Horrible water situation

T

tampausmc

Guest
alright.....long story short....a fish was injured while i was removing another fish...he ended up dying and i can't find where in the LR he's at. I pulled out all the rock and dunked it in saltwater to shake the body out but couldn't get it.....i ended up failing to recover him....that was 1 1/2 weeks ago....i just started and was using some little test strips instead a good test kit.....i just got a good test kit today and tested all my parameters....and they were all terrible...
pH 8.6
Alk 1.9
ammonia .20
nitrate 50
nitrite .1
I did a 20% water just a little while ago and wondering if there is anything else i can do?
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
I had this happen a while back, ended up using Fritz-Zyme #9 bacteria and it brought my levels down to normal pretty fast which allowed me time to find the exact cause of the problem.
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Remove any carbon filtration and treat the tank with amquel plus to detoxify the ammonia. Your looking at a mini cycle that should last no longer than a week.
A good clean up crew that includes a brittle star should find and devour any carcasses before it can pollute the tank, This is of course assuming you have no fish that eat cleanup crews.
Beef up the cleanup crew to avoid any future incidents like this and don't make any major disturbances to the tank like moving all the rock around in an effort to find a dead fish. This may have actually contributed to your ammonia spike.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
I would pick up a bottle of live bacteria, such as Turbo Start, just to get them levels down immediately.
Keeping up on water changes always helps as well.
 
maxalmon

maxalmon

Active Member
Originally Posted by Murph
Remove any carbon filtration and treat the tank with amquel plus to detoxify the ammonia. Your looking at a mini cycle that should last no longer than a week.
A good clean up crew that includes a brittle star should find and devour any carcasses before it can pollute the tank, This is of course assuming you have no fish that eat cleanup crews.
Beef up the cleanup crew to avoid any future incidents like this and don't make any major disturbances to the tank like moving all the rock around in an effort to find a dead fish. This may have actually contributed to your ammonia spike.
Doesn't Amquel simply masks the Am, it's supposed use is to detoxify ammonia. however it's really is a waste, it only encapsulates the ammonia and unless it is removed all together through water changes it will always be a problem. The Fritz-Zyme will actually supply you with a good dose of bacteria that will speed up the cycle. If it's a critical situtation and the fish are doomed, do a water change and then dose with amquel, but only as a last resort.If your running a skimmer, it's gona go nuts.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Originally Posted by maxalmon
Doesn't Amquel simply masks the Am, it's supposed use is to detoxify ammonia. however it's really is a waste, it only encapsulates the ammonia and unless it is removed all together through water changes it will always be a problem. The Fritz-Zyme will actually supply you with a good dose of bacteria that will speed up the cycle. If it's a critical situtation and the fish are doomed, do a water change and then dose with amquel, but only as a last resort.If your running a skimmer, it's gona go nuts.
I agree with what you said here.
 
aufishman

aufishman

Member
Originally Posted by tampausmc
alright.....long story short....a fish was injured while i was removing another fish...he ended up dying and i can't find where in the LR he's at. I pulled out all the rock and dunked it in saltwater to shake the body out but couldn't get it.....i ended up failing to recover him....that was 1 1/2 weeks ago....i just started and was using some little test strips instead a good test kit.....i just got a good test kit today and tested all my parameters....and they were all terrible...
pH 8.6
Alk 1.9
ammonia .20
nitrate 50
nitrite .1
I did a 20% water just a little while ago and wondering if there is anything else i can do?
First of all, You are testing for TAN (total ammonia nitrogen - NH3 + NH4). The unionized form (NH3) is toxic. The amount of NH3 is dependent upon your pH and temp (the proportion of NH3 increases with temp and pH). There's a really long and complicated formula that you can use to determine NH3 as a % of TAN, but at a pH of 8.6 and a temp of 30 degrees C, approximately 25% of TAN is in the unionized form (or about 0.05 ppm based on your estimates). This amount will cause minor gill damage, but it's not going to kill your fish. The best thing to do is increase the frequency of your water exchanges until your denitrifying bacteria are able to catch up. Don't use any of the detox chemical crap. As someone else said, it doesn't actually remove any of the ammonia. And your Alkalinity is way too low. What does your Alk test kit measure in? Does it say “dKH”? if so, 1 dKH (degrees of carbonate hardness) = 17.9 ppm. Your Alk should be above 50 ppm. What kind of load do you have on your filter?
 
murph

murph

Active Member
Amquel detoxifies ammonia which is imperative in this situation. Google "amquel" for a full explanation of how it works. The ammonia while detoxed will still be present to cycle the tank. The bacteria don't care what form the ammonia is.
The bacteria that convert the ammonia to nitrite will double in number approximately every 24 hours so adding bottled bacteria will only shorten the mini cycle not eliminate it (if it has any benefit at all).
Amquel is a proven product and in most cases is added to every bag of fished shipped or the fish would quickly pollute the water (ammonia) and die. On the other hand bottled bacteria to jump start, shorten or eliminate a cycle is of questionable value.
Amquel has saved the lifes of countless fish in this hobby and should hardly be described as "detox crap".
 
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