Long Term Affects From High Ammonia In Hospital Tank?

[rastaangel]

Ok so right now all the fish that lived threw my tank breaking got ick and are currently in a 1.010SG hospital tank.
There are a pair of black clowns and 3 small damels. The tank is something like 10g
They have been in there for about 5 days and so far so go except for daily high ammonia levels. Everyday at lunch I test the water and I have been getting readings varying between .25 and ~1.0 and I am getting worried it will permantly hurt my fish. After I do my test I do between a 25-50% water change or dose with seachem prime to bring the levels down again.
I havnt noticed any weird behavior or sickly acting fish, infact they seem more active...

 

[meowzer]

Any way you can get a bigger qt? You are gonna need to do 50% water changes daily to keep that ammonia down with all those fish in a 10G

 

[mrdc]

I believe even with using Prime, you can still get an ammonia reading even though the ammonia is de-toxified. Something like that. As far as long term effects, I would think since the ammonia makes it harder for them to breathe it could weaken their immune system.

 

[saxman]

Are you using tap water in the tank? If so, you're likely getting NH3 readings from neutralized chloramine as well. Also, if you're running hypo, make sure you keep an eye on the pH, esp if you're using a non-buffered neutralizer. Keep up on removing feces and any uneaten food as well, even between WC's.

 

[rastaangel]

Yes I have been using tap water, treated with prime to neutralize cholrine and what not. I have been adding ph buffers to the new water to make sure its the same ph. Today I got a lower NH3 reading so I think that there might be some good bacteria growing in the filter media but i am still treating with prime and doing 25-50% changes everyday

 

[deejeff442]

you need to lower the salt to 1.009 .when i hypo i go to 1,008.
true you will still get ammonia readings with a detox like prime.
just have to watch the fish close.are they swimming and eating?

 

[saxman]

Ok, so you're adding water that contains ionized ammonia (NH4+) to the tank from the get-go. You might want to get a test kit that doesn't use the salicylate method. The other method, known as the Nessler method isn't as sensitive to non-ionic ammonia (NH3). However, this method doesn't do well at lower concentrations, so there's a trade-off.
 
If it doesn't say on the lable, any test that reads in shades of yellow to green to blue is a salicylate test.
 
Another thing to consider is that at lower pH values, NH3 isn't as toxic, but low pH may stress a sick fish if it's too low.
 
IIRC, Kordon actually has a decent little article out regarding ammonia testing (they make both test kits). It's called something like WHAT EVERY AQUARIST AND POND KEEPER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT AMMONIA TEST KITS. Google it and give it a read...