Ammonia spike after Octozin treatment - how long for filter to recover?

I treated my 85 gal with Waterlife Octozin for internal parasites and purely by chance noticed that I had an ammonia spike after treatment with levels at about 0.50.

I have an external canister filter with about 15 lbs of biohome ultimate which has been established a long while - ammonia and nitrite always zero or trace levels.

I did two 60% water changes which dropped it to about 0.1 ammonia and I hoped the filter would recover quickly to do the rest. Two days later and the ammonia is back up to about 0.30, so I've done another 60% water change tonight.

Typically, how long will it take my biomedia to recover enough to stabilise and reduce the ammonia back to zero? Or will I have to continue doing large water changes for days?

 

Giving this a bump up for you hope you get some responses today

 

Thanks!

 

Thank you for this info. I will remove my bio rings during treatment. Did you have success? I plan to run at 50% water level to minimize medicine. I have 4 Juvenal cichlids that won't eat so metro nor epson salts can be administered.

Very sorry if you have to recycle your tank. You have my condolences

 

The Octozin has worked well for me on two occasions. Firstly with an Angel fish suffering with hole in the head, and secondly with a Chocolate cichlid that like the Angel, was not eating and had stringy, white/clear poop and feeling very sorry for itself.

Both fish returned to full health and appetite within a week of treatment so I have to say that the Octozin has worked very well for me.

Sadly, as I have now confirmed twice, it kills (or at least partially kills) the filter, so any future treatments will need to be in a hospital tank where I just do a 50% water change every day in lieu of filtration whilst under treatment.

The filter took about 5 days to manage ammonia levels again and things are thankfully back to normal with just expected trace levels of <0.25 (you can never have zero, right? Otherwise there is nothing to feed the filter))

 

I always run zero. How is it now? My bottle is on its way. I lost a male damasonI today. Hoping it will arrive before I lose more. Plan to turn off all normal filtration and use a power head driven mechanical bottle filter for aeration and mechanical. This is worrisome

Other fish are in good spirits eating flakes and blood worms.

 

Hope it works out for you, but you'll need to do lots of water changes to manage ammonia.

I don't believe it's possible to run zero ammonia, as the fish will always be producing it, as will the decomposition of other organic matter in the tank - until that water that contains the ammonia that the fish has just created reaches the filter, it will be present, hence trace levels.

Splitting hairs, maybe, but zero ammonia is impossible if you think about the flow of water from fish to filter.

Best of luck and sorry to hear you lost a fish.