Unexpected Ammonia in fish tank

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Man, this fish thing is harder then I thought, the cycle seemed so simple, ammonia spike then nitrate spike then you can add fish but I guess it's not so simple.:( Thanks for your help, I'll keep adding stability, prime, and changing the water every day to save the fish.
 
The fish hobby is more like a lifetime science project.
The more science (biology, chemistry, even geography) you know (or are willing to learn, and put time into) the better and more enjoyable it will be.
Unless you are wealthy enough to pay a service to do everything for you, educating yourself on all the above can be the difference between a beautiful and healthy piece of nature, and a rotting, smelly, stagnant cess pool of death.
And even sometimes when you think you know stuff, stuff happens to knock one down a few pegs.
 
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Bacteria populates in accordance to how much load is on the tank,so if it was cycle before doesn’t mean it’s going to be able to handle full load right off the bat. Good measure when setting up a new tank is to slowly add fish one at a time so that bacteria can keep up rather than dumping them all in one shot.
 
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TheWolfman said:
Bacteria populates in accordance to how much load is on the tank,so if it was cycle before doesn’t mean it’s going to be able to handle full load right off the bat. Good measure when setting up a new tank is to slowly add fish one at a time so that bacteria can keep up rather than dumping them all in one shot.
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Thanks for the info, I'll remember that for next time. I went to buy a single gourami and some tiny zebra danios but my mom bought all the other fish for the tank saying they would be fine and there was nothing I could do about it because she had already bought them. :( Then after I thought everything was okay with the 11 fish I had she bought even more and that's how I ended up with 19 fish instead of 6 within two days.
 
duanes said:
The fish hobby is more like a lifetime science project.
The more science (biology, chemistry, even geography) you know (or are willing to learn, and put time into) the better and more enjoyable it will be.
Unless you are wealthy enough to pay a service to do everything for you, educating yourself on all the above can be the difference between a beautiful and healthy piece of nature, and a rotting, smelly, stagnant cess pool of death.
And even sometimes when you think you know stuff, stuff happens to knock one down a few pegs.
Click to expand...

Lesson learned, I had read a LOT about keeping aquariums but it's true that there is no substitute for experience. :)
 
Maybe explaining the need to build up a large enough population of bacteria to accommodate the fish, before overpopulating the tank would help.
And, that getting that population takes time, might persuade her not to kill your tank with enthusiasm.
 
I am right now trying to persuade her that water changes are not going to kill the fish and that overfeeding will. The rest of my family is more interested in feeding the fish and looking at their beautiful colors than whether or not they survive but I will keep trying.
 
My fish are getting worse and worse I noticed that the black skirt tetras and my opal gourami are starting to get lethargic and lose color despite the dropping levels of ammonia.:( Is there anything else I can do? I have one last dose of stability. Ammonia is 1ppm but it's detoxified with Prime and I can only do water changes when my mom is not home. This happened last time I had a fish tank too. maybe this hobby isn't for me or I should wait until I get older to try again if I can't keep these fish alive. :(
 
in addition to what everyone else has said, i would say make sure youre treating the fresh water youre putting into the tank with an adequate dose of prime. could be that your tap water is high in chlorine or something else that is also harming the fish. make sure to test your tap water if youre not already.

you could also try to supplement your tank with additional filtration or perhaps some appropriate chemical media to help with the ammonia in particular.

but just like everyone else said frequent water changes and time.
 
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