aceigga03

So i have a 3 week old tank and 4 tiger barbs in it...I did a master test last night and the Ammonium was about 4ish...i immediately used ammo lock and then did a 15% water change this morning....I checked it tonight at 8 pm and its still at about 2 now......HELP!!! im nervous that im going to wake up and the all gonna be dead...Ill admit that was def over feeding the first 2 weeks...

bolivianbaby

Daily 40-50% water changes would help get the ammonia level down. What are your readings for nitrites and nitrates? What is your pH level?

DRock914

When you use ammo lock it locks up the ammonia and makes it non-toxic but it will still be present on your tests. When I used ammo lock the ammonia kept increasing and was not breaking down. It reached 8. Once I stopped using ammo lock and did 35%-50% WCs I had better luck and the ammonia was gone in 4 days.

aceigga03

Nitrites-0
nitrate-5
PH- 7.4

I am also wanting to get a bigger tank next week....would that help?

aquarist48

Hello Aceigga and Welcome to Fish Lore.

It doesn't sound like your tank is cycled or for some reason you're going through a mini cycle. I suggest increasing your water changes to 30 to 50% daily and continue using the ammolock to detox the ammonia until your readings are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and under 20 nitrates. Even though you add the ammolock you may still get readings for ammonia but it's actually ammonium which is less toxic. This will help to keep your fish safe for the 24 hours until it's time for your next water change.

How did you cycle the tank? I see you are aware of the nitrogen cycle. Too, you could take some media from your established tank (don't take out so much it throws your established tank into a cycle as well) and place it in the tank with the issues. This will help to establish your tank a lot quicker by "seeding" it.

Note: if you've set up both of your tanks at the same time I don't know that I would remove any filter media just yet and finish cycling your tank with the water changes.

Best of luck.
Ken

aceigga03

I want to get a 30 gall hex tank....if i use TSS...could i transfer my fish from the old tank right into the new one?

Shawnie

yes you can but you need a big bottle of tss ...fill your new tank and use it with tetra aqua safe conditioner for the tap water..then 24 hours later add your fish and then anther 24 hours add your tss...

aceigga03

heres some Youtube vids of my tank