Ammonia PROBLEMS in HYPO

[hogcr8]

My QT has been set up for over 5 months and has even QT'd a fish before going into the DT. I started HYPO last weekend and now have a real bad ammonia spike. Did a 30% water change and still have around .3.
WHAT TO DO. Water changes seem to be making it bad cause I feel as though I am removing any BIO load I may have. I know the tank was very well seasoned prior to HYPO.
Please HELP ASAP before I lose 3 fish......... I have pletny of Stress Zyme. Will this assist with the BIO load I am losing?????
Thanks
Cory

 

[geridoc]

That has happened to me before, too. I used Amquel + as directed and the fish survived quarantine. Note that after you add the A+ the ammonia won't go down (depending on the type of kit you use), but it and nitrites will be converted to a form that is not toxic to the fish. The bacteria in the tank will still be able to use it, so, in essence, your tank will undergo a nontoxic cycle.

 

[sepulatian]

I have used Amquel plus as well. On my kit (API) the readings did go down. You would have to dose the tank every day and the up and down is very stressful. Your biological filtration is not in the water column. The bacteria colonizes on porus surfaces. What do you have in the tank for biological filtration? Stress zyme does not work IME. At this point you cannot add anything from the display to help because ich could be on it. What is in your QT for the bacteria to breed on? Unless you have been adding food to this qt the bacteria may have died from lack of it's natural source, ammonia. How did you end up with an ich outbreak if you have been quarantining your fish?

 

[chadmatthewsdm]

I am just finishing a simular situation, unfortunately I had to do an "emergency" hospital and did not have one up at the time. I only was able to leave the sponges in my display for a couple of days before I set up the tank. I had ammonia all over the place. I felt the same way about water changes, it didn't seem to be helping like I thought it would. I used Ammolock (since it was the brand my LFS had), and some bioboost (which I know people say doesn't help, but I used it anyway) and did 25% water changes daily for a week. It was unbelievably stressful on the fish, but all of them except my six line made it though (I think he actually died after the ammonia was under control, but when I started to go into hypo..I don't really remember though). I would advise to get some ammolock or amequel+ I definately noticed a difference in the fish behavior when I added it. Problem is that once you add it you don't know if the ammonia you are registering is new (toxic), or was detoxified by the ammolock. So it is vital to get the bioload up and eliminate all of the ammonia, but it at least buys you some time. Good luck

 

[hogcr8]

I had recently moved a falco hawkfish from the QT to the DT and kept feeding the QT after he was moved. There was a good BIO load in the QT prior to putting the 2 firefish and copperbanded butterfly in the tank. for some reason the butterfly broke out with ICH 2 weeks into quarintine and I am not sure why. The fish are active and eat like the food is going to disappear if they don't eat it. I will get the amquel and hope for the best.
Thanks folks

 

[beth]

Use amquel, and add a couple cups of substrate from your display tank to the QT.