Please help with problem!

bigal0221

bigal0221

Member
Hello all,
I am in quite a bit of a dilemma and wanted to see what opinions everyone may have to help. I have had a 20g QT set up for months, I went through a very high spike in ammonia, a high spike in nitrite for about 4 weeks, and for the last 6 weeks, nothing but low nitrates reading. Last Friday I added 2 very small Golden Butterflys, one developed a bacterial infection on Saturday which I have been treating with Maracyn Two since Sunday. Good news is the infection is almost gone but I now have ammonia at 2.0, nitrite at 1.0 and my nitrates are still reading 14. I can't really understand what is going on but the numbers continue to rise everyday.
My question: After last treatment tomorrow, if infection is completely gone am I better to try and keep the fish alive with these rising numbers or would I be better off going ahead and adding them to the DT?
Please anyone with suggestions let me know.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
why arent you doing water changes to bring those numbers down???????
that high of ammonia will kill your fish. do you have any amiquil - get some in there quick and detox that tank and get some water changes going.
T
 
taznut

taznut

Active Member
Originally Posted by mkroher
http:///forum/post/3075766
wow! are you sure the Q/T cycled completely?
+1 on the amquel... and add some NOW
this is kinda a stupid question but how do you cycle a QT??? i thought you weren't suppose to add any lr or ls, just pipe...
 
mkroher

mkroher

Member
Originally Posted by taznut
http:///forum/post/3075774
this is kinda a stupid question but how do you cycle a QT??? i thought you weren't suppose to add any lr or ls, just pipe...

you can use a bio-wheel filter, or live rock. if you use any chemicals, then that live rock shouldn't go back into the display tank.
If you don't want to use live rock, then you need a filter that can do biological filtration.. like a bio-wheel
 
bigal0221

bigal0221

Member
I am positive that the QT cycled completely. I guess I did not make myself real clear on the original post, I have been doing 25% changes daily and using Amquel+ since the first sign of ammonia. The water changes do not seem to be helping much but I hope that the Amquel is doing it's job and detoxifying the ammonia. I just wonder if I should take a chance and go ahead and transfer the fish to the DT. I really hate to do this becuase the DT has been up & runnung for 6 months with zero problems and I do not want cause a problem but I also hate to put the little guys through what is going on in the QT.
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by bigal0221
http:///forum/post/3075302
Hello all,
I am in quite a bit of a dilemma and wanted to see what opinions everyone may have to help. I have had a 20g QT set up for months, I went through a very high spike in ammonia, a high spike in nitrite for about 4 weeks, and for the last 6 weeks, nothing but low nitrates reading. Last Friday I added 2 very small Golden Butterflys, one developed a bacterial infection on Saturday which I have been treating with Maracyn Two since Sunday. Good news is the infection is almost gone but I now have ammonia at 2.0, nitrite at 1.0 and my nitrates are still reading 14. I can't really understand what is going on but the numbers continue to rise everyday.
My question: After last treatment tomorrow, if infection is completely gone am I better to try and keep the fish alive with these rising numbers or would I be better off going ahead and adding them to the DT?
Please anyone with suggestions let me know.
Hi there,
Is your QT a permanent setup or is it temporary? If it is permanent you have to have continous ammonia for it not to loose the cycle. It seems to me that the tank is cycling due to the butterfly. If the infection appears to be gone it might be ok to put back in DT, but you run the risk of it not really being gone. If 25% is not taking the ammonia and nitrites do a higher percentage of ddo more frequent waterchanges.
Another thing you could do is if you don't see the infection on the fish put him in a small container with water and do a 100% water change and acclimate him back in QT this will buy you some time without ammonia or nitrites. I do however think your QT is cycling.
 
bigal0221

bigal0221

Member
Locoyo,
This is a permanent setup. So what you are saying is if it is idle for a long period of time I need to continue to add food, ammonia, etc. to the water to keep the water cycled properly? Thanks!
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Yes, if you did not add any food while the tank was empty, the bacteria die back to whatever level can be sustained by available ammonia - which is not much. As soon as you added fish, you started to get ammonia but the biological filter just wasn't there. So there will be a significant lag time for this to develop as it is a lot of bioload suddenly.
QT tanks must be ghost fed between uses or this is what happens.
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by bigal0221
http:///forum/post/3076010
Locoyo,
This is a permanent setup. So what you are saying is if it is idle for a long period of time I need to continue to add food, ammonia, etc. to the water to keep the water cycled properly (not properly, just to maintain the a stable cycle)? Thanks!
HI there,
As mentioned above, yes you must provide a source of nutrients (ammonia, nitrites) for the bacteria or it will die. If you have the tank empty during fish, that your tank will loose the cycle, thus you will see ammonia when you put a fish there since the tank has lost the bacteria that wa in it.
I do my QT permanent, but my method of maintaining the cycle is probably not prefered by many. Thus I never mention what it is.
 
bigal0221

bigal0221

Member
Well, it seems as though that is definitely what has happened. It looks like I will have my hands full trying to keep these guys healthy. Thanks for the information and for everyone's help.
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by bigal0221
http:///forum/post/3076796
Well, it seems as though that is definitely what has happened. It looks like I will have my hands full trying to keep these guys healthy. Thanks for the information and for everyone's help.
Your welcome
 
bigal0221

bigal0221

Member
Just wanted to update everyone on the condition of my new Golden butterflys. On the 4th, the fish with the bacterial infection looked much better but the other fish developed Lymphocyctis, I am assuming due to the poor water conditions. So, on Saturday I did a 50% water change, had been doing 25%. On Sunday I did another 50% water change and the ammonia and nitrite readings were still very high so I added 2 pieces of LR to the QT (About 5 lbs. total) that I had been curing in a bin for about 8 wks. I also added Bio-Sira to the water in hopes that one or both of these would help. On Monday the ammonia was at 0 and the nitrites were down to around 1. I added the Amquel+ and then tonight when I tested the water ammonia and nitrite were both at 0. I went ahead and did another 20% water change, but it seems as though the LR or the Bio-Spira did a miraculous job in straightening out the water in a matter of 2 days. The fish with the bacterial infection seems to be completely healed and hopefully with the improvement in the water it will just be a matter of time before the fish with the Lymphocyctis is better. I almost forgot but both fish have been eating like pigs through this entire ordeal and I have been rotating vitamins everyday. Again, I want to thank everyone for their helpful information and hopefully my little guys are on the road to recovery!
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by bigal0221
http:///forum/post/3079952
Just wanted to update everyone on the condition of my new Golden butterflys. On the 4th, the fish with the bacterial infection looked much better but the other fish developed Lymphocyctis, I am assuming due to the poor water conditions. So, on Saturday I did a 50% water change, had been doing 25%. On Sunday I did another 50% water change and the ammonia and nitrite readings were still very high so I added 2 pieces of LR to the QT (About 5 lbs. total) that I had been curing in a bin for about 8 wks. I also added Bio-Sira to the water in hopes that one or both of these would help. On Monday the ammonia was at 0 and the nitrites were down to around 1. I added the Amquel+ and then tonight when I tested the water ammonia and nitrite were both at 0. I went ahead and did another 20% water change, but it seems as though the LR or the Bio-Spira did a miraculous job in straightening out the water in a matter of 2 days. The fish with the bacterial infection seems to be completely healed and hopefully with the improvement in the water it will just be a matter of time before the fish with the Lymphocyctis is better. I almost forgot but both fish have been eating like pigs through this entire ordeal and I have been rotating vitamins everyday. Again, I want to thank everyone for their helpful information and hopefully my little guys are on the road to recovery!

Awsome, one hint of advise. Since your ammonia and nitrites went to zero in 2 days, just keep an eye on them to make sure they don't sneak up on you again. Great job, by the way.
 
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