When I can be sure, that trouble is over?

[olga]

Yesterday, I comeback from the party late at night, put the light, and water in my tank gone milky-hazy. It was an unusual noise coming from the powerhead. When I looked, one of the anemone was sucked in it, so I only assumed that was the reason, as it could not be anything else.
I measured ammonia, and water test was dark green -2-3mg/lt at least! I did not measured anything else, as it will be very pointless at that stage. I've panicked and immediately changed about 30% of water, and ammonia did go down till about .0.50.
It was in the night, so most fishes was hiding and asleep, even more so, when I was messing in the tank. In the morning, the only dead creature I found, was one of my cleaner shrimps (the oldest and the largest one). All other 2 younger cleaner shrimps are fine, as well as all fish. I am not sure about other "less sociable shrimps and tiny crabs which tend to hide behind the rocks most of the time.
My question is: how long does it take for fish/coralls/crabs/shrimps. etc to die after such ammonia spike. If they are seemed ok now, can I breath a sight of relief? Or its not over yet, and I should prepare myself for more "casualties" during the next few days?

 

[olga]

Bump! I can't believe I've done that, lol. I am sorry, I am not very patient right now!

 

[pallan]

sorry to hear that.
I honestly dont know but i would keep some water on hand and continue to do waterchanges to keep that ammonia down. also could do some research i believe there is a product out there that does not remove ammonia but converts it to a less toxic thing. i dont have any and have not used it so research for it first before taking my word on a chemical.

 

[sleasia]

It sounds like you had the ammonia spike because of the dead anenome??? or was it actually ok? If that is the case once it is removed and you did your water change, it may correct and dissapear...but if the tank is new and is begining to recycle, then you have trouble. I Usually, once a tank is cycled, the ammonia spikes are over and do not recur...however you may have episodic nitrite spikes when you over feed, overstock, or something dies and goes unnoticed for a while and begins to decompose. There are products which take ammonia out , Ammo lock etc....But if you are getting ammonia, then it is more likely the tank is new and not completely cycled...If you are getting nitrite, you can help it dissapear by removing dead fish, not overfeeding, or not feeding at all for a day, and being careful not to overstock or add too many fish at once...You can also add more bacteria to your tank in hopes that it will speed up the resolution of the nitrite spike.

 

[olga]

Thank you for all responses.
Tank was set up for almost 5 months now, cycled and recycled, lol.
Water parameters was a stable and perfect till this occurrence happened (I measure my water about evry 4-6 days).
My only question. How long does it take for all fish, corals and critters to die? Ie how long does this ammonia poisoning takes? As I said before: so far, so good (apart of one shrimp)
I just want to relax, and hope, thats my trouble is over (or not).
I am going to do another 20% water change later tomorrow, can't do it sooner, as I it can be even more disastrous.
I had an advice: not to wash media filters, as the bacteria there will convert ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate more quicker. Is this right?

 

[sleasia]

No don't wash the media. especially not with tapwater which has chlorine in it or it will wipe out your biological filter. How long it will take depends on whether the tank is recycling or not it can take anywhere from a day or two to two or three weeks. If this happened because of a dead fish or anenome and now it is removed, it may clean itself up in a day or so...if the tank is recycling it may take anywhere from 1-3 weeks....