, rummey nose tetra, zebra snails, plants, ghost shrimp, and pleco.

Only cause I can figure is that I hit the tank with an antibiotic about 2 week ago. (Saw a bacterial bloom) never checked the levels since. So......my guess is I killed off all the bacteria and the ammonia went biZerk.

Did 30 gallon water change and ammonia still too high. Can I do more than 50 percent
change or should I wait till tomorrow?





Before change





After 50 % change

 

[WiseGyeBri]

Regularly do 10 gallon changes out of 75 every week

 

[Cactuspixie]

Also add ammo lock, safe, prime or any such product at the dose recommended for detoxifying ammonia. Your test kit will still show the ammonia but at least it won't kill your fish.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Personally, I' do another 50% and start the 7 day regimen with 'stability'

 

[Zimmanski]

Ok, fish and plants have been acting weird so I tested the levels tonight and ammonia is off the charts! Over 8 ppm according to my test.

Tank specs :

75 gallon flourishing bowfront
Established for about 6 months.
Discus fish, rams, rummey nose tetra, zebra snails, plants, ghost shrimp, and pleco.

Only cause I can figure is that I hit the tank with an antibiotic about 2 week ago. (Saw a bacterial bloom) never checked the levels since. So......my guess is I killed off all the bacteria and the ammonia went biZerk.

Did 30 gallon water change and ammonia still too high. Can I do more than 50 percent
change or should I wait till tomorrow?

Before change

After 50 % change

Why would you use an antibacterial for a beneficial bacteria bloom? You should do 50% water changes every hour until your ammonia is in an acceptable range to start recycling your tank. You should probably be doing larger weekly WCs too, shoot closer to 20-30% per week, possibly biweekly due to you having discus. Also with the discus, I wouldn't expect it to survive a fish in cycle.

 

[Cactuspixie]

Only cause I can figure is that I hit the tank with an antibiotic about 2 week ago. (Saw a bacterial bloom) never checked the levels since. So......my guess is I killed off all the bacteria

I was told that you can only see a bacterial bloom if the bacteria are already dead? I'm not sure if that's the case, but I guess it makes sense as to why they'd be in the water column instead of on surfaces..

 

[WiseGyeBri]

I dosed with antibiotic due to a bacterial infection in one of my discus. Just figured I'd comment on the bloom

Thanks guys!! I am going to start another 50 percent water change....going to be a late nite for me haha.

 

[Zimmanski]

I was told that you can only see a bacterial bloom if the bacteria are already dead? I'm not sure if that's the case, but I guess it makes sense as to why they'd be in the water column instead of on surfaces..

If they were dead already an antibacterial medication would only make it worse by killing what's left in your filter media. Bacterial blooms are common in this hobby, usually occurring when cycling a tank or can happen randomly thought a tanks lifespan, or it may never happen. Either way the only real thing you should do when this happens, if you can't just wait it out, is do a couple water changes. Bacterial blooms happen because there is an excess amount of food for them(ammonia, nitrite) causing them to multiply rapidly, allowing you to see them as cloudy water, then as the ammonia and nitrite are used up they slowly die off until there is an amount of BB to equal the amount of food being produced in the tank.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

It sounds like you killed off the majority if the nitrifying bacteria. The bacteria bloom would have come after. It's actually caused by another type of bacteria that multiplies faster than the nitrifying bacteria.
http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/246850-bacterial-blooms-explained/
You need to get the ammonia down ASAP. I'm surprised you haven't lost any fish yet. Multiple larger water changes will be needed until you can get it down to an acceptable level. Keep a very close eye on levels. You are now fish in cycling. Do you have any other tanks to take filter media from?

 

[Zimmanski]

I dosed with antibiotic due to a bacterial infection in one of my discus. Just figured I'd comment on the bloom

Thanks guys!! I am going to start another 50 percent water change....going to be a late nite for me haha.

Ahh okay, we'll if that was the only way you could treat a fish then I get it. But next time try to preserve some BB somehow and read the labels on your medications before you use them so you can be prepared for these issues they may cause. Yep just don't slack on the WC and keep adding prime until you're cycled again. Good luck to ya!

 

[Cactuspixie]

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/246850-bacterial-blooms-explained/

Thanks for that link Mumma :thumbsup: