high ammonia

[moonwillow]

After having tank up and running (fishless) for 4 weeks, I added 3 damsels at the guiding of my fish store guy. They have been doing great for over a week. I've been doing water testing and ammonia went really high (water in test tube turns grass green color) after it was alright before fish were added.
The Nit____ that turns light blue is good, but the Nit___ that turns yellow is a little darkish yellow and I know it should be 0. (These are done using Aquarium Pharmecuticals test kit) Ph is also good (8.2 ish). Salinity is perfect.
Funeral had to be held for striped damsel. Also, I noticed that he had what looked like a bruise on his side yesterday. He was dead this morning.
HELP! Do I need to change some water? Do I need to add some chemical? (Stress-Zyme, like it says in my water testing booklet??)

 

[tinydove]

What size is your tank? also 3 weeks is early to add fish. It might still be cycling. Do a water change and do not add Chems. It is a new tank so it is still very tender.

 

[moonwillow]

It's a 36 gallon tank.
Well, I listened to the fish store guy AND to you guys here. First I added a shrimp and it rotted and was gross. Fish store guy said you need actual fish waste in the tank to cycle it properly. I'm starting to see that everyone is of a different opinion and that most likely cycling the tank is a bit of a gamble whichever direction one chooses.

It's actually been running for almost 6 weeks now, with fish in it only for the last week. I thought it was ok. The other damsels are doing great (as far as I can tell....)
How much water should I change?

 

[tinydove]

I would do about a 15-20% change w/ ro/di water. What other equipment do you have? Do you have a skimmer...

 

[moonwillow]

No skimmer yet. I was told that I could wait until tank is a bit more established.
Other than that, I have everything else I need.

 

[tinydove]

How Long has your tank been running 4 weeks right? With fish already in it, you should have a skimmer, it will help with the bio-load of the fish and their waste and it will also bring down the Ammon.

 

[alyssia]

You also shouldn't add so many fish at once.

 

[moonwillow]

Well, I was misled then. He said that would be ok.
They are very small damsels. Like maybe one inch each.

 

[tinydove]

If they are the cheap blue damsels...they do tend to be more hardy then other fish but you might lose a few of them do to the ammon. level and cycling of the tank. It's like if you were in a building with cem. on fire

it would be hard for you to breathe and burn your lungs and then your dead. Same for the fish, it burns their gills and makes it hard for them to breathe. That is why it is best to use a piece of raw shrimp. You still get the waste your tank needs to cycle properly and you do not have to kill any fish at the same time

KNee-High makes it easy to remove the shrimp when your done cycling.

 

[oreo12]

The first thing you will learn is only belive 25% of what any lfs tells you. rember they need to make money.