cant lower my amonia!

ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
ive been fighting ich i setup a 54 gallon bin as my qt its been setup a weekand a half ive done 2 water changes in the past two days and cant seem to get the amonia down from .50 any advice on getting it to zero. yesterday did a 10 gallon change and today did a 25 gallons thanx for any input
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

 
water changes is number 1, keep doing it everytime the ammonia climbs.. You could get some cycle to bulid up bacteria Do you run some kind of filter running? There is a product called Amiqul I believe that's what it's called..it binds ammonia so it can't poison the tank.
 
S

smartorl

Guest
Water changes, several smaller changes are less likely to stress the fish in my opinion.
 
I will agree to disagree with Flower, I don't put anything in my tank, I try to control all situations as naturally as possible.
 
I just went through this with my QT tank, trust, me diligent with the water changes, be careful what you are feeding, and you should be able to get through it.
 
It sounds like the tub is going through a cycle, what you are going to do is to allow this to happen while dilluting out the amonia to a liveable level to the fish. The last thing you want to do is to further stress them out, especially with ich present. You will likely slow down the cycle but the fish can make it though.
 
Are you performing hypo?
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
weird ammonia usually only spikes for a short time like 3-4 days then converts.
how many fish do you have in there and was it cycled before the fish were added?
 
ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
thanx guys and gals i have 6 fish false perc, blue hippo, chalk basselet, blue damsel, panther gruoper, and a diamond goby. as flower knows :) this was an emergency setup i have a few posts about it. ive been checking the water daily but the amonia just wont go down to zero. id hate to loose fish now because of amonia after everything they ve been going through.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Sounds to me with that bio-load you may need to do daily water changes.....
 
I know when I had a larger fish in a 10G (even though it was alone) I was doing daily w/c's
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
How long are these fish gonna be in this tank??
 
I would only use Amquel as an emergency treatment, and I would use amquel+
 
IMO...UP the water changes......your tank can not handle the load....so you will have to do a lot of extra maintenance
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

 
You ever answered...do you have some kind of filter hooked up? Everytime the ammonia spikes I would do a water change. When I was worried about ammonia after my heater broke I got one of those ammonia badges, when I saw the color start to change I would do a 10% water change. One water change a day may not be enough, you really have allot of fish in a single tub.
 
I realy don't know anyting about the amquil, I never used it, I read folks on here would in an emergency. The cycle is harmless...they use it add good bacteria to a new tank. The only thing that would do is help eat up the ammonia and break it down to nitrites then nitrates. It still takes time to be effective.Your tub water is cycling while the fish are in there and you don't have live rock or sand to help.
 
Water changes, lot and lots of water changes. get an ammonia badge so you know the moment trouble hits. It isn't a replacment for ammonia tests, its for extra protection in between.
 
Hope this helps
 
ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
i have a cascade canister filter i put a aponge from the main tank in there it also has carbon/amonia chips (obiviously not working the way i expected) last nite when it got high and i did a water change and went down to .50 then this morning did a water change and it was .50 earlier this evening i changed half the water and BAM! .50 and ive used two diferent test the liquid and the powder both the same and now im starting to get frustrated.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

 
I have to leave for work...
 
Imagine how high it would have been without the water change .50 is a whole lot better than 1.0. You have to look at the good your water change did, so keep it up. I wanted to make sure you have some filtration, Things will be okay as long as you stay on top of everything.. That sure is allot of fish in a tight space so watch for aggression.
 
I hate ich...I know you do too.
 
ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
believe it or not but they all hang out with each other especialy the hippo the perc and the cgrouper. i put in a big fake tree stump and thats were they all sleep :)
 
mike127

mike127

New Member
I use Prime by Seachem. It will make the ammonia and nitrite non-toxic. if you test for ammonia using a liquid-based test kit it will show ammonia even though the Prime has de-toxified it. I have used it twice, safely, while quarantining butterfly fish for several weeks at a time. Use it every other day and make sure you have plenty of oxygen and water movement as it will bind to oxygen if it can't find ammonia and nitrite! (I called Seachem to get the skinny on the stuff as I was nervous using it but it has worked well for me). I am actually using it right now and have been for 3 weeks, no issues. I have done water changes every 3 days, also. Good luck.
 
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
are you sure the test is accurate?with all those water changes seems it should be gone.how much are you feeding?eventually that grouper will eat any fish it fits in his mouth.i had one that ate my lionfish that was at least his size.
 
ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
so just an update amonia and ph gettin in check. ive been so worried about the theese parameters and salinity ive neglected the tempature i looked just now a whopping 86 degrees now hve to lower very gradually go figure ive been wondering why my basselet was acting funny
 
ppanthrah75

ppanthrah75

Member
gotch i usaually have 80 to 82 its down to 83 and believe it or not all the fish and epcially the bassalet is acting better hes moving around and eating hasnt done that in days
 
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