inuyasha_lover_21

Did a test today and found out I have a high ammonia level. I dont get it? My tank was cycled and it still turns around and bites me from behind. The guy at the LFS said to exchange one gallon of water from the tank every day and feed every other day. What do you guys think?

Lucy

Do you have fish in the tank?
Daily water changes and the use of Prime will help get them through the mini cycle.
It won't hurt your fish to feed every other day.

Shawnie

agree with lucy on the feedings and the prime but you need 50% a day with fish in the tank and is your aquarium info updated? that helps us help you alot

inuyasha_lover_21

sorry did not update it since yesterday. I just found out. I gotta get prime. Thank you both

here is my livestock in the tank a pair of guppies and a cory. I am out of liquid for the test kit. Have to buy more soon

Shawnie

with fish then yes, daily 50% changes with the prime or even stress coat + both will neutralize the ammonia for your fish babies...goodluck!

inuyasha_lover_21

I have stress coat and stress zyme

Shawnie

stress coat + is the only thing to neutralize ....not just the regular stress coat...although neither of those will hurt, they arent very helpful with the cycle process

inuyasha_lover_21

I also bought this. http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...rand=821245785

I am trying as much as I can. I have to get prime

inuyasha_lover_21

I looked up prime but I have something like that. Jungle's ammonia, chlorine and chloramine eliminator

Lucy

Be very wary of products that claim to eliminate ammonia.
You don't want to get rid of it, just detoxify it during cycling.
The bacteria needs the ammonia to feed off of.

inuyasha_lover_21

I added a little itty bitty bit of jungle's C.C.A. eliminator. I wont feed the fish tonight or tomorrow.

soldieroffortune1974

I tried to see what the link was for,but apparently I need an ebay account, so I didn't get to see it.

inuyasha_lover_21

Its nutrafin cycle and aqua plus. I am buying everything in sight to help my tank.

Shawnie

stop buying things as some that you are getting, are not going to help you and you are wasteing your money

you cant use cycle it doesnt work unless you use it for the life of your tank..it doesnt hold the beneficial bacteria thats self sustaining...and alot of your ebay products (found out first hand) are a great price but already expired most of the time...I dont know about aqua plus maybe someone else does....

inuyasha_lover_21

Ok. Never used any of these products. Sorry. I had jungle from last years FW tank. I never bought it. The same thing goes for stress zyme and stress coat. I found cycle off of the fishlore.com nitrogen cycle page. Was going to use it to start up a new tank.

soldieroffortune1974

A bit of a worry wart,huh. Well,just take a deep breath,relax. You caught the change quickly,there shouldn't be a large health risk.Doing the water changes daily will help out a lot,until the mini-cycle is finished.

Stress coat+
Amquel+
Prime

All do the same thing.I use Prime for situations like this.

The Jungle Ammonia remover will affect the cycle,starving the bacteria,not good.

Sometimes the worst thing you can do,is what you're doing (sorry) getting everything in sight.Most of them wont help,and can potentially make the situation worse (by killing your bacteria).

inuyasha_lover_21

No more jungle. I will take the bottle and lock it up. Then have someone change the combination so I cant get to it lol. I will see if I can find stress coat+ or any if the other brands you guys told me. I never ever had a problem like this in all my years of fish keeping.

Lucy

Wow, I never noticed that Cycle was mentioned on that page.

Of course, it does say it claims to introduce bacteria to the tank, not that it actually works.

inuyasha_lover_21

For now on I am just going to throw in a piece of fish into the tank and get bacteria that way. The way I did this cycle was fish less with fish food. But after the cycle completed and I put in the fish the ammonia spiked. I dont get how that happened?

Lucy

Did you vacuum the gravel really well to get all the leftover food out?
Could be you overwhelmed the bacteria if you added too many fish at once.

inuyasha_lover_21

Thats what I forgot to do. *smacking myself on the head for forgetting*. I am not buying fish until next month.

soldieroffortune1974

It's better to use ammonia,in a fishless cycle.Instead of letting meat rot,that can potentially bring other unwanted bacteria as well,extremely unhealthy for you,lots of dangerous bacteria can be bred that way.

The probable,and most likely reason for the spike,is that too many fish were put in at once.By too many,I mean more than the bacteria can cope with,at that point. It's difficult to judge,exactly HOW MUCH bacteria is in the aquarium. Making it difficult to know how many fish to stock at once. It's common,and not anything you did wrong.

inuyasha_lover_21

thanks S.O.F. I have a 20 gal that I want to turn into SW but I have to put my button quail into that for now. Hopefully my 3 babies will live so I can get them friends next month.

catbtony

If it were me, I would start 50% water changes daily until I got ammonia to zero and test ammonia and nitrate daily if not twice daily-and had a nitrate reading of 5 or better, need to re-cycle and keep as much non-organtic products out of your tank, good luck

inuyasha_lover_21

That is some good advice. I was thinking 50% and I told the guy I wanted to do more then a gallon. He said I will be putting in more chlorine from the tap water that way. We have well water though and it dont have bleach or chlorine in it. last time we added that was 5 years ago.

soldieroffortune1974

The cycle will take care of itself,there's no need to"re-cycle",the important thing to do is make the fish comfortable and healthy in the process,while it finishes it's mini-cycle. No need to stress over it,it will finish in it's own time.Changing the water,and adding conditioner,with the ammonia detoxifier will be good enough.It will correct itself,and the fish will be just fine.

inuyasha_lover_21

The guppies are the only ones left but they are having fun and playing now. I am waiting a while before I get more fish. I am getting for cories next so I hope it wont be overloaded next month.