Decreasing High Ammonia Levels

[xraycer]

Yep, sounds like the tank was never cycled so there were little to no beneficial bacteria to utilize the ammonia.

All you can really do at this point is 30%-50% water changes EVERDAY until beneficial bacteria colony(BB) catches up to bioload(fish waste). Use Seachem Prime (if available to you) during water change refills. It will help with some of the ammonia and nitrite. Do not add any more fish until ammonia and nitrite are at zero and nitrate starts showing up. When you do add fish, don't add too many at time. Only add a few fish every month or so to give BB time to catch up to new bioload level.

 

[nossalucard]

And uhh, you might wanna add your gravel back, it will eventually help. You could also ask your local aquarium sore for some USED filter media or a few handfuls of gravel from one of their tanks or filters. Offer them $20, that will usually help, and offer to replace the filter media they give you. I once requested the nastiest Aquaclear sponge 70 from a LFS store once to cycle a tank, and bought them a box of 3 to replace it. They still had their ceramic media(biomax) in the filter, so it was a no brainer for them. Just make sure you get that media/gravelin a bag full of water (and air) just like they were selling you a fish.

Best of Luck....

 

[predatorkeeper87]

And uhh, you might wanna add your gravel back, it will eventually help. You could also ask your local aquarium sore for some USED filter media or a few handfuls of gravel from one of their tanks or filters. Offer them $20, that will usually help, and offer to replace the filter media they give you. I once requested the nastiest Aquaclear sponge 70 from a LFS store once to cycle a tank, and bought them a box of 3 to replace it. They still had their ceramic media(biomax) in the filter, so it was a no brainer for them. Just make sure you get that media/gravelin a bag full of water (and air) just like they were selling you a fish.

Best of Luck....

+1 also a good idea.

 

[ShadowCrash]

Sorry I really should have been a lot clearer.

We've had the 8x2x2 ft tank for over 3 years running and we've never had any problems with the fish. We've been lax with the testing, the only thing we really test for regularly is the pH level.

The fishes started to get red pimple like growth on their body and fins and so we started testing for water quality and that's when we saw that our ammonia levels were really high.

I googled and asked the local fish shop what to do where they gave us medication (bacterial) and was told to do constant water changes daily + stress coat to dechlorinate the water + aquarium salt...he said that the fishes may just be stressed due to the poor water quality and parasites/bacteria that are always in the tank is making them sick now because they are weak due to the bad water quality.

We've done daily water changes of at least 40%, added stress coat to dechlorinate the water and whilst the fishes red growths aren't going they aren't really acting sick. There were 2 fishes that were acting very sick and we've put them in a 2ft hospital tank but both unfortunately died, we think it may have been ammonia poisoning, but we are baffled as the other fishes don't seem to be getting sick.

We've since changed to Paracid which is a parasite medication and some of the fishes pimples are getting smaller/going away but we are just not sure if we're diagnosing properly.

We know that we need to get the water quality close to perfect so that maybe these growths/pimples will go away but we've been doing as we were advised, and have now added ammonia neutraliser to the mix, and purchased but have not placed the ammonia remover media for our filter.

Hope this clarifies our situation a bit better.

We think that it may have been because we overstocked with new fishes way too quickly. In the last month we may have added 6 fishes.

Or it could have been buying a new filter which took place approx 3 months ago, but there was already used media in it from the other person's tank.

Do you know what the nitrogen cycle is ?

Not sure what this means

 

[Podzy]

Sorry I really should have been a lot clearer.

We've had the 8x2x2 ft tank for over 3 years running and we've never had any problems with the fish. We've been lax with the testing, the only thing we really test for regularly is the pH level.

The fishes started to get red pimple like growth on their body and fins and so we started testing for water quality and that's when we saw that our ammonia levels were really high.

I googled and asked the local fish shop what to do where they gave us medication (bacterial) and was told to do constant water changes daily + stress coat to dechlorinate the water + aquarium salt...he said that the fishes may just be stressed due to the poor water quality and parasites/bacteria that are always in the tank is making them sick now because they are weak due to the bad water quality.

We've done daily water changes of at least 40%, added stress coat to dechlorinate the water and whilst the fishes red growths aren't going they aren't really acting sick. There were 2 fishes that were acting very sick and we've put them in a 2ft hospital tank but both unfortunately died, we think it may have been ammonia poisoning, but we are baffled as the other fishes don't seem to be getting sick.

We've since changed to Paracid which is a parasite medication and some of the fishes pimples are getting smaller/going away but we are just not sure if we're diagnosing properly.

We know that we need to get the water quality close to perfect so that maybe these growths/pimples will go away but we've been doing as we were advised, and have now added ammonia neutraliser to the mix, and purchased but have not placed the ammonia remover media for our filter.

Hope this clarifies our situation a bit better.

We think that it may have been because we overstocked with new fishes way too quickly. In the last month we may have added 6 fishes.

Or it could have been buying a new filter which took place approx 3 months ago, but there was already used media in it from the other person's tank.



Not sure what this means

It's alright. When someone says they are cycling their tank they are referring to the Nitrogen cycle. it's the process in which Ammonia is converted to nitrite by a bacteria called Nitrosomonas . once it has been converted to nitrite, another bacteria called Nitrobacter converts it into the least toxic of the three , Nitrate. Which of course is lowered by water changes , plants utilizing it .

you mentioned that you added 6 fish all at once which would have overloaded the nitrosomonas capabilities .

Anyways , Sounds like you may have brought more than just fish home from the LFS , this is why quarantine tanks are very important.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Sorry I really should have been a lot clearer.

We've had the 8x2x2 ft tank for over 3 years running and we've never had any problems with the fish. We've been lax with the testing, the only thing we really test for regularly is the pH level.

The fishes started to get red pimple like growth on their body and fins and so we started testing for water quality and that's when we saw that our ammonia levels were really high.

I googled and asked the local fish shop what to do where they gave us medication (bacterial) and was told to do constant water changes daily + stress coat to dechlorinate the water + aquarium salt...he said that the fishes may just be stressed due to the poor water quality and parasites/bacteria that are always in the tank is making them sick now because they are weak due to the bad water quality.

We've done daily water changes of at least 40%, added stress coat to dechlorinate the water and whilst the fishes red growths aren't going they aren't really acting sick. There were 2 fishes that were acting very sick and we've put them in a 2ft hospital tank but both unfortunately died, we think it may have been ammonia poisoning, but we are baffled as the other fishes don't seem to be getting sick.

We've since changed to Paracid which is a parasite medication and some of the fishes pimples are getting smaller/going away but we are just not sure if we're diagnosing properly.

We know that we need to get the water quality close to perfect so that maybe these growths/pimples will go away but we've been doing as we were advised, and have now added ammonia neutraliser to the mix, and purchased but have not placed the ammonia remover media for our filter.

Hope this clarifies our situation a bit better.

We think that it may have been because we overstocked with new fishes way too quickly. In the last month we may have added 6 fishes.

Or it could have been buying a new filter which took place approx 3 months ago, but there was already used media in it from the other person's tank.



Not sure what this means

Podzy nailed it. I truly feel bad that you've had that tank for so long and no one ever explained the nitrogen cycle to you. That is an absolute fail on your LFS's part. Not that all LFS's are stand up people but I know that at the very least the ones I frequent, if they don't know me, ask me if my tanks cycled and how many fish I already have.

 

[ragin_cajun]

I'm wondering if the medication "(bacterial)" the LFS gave you could have killed the bacteria in your filter? Tank's fine for 3 years, then one day, ammonia spike like the tank's not cycled?o

 

[4D3]

I'm wondering if the medication "(bacterial)" the LFS gave you could have killed the bacteria in your filter? Tank's fine for 3 years, then one day, ammonia spike like the tank's not cycled?o

What was the medication....I had used medications on my tank that is "supposed" to destroy beneficial bacteria and my tank has been fine....

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