need help 3 dead

[lawliss]

I have had my 55 gallon 7 months now, no problems what so ever until this week, everything is good except my ammonia level is in between .50 and 1.0, have lost a lawnmower blenney,clown,anenome crab, affraid my other clown,angle and anenome are about to be next, any help in fixing this problem would be greatly appreciated

 

[tim_12]

Do a large water change right now to try to dilute it. And keep doing water changes daily until it's gone. Have you added anything to the tank lately? Live rock maybe?

 

[lawliss]

no I got about 120 pound of live rock but been in there since the beginning, will start doing the water change right away, how much of the water should i change out maybe 20 gallons at first, could my wife over feeding them cause this spike in the ammonia and if not what else would cause this

 

[fishmamma]

If something got into the tank cleaning agent or skin lotion etc. it would be showing up as ammonia. Just a thought as to what may be going on. Good luck to you, hope everybody else makes it. I have one more suggestion though, if not already running a polyfilter and carbon maybe try that to remove what ever is in the water, including ammonia.

 

[lawliss]

done about 35% of the water and tested and the ammonia is back down to normal and the other fish are still alive hopefully flushing it did the trick, now isnt there something I can get to help, someone had said something to me about a vacume and also some other tool that I could purchase that would help the tank and also allows you to bye and drop the new fish right in without acclimating it, is this something I should look into getting and if so what is it called, thanks for everyones help

 

[jojo_b]

um, quarantining the fish is a step you shouldn't skip.
buying a fish and putting it straight into your main tank isn't a good idea.

 

[aceroc]

I don't think there is anything you can buy to let you just drop a fish in. Acclimating doesn't take that long and is worth it. My guess is you might be talking about Stress Coat? My LFS puts in stress coat in the bag when you buy a fish but that doesn't mean i can throw the fish right in.
Stress Coat - "Every time a fish is netted or handled, its protective slime coating is disturbed, causing a loss of essential electrolytes through the skin. This leads to suppression of the immune system resulting in increased susceptibility to disease. Stress Coat contains Aloe Vera to help replace the natural slime coating that fish need when stressed from handling, shipping, or fighting. "
Just taking a guess to what you may be thinking of.

 

[lawliss]

yeah I am not going to ever take the chance on just throwing them into the water, now seeing how my bleenie is dead should I get another one to keep the tank clean, is there some type of a vacume system I can purchase to keep the sand clean, or what should be my next step now that my ammonia level is back to normal.

 

[danedodger]

If your tank is fully cycled you shouldn't be seeing ammonia. I'd maybe look into the possibilities that Fishmama suggested.
As for the vacume they've gotta be talking about a gravel vac. You can use a gravel vac when you do your water changes and it will help the tank stay cleaner which will mean less detrious and stuff laying around causing high nitrates and such. It's a good thing to get!! If you've got crushed coral you can punch the vac right down into the gravel to suck out any ickies that have worked their way to the bottom. If you've only got sand the vac will suck up the sand too if you're not careful with it. I've had good luck with sand and using a vac by just kind of waving the vac over the sand so that it sucks up any ickies laying on top without sucking out big piles of sand at the same time.

 

[lawliss]

I would hope the tank is fully cycled after 7 months, now that I have done the water change should I wait a couple weeks and monitor the others in the tank before I go getting more, or now that the ammonia is down would I be alright?