Ammonia Issues

[mdt62]

Ok first off Im going to be completely honest. I chose to cycle my tank, on the advice of my LFS guy, with fish. Before anyone says so, I messed up and regret this whole heartedly. I learned a lesson to listen to my gut and most of the folks on this forum. Knowing I realize my mistake there is no reason to talk smack, Im here for help not my ass chewed out. So..

I cannot keep my ammonia down. My tank is a 75 gal with 12 fish less than 2in. Its been running for a 2 weeks this tuesday. Last night I noticed my fish gasping at the top of my tank. Checked my ammonia level (4ppm) and did a 50% and added ammo-lock. Seemed to fix the problem. Woke up this morning to find two fish dead. Had to go to work so I added more ammo-lock and had to leave. Came home and did another 50% water change. 6 hours later they are gasping again, another water change. I added an ammonia eliminator to my fluval 405 but they FS was out of ammo-lock. Why is my ammonia rasing so fast? What do I do now? I dont want to lose anymore fish. Please help!

 

[Ogre One]

just taking a stab here but ammo lock or whatever it is. From what i understand is it doesnt do anything. Just makes the ammonia not show up on the tests/ test tubes. What you can do is add seachem prime. Its good you are doing water changes that will help. I would say stop feeding them if u havent already fish can go quite a while without food. Also do you have any other fish tanks that u can grab some filter junk from or anything like that maybe a friend that has an established tank up and running.
If all else fails id say grab some Seachem stability and follow the instructions on the bottle. You will probably have to do water changes everyday to keep those fish alive. If your water is from the city and not from a well you will neeed to add a DE chlorinater because that chlorine isnt helping your beneficial bacteria out.
To sum up water changes will be needed!

 

[Inglorious]

I agree, you're best bet right now is to use stabiliy to quick cycle the tank, and start doing frequent water changes with prime. Unfortunately when you're adding ammo lock you're actually stalling the cycling process. While I understand that you were trying to help what you ended up doing was tying up the ammonia into a different form that can't be used by your BB to produce nitrite, and then nitrate. Ammo lock does have some use in an emergency situation in an established tank it was actually hindering your cycle. Live and learn from your mistakes and you will be a better fishkeeper because of it.

 

[mdt62]

Thank you for your replies. Sounds like Ive been doing things correctly so far. Ill change the water as much as needed. I havent feed since thursday night. Ammonia is still high. Water change drops it to 2ppm and over night it rose back up to 4ppm. Watching water drain as I type. Ill look into the Prime, closest FS that carries it is 40 miles away. Guess its travel time.

 

[Ogre One]

mise well get the bigger one because it lasts quite a while. 500ml changes 5000galllons

 

[mdt62]

Couldnt find any prime but the guy at the pet store agreed it was a great product. I picked up API stress zyme. In addition to that I got a helpful tip that everyone else has failed to mention. Dude told me the carbon in my filter was removing most of the product I was putting into the tank. He said to pull it out until the problem was under control. Hope this is correct. It really seems to have helped so far and my water seems much clearer.

 

[mdt62]

Bump...

Ammonia readings are still high but my fish seem to be completely fine. I've been changing the water once a day just in case. I know ammo-lock causes just that, the ammonia to be "locked" in a non-leathal form but then how do I know how much ammonia is really present? Im at a bit of a loss as what to do next. Fish seem healthy and happy but I dont know how long to keep ammonia remover in my filter or what the next step from here is. Advice?

 

[mdt62]

Bump. Still high. Water changes seem to be doing nothing to bring it down, however my fish still seem uneffected. Could it be a false reading? (API liquid test) I really need some advice here. I have NO nitrites present. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Best advice I have so far is keep doing water changes and wait it out. ???

 

[meBNme]

I had the exact same situation with my 150.
Kept using prime and ammo lock with water changes. Didnt lose a fish.
(Well, I lost 5 out of 40 feeder fish, rosies, but no "real fish")

 

[mdt62]

I had the exact same situation with my 150.
Kept using prime and ammo lock with water changes. Didnt lose a fish.
(Well, I lost 5 out of 40 feeder fish, rosies, but no "real fish")

No one in my area carries prime. Been using Stress Zyme. It say to only use it once a week though(should I add more often?) and nothing so far. Tank has been running for almost 3 weeks with no sign of cycle?