Fishies-for-me

Hi I have a 36 gallon tank that has been up and running now for 6 + months...Water parameters have all been good...( 0,0,20) since I got my test kit in May. I had bought some angels about 7 weeks ago and they brought ick and fin rot with them. I treated with high temps ( ick ) and tri sulpha , but unfortunatly they died in less than a week. My 6 corys and 10 glowlights were ( and still are) fine. Water parameters tested fine all along and after treatment. Last week I did not test the water altho I did a 30 % water change. Fish all look fine. Today even tho fish still look fine ...eat fine and swim fine, I am testing a 2-4ppm amonia spike. Isn't that to toxic for my fish to be alive let alone fine?? I just did a 35% water change . Parameters before the change were ammonia 2-4, nitrites 0, nitrates 20, pH 8 temp 80. ...8 is the normal ph for all of my tanks. I will be doing water changes daily and I was wondering if the tri sulpha could of killed off some of the bacteria and if it would have a delayed reaction like this. And what is the lethal limit for ammonia as I would of thought that 2-4 was past the lethal limit...( glad it isn't tho ) My other 4 tanks are all fine with readings of ammonia 0 , nitrites 0 , and nitrates any wheres between 10 - 20 depending on the tank....thanks

Alessa

ammonia is lethal at ANY level. you should do daily 50% water changes daily until the spike is gone... otherwise you may lose your fish at any moment.

are you using the test stripes? they are inaccurate. Use the liquid API master kit.

clinton1621

Its very possible that the antibacterial meds killed off enough nitrifying bacteria to throw you into a mini-cycle... you need to use activated carbon for a few weeks to make sure it is all gone along with those 50% daily water changes or else the remaining meds will keep killing your good bacteria!

Fishies-for-me

Yes I know it is toxic, and that it should be 0 ....just wondering why it came so suddenly and why there were / are no symptoms from the fish. Yes I use api and yes I know the strips are notoriously inaccurate. I usualy test each week before water changes and last week was in a hurry so skipped the testing as it is time comsuming on 5 tanks. I did a 35 - 40 % change today and will be doing them each day till things settle down.


Thanks for the advise on carbon Clinton... I knew carbon removes meds but I didn't relize they would stay active so long in the tank..and I figured my weekly water changes would remove them from the tank gradually over the last 6 weeks or so. I change 25-30% every monday. anyhow thank you both for your input.

Alessa

what I meant is that fish are hardy sometimes, and might not show any signs of disease immediately. That does not mean that they will not show them later.