Ammonia spike - fish having problems

[crav]

I have a 125g tank. Inhabitants are:

• 4 wild discus and 1 pidgeon blood discus
• baby arowana (4 - 5')
• 3 severums
• 2 uaru
• 1 temporalis
• a few bn plecos

I had 4 other plecos that I was housing for someone else, and an assortment of smaller fish (a few neons and tetras) that I wanted to take out of the tank.

Last wednesday I saw that a small geophagus heckelii was dead. Tested for ammonia, and it was at 0.006ppm.
Did a huge water change, using seachem safe, everything ok.

Fast foward to yesterday, I wake up to a dead pleco. Tested for ammonia, and it was 0.003 ppm. Did another big water change, started taking out all of the small fish, and the 3 plecos from my friend. Also took out all severums, temporalis and uaru. Dosed Seachem Amquel and Stability.

The arowana is ok, but one of the wild discus is in bad shape. He's dark, swimming erratically, cloudy eyes, darting, and all scraped from darting around bumping on driftwood. I took out a 10g hospital tank, put it up, same ph, temp, etc, and put the discus there, without any ammonia, with a cycled filter and media. Another 2 big wilds have a few scratches from darting around in the tank, and 1 of them is starting to get cloudy eyes as well.

Tank parameters (both) are:

• 7.0 PH
• 29ºC - 84ºF
• The main tank has 0.003 ppm of ammonia, 0.1ppm nitrite. Quarantine has zero in both, but its only 10g, small if I have to put all discus in there.

The question I have is, what can I do to help my fish survive while I deal with this?

 

[tlindsey]

I have a 125g tank. Inhabitants are:

• 4 wild discus and 1 pidgeon blood discus
• baby arowana (4 - 5')
• 3 severums
• 2 uaru
• 1 temporalis
• a few bn plecos

I had 4 other plecos that I was housing for someone else, and an assortment of smaller fish (a few neons and tetras) that I wanted to take out of the tank.

Last wednesday I saw that a small geophagus heckelii was dead. Tested for ammonia, and it was at 0.006ppm.
Did a huge water change, using seachem safe, everything ok.

Fast foward to yesterday, I wake up to a dead pleco. Tested for ammonia, and it was 0.003 ppm. Did another big water change, started taking out all of the small fish, and the 3 plecos from my friend. Also took out all severums, temporalis and uaru. Dosed Seachem Amquel and Stability.

The arowana is ok, but one of the wild discus is in bad shape. He's dark, swimming erratically, cloudy eyes, darting, and all scraped from darting around bumping on driftwood. I took out a 10g hospital tank, put it up, same ph, temp, etc, and put the discus there, without any ammonia, with a cycled filter and media. Another 2 big wilds have a few scratches from darting around in the tank, and 1 of them is starting to get cloudy eyes as well.

Tank parameters (both) are:

• 7.0 PH
• 29ºC - 84ºF
• The main tank has 0.003 ppm of ammonia, 0.1ppm nitrite. Quarantine has zero in both, but its only 10g, small if I have to put all discus in there.

The question I have is, what can I do to help my fish survive while I deal with this?

Welcome aboard
You are doing the best thing with the water changes. Just keep up with them in both aquariums . The parameters in the main aquarium will eventually stabilize. The cloudy eye will be clear up as well.

 

[kno4te]

Need to check water quality daily till things stabilize. Only water changes will do it. Do as tlindsey mentioned.

 

[crav]

Thanks for the help! I'll keep it up. Should I try to move the fish to another quarantine just in case, while the bio filter deals with the spike?

 

[kno4te]

I assume from the water. If it doesn't get or improve then move to a qt tank. Was acting normal and looked fine then wait a bit. Need to check th water daily.

 

[GamerChick5567]

Sounds like your cycle got messed up somehow and it's possibly a mini cycle. If you cleaned up your filters a little too good or you added certain meds to the water it probably killed off some of your beneficial bacteria. I would try to add more media from a healthy established tank, and I would also test your tap water as well. The mini cycle should correct itself within 2 weeks. Had that happen before and it's annoying.

I think the bioload on the tank might also be a little bit high. If your city recently added chloramine to the water when you did a water change, that could explain the sudden spike. Maybe your biofilter can't keep up with the extra ammonia on top of being overstocked. Lost a tinfoil barb from that a few months ago. I did my water change and forgot to add prime and yep. Mild ammonia spike and the tap had .25 as it's level. I think it was over 70% on that particular change since I also let the tank drain too low. Oops! Tank maintenance while really tired sometimes isn't advised..... Haha.

 

[pittbulldogva]

What type of filters are you using? I've found that canisters, if not cleaned frequently, can cause ammonia spikes.

 

[crav]

Sounds like your cycle got messed up somehow and it's possibly a mini cycle. If you cleaned up your filters a little too good or you added certain meds to the water it probably killed off some of your beneficial bacteria. I would try to add more media from a healthy established tank, and I would also test your tap water as well. The mini cycle should correct itself within 2 weeks. Had that happen before and it's annoying.

I think the bioload on the tank might also be a little bit high. If your city recently added chloramine to the water when you did a water change, that could explain the sudden spike. Maybe your biofilter can't keep up with the extra ammonia on top of being overstocked. Lost a tinfoil barb from that a few months ago. I did my water change and forgot to add prime and yep. Mild ammonia spike and the tap had .25 as it's level. I think it was over 70% on that particular change since I also let the tank drain too low. Oops! Tank maintenance while really tired sometimes isn't advised..... Haha.

I think the problem was overstocking, on top of my weak filter. What probably happened is the tank accumulated ammonia gradually. I tested for nitrite and it had some, so probably some kind of mini cycle, as you mentioned. I'm finishing the build of a new stand and sump for this tank.

I suspected the city's water as well, but it's actually better recently. I've been doing big WCs for a few months with no problems. Forgetting prime on a WC will do that, though!

What type of filters are you using? I've found that canisters, if not cleaned frequently, can cause ammonia spikes.

You are correct. Right now I have a canister. I am in the process of building a sump. I thought I had a little more time, because the fish are still small (all juveniles, except for 3 discus). Apparently not! Lesson learned, don't underestimate your fishes' ability to crap huge amounts!