Should I be worried? Prazipro

[davenmandy]

Find a way to buffer your PH, baking soda, crushed coral, chemical buffer, etc.

I feel like a broken record, but when fish are stressed you should never do large water changes IMHO. Adds to stress, chance of killing BB, and provides a fluctuating environment to an already fluctuating water chemistry. I would do 5-10% twice a day or 10-20% once a day, or you could even change those to every other day. You will break your bank replacing meds in large tanks with large water changes, but apart from that there will be further PH fluctuations and adding stress on the rays. I don't even think it gets rid of ammonia, and before you treat it with prime or whatever the chlorine is bound to kill off some BB you desperately need right now. You have to leave well enough alone to let your chemistry settle to build up that BB again.

 

[davenmandy]

Reference this thread, it may help you in your decisions. Take a quick look at my posts for the longer version of what I just posted above for your reference.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/cloudy-eyes-please-help.662978/

 

[Jesseliu13]

Your ph can settle below what it comes out of tap. When you get ph as low as 6 ammonia becomes ammonium which isn't particularly toxic. I believe ammonia tests will read ammonia+ammonium. The problem is when you change out 80% of your ph 6 water, you add 80% 7.4 water. Because you don't have vast amounts of ammonia present the beneficial bacteria colony is quite small, but the ammonium in the water breaks down into more ammonia than your bb can handle at that ph. Combine it with the fact that ammonia becomes more toxic at high ph and you are basically nuking your rays until the ph settles back down. You need to slowly build a bb colony, which means slowly raising your ph with buffers like crushed coral. If you raise it too much too quickly that ammonia will become toxic more quickly than the bb will deal with it. You can do small water changes to gradually raise ph, but big ones are bad news. I am a water chemistry noob so it's not well explained or maybe even correct.

Is .5 not a large amount of amonia? I did the water change and its back to like 6.6 ph. I have ammochips in the sump to buffer that issuue. I normally always do large water changes and never have an issue as long as I dechlorinate and treat for chloromines. Ammonia is now back to .25 ... my beneficial bacteria colony is probably destroyed from the antibiotics and is recovering at a terrible rate because of the low PH. when ph drops below 7, bacteria growth and production slows down dramatically... so i feel that it is inhibiting their reproduction. In perfect conditions nitrosonoma reproduces every 7 hours. while Nitrobactr reproduces every 13 hours.

Find a way to buffer your PH, baking soda, crushed coral, chemical buffer, etc.

I feel like a broken record, but when fish are stressed you should never do large water changes IMHO. Adds to stress, chance of killing BB, and provides a fluctuating environment to an already fluctuating water chemistry. I would do 5-10% twice a day or 10-20% once a day, or you could even change those to every other day. You will break your bank replacing meds in large tanks with large water changes, but apart from that there will be further PH fluctuations and adding stress on the rays. I don't even think it gets rid of ammonia, and before you treat it with prime or whatever the chlorine is bound to kill off some BB you desperately need right now. You have to leave well enough alone to let your chemistry settle to build up that BB again.

As for your explanation in the other thread you are completely right lol. I do not completely rely on my filtration for my water chemistry.. Filtration is important to me. thats why im constantly building new filtration for my tanks, but i definitely dont like to rely on my bacteria sometimes. i plan on putting in a drip system with carbon filters. Right now my ammonia has dropped to .25 meaning water changes does remove ammonia as well. But after every water change, my ammonia has never dropped below .25. meaning my tap will have .25 ammonia just from chloromines.

Right now stingrays seem to be doing good. I am not going to feed until Later tonight to ensure everything is fine. I noticed alot of poop in the tank this morning, some of the poop looked like jus the mucus or shellings of the poop. Could be my arowana, or rays. Rays are hitting the glass as if they are waiting for me to feed which is a good sign. I will update tonight on to see what has happened.

 

[Jesseliu13]

just an update, my ammonia seems to be lowering. not quite 0 yet but getting there. My PH isnt dropping anymore. the divets in the 2 normal rays are gone.. but my super skinny male is still super skinny. divet looking better but no change from when before i dosed prazipro.

 

[Raynado]

I would continue to keep the water clean and monitor. I would advise not to medicate again. Hope all goes well

 

[Jesseliu13]

i replaced the mechanical filtration again. Stingrays are definitely improving... ammonia still at .25 ... I have been doing this hobby for over 10 years. Im not saying that im a pro or anything. everyone has their own way of doing things. some work better then others for different fish. But for me, for all my years of doing research and taking care of fish.. i always thought .25 ammonia was alarming.. is that not the case? i just had like 3 different people tell me thats its definitely a problem but not an issue i should worry too much about. is this true? lol... especially for stingrays, dont they output insane ammonia and are very sensitive? Especially if they are wild caught? (all my marbled motoros are wild caught). They are some tilapia today. still nothing on the earthworms. I dont think they like them whole. i will be buying shrimp tomorow. i need to restock my foods anyways.

 

[Charney]

sounds like things are overall improving which is good. The really skinny ray was he originally a normal weight?
The pH of 6 should not really be an issue with rays if it is consistent that being said I wonder what drove it down.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

Sounds like underfiltration is your culprit. Hence your Ammonia levels up

 

[calgaryflames]

I'm worried because your asking should I be worried lol.
I've been keeping rays a decade plus now and prazi is almost never needed. Even with fresh imports prazi is only good for certain things . Good clean water and quarantine period until they eat and gain weight . I'd say majority of people that have rays with issues resort to prazi and its doing nothing but stressing the Rays further. Invest in clean water. Buy reverse osmosis and a drip system

 

[Jesseliu13]

being shipped in 2 weeks. got a triple carbon system. I am not sure how im going to make a drip system but i do have a storing tank for water changes... so it should be find until i can find a way to drain my tanks.