Ammonia! Help!

stupid_naso

stupid_naso

Member
10 gal tank, a sebae clown and a damsel, 4 lbs of lr and ls. Ph, nitrite and nitrate are normal. My ammonia is 2 ppm now :eek:. I have tried AmQuel, Ammolock 2, now using TLC. But it's not going down :mad:.
My lfs told me not to feed my fish as often as I did. They told me to feed it twice a week the most. I am just affraid that they starve to death :(. What can I do?
My lfs also told me to do water change. Should I? Because I know that you're not supposed to change water when the tank is cycling because it will restart the whole process. And I think my tank is not fully cycled yet, considering I have not seen any diatoms (as mentioned in other posts), and my ammonia is not yet zero.
Also I put a protein skimmer in my penguin filter yesterday. It should take care of the waste. And since ammonia is affected by the waste then it should help to decrease my ammonia, right?
Well I am pretty much desperate for any help, advice, anything. :(
Thanks,
stupid_naso
 
goofieones

goofieones

Member
Well if your tank hasn't cycled yet, you don't want to do a water change and the amonia is supposed to go up and then come down. I wouldn't add any other chemicals either. If you are cycling your tank let it be. If you don't want the fish stressed out, return them to the lfs and buy some dead shrimp from the grocery store and use that to cycle your tank.
 
stupid_naso

stupid_naso

Member
Well I am not planning to return them because I don't think my lfs does returns. But anyway, I am just concern about the fishes' diet. Will they starve to death or not? I do not want them to die, so any suggestions?
stupid_naso
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
You have to cycle the tank. You choose to use fish to cycle so of course you are going to get ammonia spikes!...and, BTW, the clown is an inappropriate fish to use to cycle, it will likely not survive.
If you don't want to use live fish to cycle a tank, then use shrimp.
Ask you LFS to take the fish back and you will get them once your tank cycles. Give them some fishsitting money if you must. You'll spend that much on trying to keep these fish alive anyway. If they are the ones that told you to setup a 10gal with a clownfish, then SHAME ON THEM...they should consider helping you out at this point, else you should take your business elsewhere.
 
stupid_naso

stupid_naso

Member
Actually the one who told me to use clownfish and damsel is the swf.com. They say, and I quote, "As an added bonus, you can introduce a DAMSEL or CLOWN fish into your new tank from the start". I was thinking on doing damsel only, but then I found that in the website and I figure that's my plan so why don't introduce them both before one of them become more aggresive than the other. So that's why I'm using those two to cycle my tank.
OK, enough about that. So let's say that this ammonia spike is because of the cycle that has not yet finished. So should I just keep feeding the fish? Or should I stop like what my lfs told me? Will the ammonia eventually go down if I keep feeding them? Alright, thanks.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
stupid_naso
How long has your 10 gallon tank been set up ?
What is your filtration besides the live rock ?
If you have detectable ammonia, you have either exceeded the tanks capacity of the existing bacteria to handle it by overfeeding, or your tank is very new and not yet established, or you have not finished the initial cycle. Anyway you look at it ... you need to stop adding ammonia removing/neutralizing products. Many times by adding AmQuel or other products, you will end up getting inaccurate readings using your test kit, and it will prolong the cycle.
Watch your pH during this phase as well. High pH with ammonia present if far more lethal to your fish, that the same ammonia level at a lower pH value. Don't let the pH rise above 8.2 - 8.3
In a new tank - your new skimmer will not do much to correct your ammonia problem. Bacteria colonies need to develope at this stage.
goofieones and Beth both had good advise, see if you can take your fish back to lfs until your 10 finishes cycle.
The lease of your worries right now is the fishes diet. They will not starve to death if you give them a little pinch of food every 3-4 days. Make sure they eat it within 30 seconds or so, and if the food is not eaten within that timeframe - you are overfeeding.
Good luck
Brian
[ December 29, 2001: Message edited by: broomer5 ]
 
stupid_naso

stupid_naso

Member
broomer5, I use Marineland Penguin BIO-Wheel Power Filters. And I recently put a bag of protein skimmer in it. My tank has been setup for 2 weeks now. The first week I didn't have any fish, and I checked my water everyday. Everything seems normal, except my ammonia which was 0.25 back then. So I figure everything was safe, therefore I added the clown and the damsel at the end of the first week.
Since I noticed the ammonia spike, I have been monitoring my Ph lvl. It dropped a little the other day, but it came back up.
I will stop the ammonia removing/ neutralizing stuff. Btw how do you know has the tank finished its initial cycle or not? I've always thought when the ammo, ph, nitrite, and nitrite are normal, then it's done.
Thanks for the advice :).
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
You probably got a little ammonia the first week with the addition of the 4 pounds of live rock. When you added the 2 fish, and began feeding, you're most likely now seeing the additional ammonia produced by either excess food, fish wastes, or both.
It took my 10 gallon tank 3 weeks to completely cycle.
Amounts of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are the tell tale indicators as to what stage of the initial cycle your tank is undergoing.
My best advise now would be to go to google.com or some other search engine,and do a search on
Nitrogen Cycle
There are several great sites on the net that detail each stage of a cycling tank, and will give you a good understanding of each phase.
When ammonia = 0
And nitrite = 0
And you start to see a rise in nitrates,
you can be sure that your tank has cycled properly.
Regarding the nitrogen cycle, the word "normal" means different things.
The levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate that are considered "normal" for a cycling tank are much different from the levels of a fully cycled established tank.
HTH
Brian ;)
 
stupid_naso

stupid_naso

Member
Brian, thanks for the advice. I went to google.com and found the website. I learned a lot from there. Thanks again. :)
stupid_naso
 
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