Major Ammonia Levels.. I Made A Big Mistake! Please Help, I Don&#3

[aliberry]

Hey everyone, I'm new on the forums. I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank set up, with a filter, heater, etc. I have had it up and going for 3 weeks now and have never had any fish before or anything. I added 3 fish the first week, and 3 the second. I have 2 mystery snails, 2 cory catfish, a balloon molly, and a red-wag platy(he's now unfortunately gone).

I am not sure of the exact levels of everything, but I got the water tested today at a pet store and the associate said everything was fine except my ph and ammonia levels. She said the ph level was a bit low but that it wouldn't kill my fish, but the ammonia level was at the highest reading for the test kit. I talked to a manager at the store who keeps fish, and she told me to do a 30% water change with spring water, rinse my filter with hot water, and put Ammo-lock in the tank. I'm a novice and am really desperate to save my fish, so I did everything she said (yes, I had read about cycling and the such before I got a tank, but I had no idea how big a deal it was to the health of the fish). Last night was when the red-wag platy died and I am desperate to save the rest of my fish and my snails. All of the fish seem more active now that I changed the water, but I just tested the ammonia again and it was still very high (I changed all the water and such about an hour ago).

I just read a post about cycling that someone linked me to, and realized that it was bad that I rinsed out my filter cartridge (it was honestly disgusting though). Can someone please offer me some advice about what to do? Also, I have a sample packet of stress zyme that supposively speeds the development of the biological filter.. should I put that in the tank now too?

Also on a side note.. what I got from the cycling post is that the major portion of good bacteria are in the filter cartridge.. but aren't you supposed to change that once a month? So does that mean the tank cycles every month?

Please help if you can, I really want to save my poor fish. Thanks so much everyone.

 

[waterdrop]

You have a classic case that we get several of every month. You have not had access to the correct information early on and are now catching up (hopefully with the help of the Fish-In Cycling, Nitrogen Cycle and Fishless Cycling articles in our Beginners Resource Center.) Don't worry, the members will keep helping you.

Your emergency water changes will need to be on the order of 75% per day until you can do your own testing and learn how to judge. The water changes need to be done with good technique: Use a gravel-cleaning-siphon to deep clean the gravel as the water is removed. Let the water go down to as shallow as the fish can take it (thus my 75%..80% number but its your judgement) as you work on the gravel (its not just the debris you see, the gravel also hides other invisible heavier molecules.) The return tap water needs to all be treated with a good chlorine/chloramine remover (we recommend Seachem Prime because its very concentrated and handles a load of beginner problems better than the other dechlor products.) We recommend treating it at 1.5x to 2x but not more than 2x what the bottle tells you. The return water also needs to be roughly temperature matched. Your hand is good enough but do it a few times so that you feel the temps are pretty close. This fresh tap water that's treated and temp-matched will be a lifeline for your fish - you can't do too much of it so don't worry about that.

As soon as you can get a good liquid-reagent test kit, do so. Most of us like and use the API Freshwater Master Test Kit but there are other good ones too. Post up your tap and tank results as soon as you know how to use it.. follow all the instructions. We will give further intstructions to help with the Fish-In cycling article once you have your kit.

You do not need spring water, tap water is normally much better because the fish need a consistent mineral content and that needs to be stabilized around your local water conditions.

You are correct. You want your biomedia (the media that the bacteria cling to) to last a lifetime if possible! You do not frequently replace it, that is a thing the manufacturers invented for the most part to get you to buy supplies.

You have found the right place and are doing the right thing to ask. Welcome to TFF!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Aliberry.
The ammo-lock may do you a bit of good but not much in your situation. You need to drain all of the water that you can from the tank without making the fish flop around on a dry bottom. Then replace the water with fresh water at the right temperature, matched to the tank water you drained, and properly dechlorinated. That one huge water change should make it possible to start doing 50% daily water changes until you can get a test kit to guide you with water changes. Very shortly you need to get the ability to test your own water. Many of us use the API master test kit but any of the liquid reagent type kits work fine. It will be far cheaper on line than at your local fish shop. As WD said, tap water is great for water changes in most cases, as long as it is properly dechlorinated. You need to be able to test your water before chancing the use of any bottled water. Water suppliers start with basic tap water, purify to almost no mineral content using RO equipment and then add back in some mineral mix that they find their customers like. Since each manufacturer, I can't think of a better word, has their own mineral blend for flavor, the resulting mix is a bit unpredictable. Without a good TDS meter and several other test methods, I would no way use bottled water for any of my fish. One bottle might be just perfect for the fish I keep while the one next to it on the shelf might have far more minerals or far less than the fish that I keep really need. I have my own RO and my own testing tools so I sometimes concoct a water for a particular tank that is very different to tap water. Since I know what I am working with and what the desired outcome is, I can safely do just that. It sounds like you are in no position to make a custom water mix so the best advice is treated tap water only.
Almost every tank manufacturer includes a small sample of some kind of water conditioner, whose main purpose is to remove chlorine and chloramine. I would use it at about 1 1/2 times the recommended rate on your water change. If you are out of it, go get some right away. I use Prime made by Seachem because it is very concentrated and a bottle lasts forever even while I am maintaining 25 tanks with regular water changes on most of them. Some get a different approach that I would not encourage a new fish keeper to try.