antbfc

Hi,

I recently had a high ammonia spike in my tank. Its is a new tank been established a month now, my ammonia shot up to 4.0 PPM and killed 2 of my fish. For a week i did dailky 25% water changers to rid myself of the ammonia in my haste i did not think about the fact i will be taking the good stuff too. Went to my fish place and they told me to do 25% water changes every 2 days and use bacterlife until ammonia has gone nitrites have gone and nitrates are at a stable level. I have a 120 litre tank with 2 platys 2 dalmation mollies 3 sucking loaches (not chinese algae eaters these will grow to no more than 3 inches) and a clown plec. I have followed their guidance for 6 days now and saw a massive improvement on the first day with it dropping to somewhere inbetween 0.50 and 1.0 but it just won't drop any more! I ve started putting 5ml of bacterlife in daily and 7 ml when a water change is done. Im worried my fish won't be able to survive the ammonia for much longer :-s i have bought some ammo lock just in case but i don't particularly want to use it aftert reading bad reviews... please help!

Shawnie

it takes allot of weeks to cycle with fish..continue daily water changes to keep your fish safe until the cycle is done...bacterilife isnt going to let he tank cycle as its the wrong kind of bacteria so top using that and just use the ammo lock with your daily changes...you are not throwing out good bacteria with water changes because water holds very little if any beneficial bacteria...that adheres to solid things as in your filter media, subtrate and decorations...

Lucy

Welcome to Fish Lore
I'm really sorry about your fish.
I don't know what bacterlife is, but if it's a bottled bacteria, I would suggest you stop using it. Most don't do what they claim to do. In fact they prolong the cycle by using the ammonia that the natural bacteria needs to develop.
So, while bottled bacteria is bringing down the ammonia, the beneficial bacteria that will self sustain your tank can't grow.

It would be a good idea to do 50% daily water changes or do 25% changes twice a day until your readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite with some nitrates showing.
You can use Prime as your water conditioner, that'll detox the ammonia for 24hrs between water changes.
It'll take time and lots of patience, but you'll get there.

Good luck!

Oh, doing water changes is not taking out any good stuff, instead it replensihes the good minerals and brings down the bad stuff (ammonia, nitrites)

bolivianbaby

Welcome to Fishlore

Great advice above.

antbfc

o right looks like i've been conned there then! 50% seems like an awful lot? Shall i feed a lil bit every day or every two days? What is this prime product? So ammo lock is fine to use?

antbfc

any help?

gmen4life

use PRIME for your conditioner at full dose not just the amount of water you add!!! it will make the ammonia non toxic for 24 hours do daily changes at 25 percent you wont drop it to zero though use prime prime prime

Shawnie

ammo lock works like prime so its fine to use most LFS are out to make money not give great advice...as you go along and learn more, you figure who you can trust and who you cant ...50% is needed to keep the fish safe and feeding everyday can be done just once and make it a small feeding...more food = more waste = more ammonia...it will take a few weeks so patience will be your best friend!...good luck!

gmen4life

Prime Lol

Shawnie

some members over seas cannot get prime and he has ammo lock which works the same ...no need for him to buy the other IMO

gmen4life

lol ok point proven you win hehe but after it runs out since your doing water changes it will be half price since you need to condition the water anyway lol

Shawnie

it conditions for chlorine/chlorimines also its API's version of amquel+

gmen4life

showoff!!!!!haha he

Lucy

Good point Shawnie, I didn't notice the flag.

antbfc

Thanks very much for the advice i will continue with the water changes :-)

antbfc

oops one last question, when doing the daily water changes do i need to siphon the gravel daily as well or just remove water? just done another test and ammonia is really low but not quite gone and nitrites are at zero, is that the right balance, surely nitrites will begin to rise as well?

Tony G.

Hi
yes, once the ammonia begins to lower the nitrite should rise. I wouldnt syphon your tank every day. Once a week should be fine to remove excess scum not picked up by the filter.

antbfc

excellent thanks. If i do use ammo lock to gewt rid of this last bit of ammonia how will i know when to stop using it as my tests will still show ammonia. But if i use ammo-lock which gets rid of the ammonia presumably nitrites will start to rise?

Lucy

If I understsnd the newer ammo-lock correctly, it detox's the ammonia, doesn't get rid of it.
The ammonia should still be available to the bacteria. The bacteria will process the ammonia into nitrites.