Emergency Help!!!

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by jktenpro
I have had a quarantine spike with a mini cycle on 2 occasions. I did large water changes and the numbers hardly budged as well. I read on another site by 2 people that doing minimal water changes or none at all will bring your parameters in check much quicker.
I tested that theory and found it to be true. If your ammonia does not increase I would cut back on water changes(I do believe in Amquel to detoxify) and also amounts of feeding and see what happens, just my 2 cents.
This is true, but when there are fish in the tank the numbers need to be kept as low as possible. Ammonia, and nitrite spikes are very hard on fish's health.

 

[jktenpro]

I agree, but Anthony Calfo and someone else on Fenner's site(can't remember who) said if ammonia is not past .1(usually .25 to .5 becoming toxic) doing frequent and large water changes will only delay the mini cycle.
He has no ammonia and levels of 2 nitrite which can be a little stressful(depending on fish although not evident by his fish yet) but not at toxic levels unless the ph was elevated a lot.
IMO doing minimal water changes unless ammonia rises and feeding every other day will bring nitrite down quicker.

 

[dstoneburg]

Not saying your wrong, just curious as to the science like that. Ive always known it to be, if you want to get levels down, you need to remove the 'stuff' from the water, thus a large water change. How do small ones work better?
Also.. The cheato seems to be doing great! Seems to be growing. I was also having minor algae growth which seems to be receeding.
As of 20 mins ago nitrates are now down to 40-50 from 80.

 

[jktenpro]

Not sure of the science, but by doing very large water changes you are essentially removing wastes before the bacteria has a chance to process them, starving them, and in turn delaying the cycle. Your Nitosomonas are working converting ammonia to nitrite but the Nitrospira which converts nitrite to nitrate are not built up enough. A cycle has to run its course like a cold or flu you can take medicine(water changes) to feel a little better but often this delays the virus( not a great analogy but the only one I could think of now).
I will say if you had ammonia, even though the nitrite is pretty high, or your fish seemed stressed and not eating then yes delete the 'stuff' as you say with larger water changes (this is where I like amquel) to temporarily relieve stress but as a result delaying the cycle. Your ph at 8.0 is actually better than it was before at 8.2 with your nitrites being high but after they drop to normal raise the ph back up.
I would suggest doing 10% changes every other day or so until nitrite falls if it already hasn't and keep a close eye on any changes with fish.
I am glad the nitrate has come down, what is your nitrite reading now?

 

[dstoneburg]

That makes sense to me. Sounds good, while nitrates are going down with the cheato, nitrites wont budge lower then 2.0. So I will give this one a try.

 

[al mc]

dstone...I do hypo on all new fish arrivals and have had no problems maintaining cheato in 1.009 water. I know this answers a question about 3-4 post ago, but hope it helps.

 

[dstoneburg]

So I added a prizm protein skimmer hoping it would help some.. Did nothin!! The good news is im slowly raising the salinity up now!!! Two more weeks in there and hopefully they will be movin into the DT.