Ammonia Killing Fish?

[Flumpus]

I've got a slight emergency. Our tank finally cycled, ammonia and nitrite were at zero, nitrates were around 5. We decided that the first thing we needed was a bristlenose pleco (because of all the algae), so my wife went to the LFS and picked one up (about 1.5"). I did a water change this morning before she went, and right after the water change I noticed that our two zebra danios we had cycled with were acting very strange... Staying at the top, not moving much. After that it just got worse. They started swimming upside down, and both eventually died. I'm not sure if it was wise or not, but we went ahead and put the bristlenose pleco in the tank (the two giant danios and two serpae tetras seemed fine).

This afternoon I did some tests, and the ammonia was up around .5. We immediately did a water change, but it didn't help. Tonight, one giant danio has died and I'm fairly sure the other one will shortly.

We do have a product (Prime) that claims to remove ammonia, but so far it hasn't worked. Just to humor me I tested the ammonia in our tap water, and it's also .5. Is that normal? Am I testing incorrectly?

I'm fairly certain that none of this has anything to do with the bristlenose, especially considering the test on the tap water. Is there anything I can do tonight until our LFS opens in the morning (we plan on taking back all our fish that haven't died until this gets sorted out)? So far the two tetras and bristlenose have shown none of the signs that the zebras did and giant danios are showing now.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[rdd1952]

Ammonia of .5 in the tap water seems high. That amount really shouldn't kill your fish that fast though unless you have a very high pH. Ammonia becomes more toxic as the pH range increases. For instance, an ammonia reading of .5 at pH of 6.0 is pretty much harmless while the smae .5 reading with a pH of 8 is very toxic.

Most people's experience with Prime is that it doesn't work, at least not to cycle a tank. Read the label closely. If it says that it "detoxifys" ammonia then it is probably transforing it into ammonium which is non-toxic (also what ammonia turns into at pH levels below 6.0). Since it is a form of ammonia, your test readings will still show it but it won't be harmful. I am not a proponent of using chemicals so I would steer clear of them. You may want to call your water companyon Monday and find out why there is ammonia in your tap water.

 

[Flumpus]

PH is 6.6... What could be killing them if it's not the ammonia? Nitrites are also a little high, at .5, but nowhere near what it was during the spike. Could the combination of the two be what's killing them?

 

[Clairel]

Hi

Ive also been using Prime(red) in mine too, but i have run out, so am no longer using it, just doing 25% water changes as necessary, and adding cycle, and decholrinator, i hope to keep my levels down by just doing this, as i dont like using chemicals, but sometimes if your ammonia is high, and your water changes dont help, you feel you need to which is fine.

Good Luck
Claire xx

 

[Snowman]

Hi, you say your tank is fully cycles, how long has it been setup and what sort of filtration are you using? Have you cleaned the filter and how did you clean it? How often have you been doing water changes and how much at a time?

 

[Flumpus]

We've been setup for five weeks now. I forget the brand of the filter, but it's for a 55G tank (we have a 30G), and no, we haven't cleaned the filter. We've been averaging a water change every third day, although this week we went a week without one (advice from the LFS). It seemed to help actually, but we did two yesterday because of our problems.

Good news though, this morning everything is back to normal, and we've had no more deaths. I'm going to look into why the tap water has that much ammonia, because I think that may have something to do with the problems we had.