Ammonia Spike in Fancy Goldfish Tank

[maddi7777]

Hi all,

I have a 40-gallon breeder tank with two large fancy goldfish. I made a huge mistake and replaced my fish filter cartridge with a new one, causing an ammonia spike. I think I accidentally "uncycled" my tank and am not sure what to do now. Ammonia got as high as 4.0ppm. I have done 50% water changes every day and it is currently sitting at 1.0ppm. I am using AmGuard every day to try and protect my fish. One of them is doing pretty okay, the other one is sitting on the bottom of the tank and has trouble breathing. No redness on their gills yet from ammonia burns.

I believe all I can do is continue to change their water every day for a few weeks, until everything is back to normal. Dilemma is, I am in college and have to go home for winter break in 5 days. It is a 3-hour drive. I was planning on leaving the fish behind (they have automatic lights, feeder, and camera). But now I am thinking I will have to bring them home with me to continue to change their water every day. Would they survive this 3-hour trip? And I have a 20 gallon at home already, could I use that instead of having to lug their 40 gallon all the way home? I would put the filter, decorations, plants, and some of the substrate in a bucket of their water and bring it home as well. Looking for any and all help. I feel terrible I messed up this badly, I should've known not to throw out the filter cartridge as I've only had this tank for about 3 months.

 

[MaloK]

How much time you have to leave the tank unattended ?

It's not the best method, but, Maybe you could save the day by using ammonia removing media.

To keep the level at bay while you are not there. And save the fishes a stressful car trip... To make sure that everything goes, use the whole box.

It will indeed delay the onset of the nitrification process. But will prevent your fishes to be overexposed for a while.

I would add it as soon as possible to be able to monitor if it works as hoped for.

After you return, you can remove the media and re-initiate your cycle under surveillance.

 

[emeraldking]

To be honest, if the tank is already cycled and you're using a new filter, the tank itself doesn't get uncycled. Just the filter media needs to develop a new bacteria culture. But you can squeeze out the filter media of the old filter in the new filter or tank.

A three hour drive won't hurt them. The question is more: Scooping them out and put them in another tank for the time being until you'll go back to college, will that raise the stress for those fish?