Man Down!!!.... Almost!

[jwhiteuwc]

Wow, had a close one last night. Woke up around 2:30am in the morning and noticed my Flame Angel in my uncycled Hypo'd QT laying on it's side and breathing really really heavy. Hardly any color to him.
I filled a 5 gallone bucked up with 1.009 sal. water and pH of 8.0 and got it to 79deg. and place him in there... waited, about 1hour later he seemed OK; Swimming around, color back.
So this morning I wanted to investigate what happen to my 10 gallon hypo'd QT that's been running for about 2 weeks.
Tested for ammonia .5
Nitrite 0
nitrate 5
pH 8.0
temp: 79
Only answer I can come up with is my water was cloudy... not sure if I maybe O.D. on Amquel or not. I have been doing freq. water changes to keep ammonia down, but they didn't seem to help. The day before i even tried a 70% water change and water was still clowdy and ammonia was at .5. Dosed with amqeul and it brought it down to barly anything.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I have to keep this tank from cycling, but wow, it's hard to do that.
I'm going to start feeding this guy every 2 days just a bit, hopefully that keeps down the ammonia.
He's saved for now, another 2 weeks to go.

 

[beth]

Don't cut back that much. This is a sick fish that needs nutrition to recover. Vaccum up any left over food, debris. Add sand from your substrate. When you do the water changes are you using water from your main tank?
If you have a piace of LR you can "spare" put it in the QT.

 

[jwhiteuwc]

Awesome,
Thanks for the replies.
Beth, you're suggesting to add a peice of LR? Won't that cause a spike in ammonia and nitrites? Won't that kill my fish in the tank?
I know I can keep doing water changes during the cycle, but when I was curing some LR last time, even with daily 20% water changes ammonia hit the roof and so did nitrites. I don't think my fish will survive if I do that. Curing took about 4 weeks. I have only 2 - 3 weeks left in hypo.
I thought the object was not to let the tank cycle.
I also do have some base rock that turned into LR, that I would be willing to spare (I think).
NO I'm not using water from the main tank as it's infested with ICH.
Should I be using water from the main tank?
Thanks for the clarrification on the cloudyness... I was wondering what it was.
So what should I DO??? CYCLE IT or NOT CYCLE IT?
Thanks
p.s. from now on I'm keeping my 35gallon around cycled at all times.
1 question though, do you keep the cycled QT tank at 1.025 or at 1.009?
I would think all the water changes to get it down to 1.009 would cause another cycle to happen.
Just curious.

 

[jwhiteuwc]

Bump...
Beth.... Terry.....
HELPPPPPPPP :help:

 

[jwhiteuwc]

^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[jwhiteuwc]

Thanks!
I am running Poly filter, but not really helping.
Maybe a bad bag.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I understand I need to cycle the tank anyway, but putting these fish through the cycle is (in my eyes) not the best way to go. They probably wont survive it.
I think I've decided to do 70-80% water changes every other day. This should help keep the ammonia down and slow down the cycle for the next 2 weeks while finishing up Hypo.
If I see a major spike in ammonia, I think I'm just going to drain the tanks and refill with new water. Pain in the rear, but in my eyes, better then putting the fish through the cycle. I'll cycle the QT with a raw shrimp or something after I have the fish back into the display.
I think for being an idiot and not having a QT up and running, my job NOW is to keep the tank from cycling. Though the forces of nature are against me, I feel as if it's my duty to those fish to not let them suffer through a cycle.
I've learned from this one and it won't happen again.
Do you think this is a wise deicesion?

 

[jwhiteuwc]

I was thinking the same thing.
Yup, poly filter by bio marine. Cost me like $12 for a little bag.
I'm not worried about cycling the tank, I can do that without fish in it
Thanks TerryB.
I'll contiune to do MASS if not full water changes for the remaining time.
Do you know how many days before ammonia spikes in a new tank?