Need ammonia help

[NICKOLAS]

So i have posted my question before earlier on today. I appreciate all the suggestions but im confused because i have one person telling me to sell my fish and redo my tank and the other telling me to keep up with water changes. So i have a 20 gallon tank (i know its small i will upgrade soon), containing 3 electric yellows, 2 being females and 1 male. Long story short i noticed cloudy water and my fish not seeing the food or eating. PH level is fine but my ammonia tested at 4.0ppm!!!. So this was 6 days ago. Since then iv done two 40% water changes while applying my prime water conditioner every night during this process. I managed to bring the ammonia down to 2.0ppm but its still fatal. I got rid of 10 gallons of water again today from my tank and filled it up with aquarium water at the same ph level and temperature and this aquarium water contained 0 ammonia. It was cycled had other africans living in the water i just borrowed some to help guide my tank to fix. Its been 4 hours since i added this water, i tested my ammonia again and its still at 2.00ppm. There’s literally nothing to clean out as i got rid of all excess waste. Just cloudy water with high ammonia. I dont know if maybe my filter is **** so i did put it another one so i have 2 filters and extra oxygen. In these last 6 days i have done everything except add neutraliser drops. I would of thought the aquarium water would of helped my ammonia go down.

Can anyone please figure this out

 

[seangee]

If you change 50% of the water this will drop a reading of 4 to 2 (still lethal). All that changing water does is dilute what is already there.

In the meantime your fish are constantly producing ammonia. If you go the water change route you need to change around 80% every day until you have a zero reading. Also don't feed your fish more than once or twice a week until your readings are zero. They won't die of hunger!

If you can get some fast growing floating plants put them into the tank. Plants take up ammonia which will help while your filter establishes.

 

[NICKOLAS]

So if i was to do higher water changes, there would be less ammonia in the tank. What about ammonia down or whatever its called. Those neutraliser drops that kill ammonia? Will they help

 

[NICKOLAS]

And yea ever since that ammonia reading i barely feed them as in i havent feed them in 3 days

 

[NICKOLAS]

And how often should i do those 80% water changes

 

[seangee]

And how often should i do those 80% water changes

Every day. Twice a day if you can. Don't bother with getting water from another aquarium - nothing in the water reduces ammonia so you are best starting with clean water. Use your usual source (tap water?). If you add minerals make sure you do that and also make sure you de-chlorinate the water. IDK what neutraliser drops you use so can't comment. If you use Seachem Prime as your de-chlorinator this will help - but be aware it is only effective for 24 hours.

Also don't clean your filter until it is established. Cleaning filters does get rid of some of the beneficial bacteria. Not a problem in established filters because they multiply quickly, but right now you want to preserve as much of the bacteria as you can.

 

[NICKOLAS]

Okay perfect will give it a go. Lets say my ammonia still doesnt go down after that, what other problem could there be

 

[seangee]

It will come down - you just need to be patient. Some people have had success with bacteria supplements, although these have never worked for me. A lot depends on how these have been stored or transported. Your quickest win right now would be fast growing floating plants.

 

[Essjay]

Plants use ammonia as fertiliser. Floating plants are particularly good for taking up ammonia because the other things they need - light and oxygen - are more plentiful at the water surface so they take up a lot of ammonia compared to plants that grow lower down. And plants do not turn ammonia into nitrite, which is the second problem when cycling with fish in the tank.

Water sprite is a fast growing plant, I have it in my tank.

 

[NICKOLAS]

Okay thanks for the help guys, large water changes and floating plants and oh my tank is relatively new. Will the large water changes affect my fish or bacterial growth in anyway?

 

[Essjay]

Provided you remember to dechlorinate the new water and that it is the same temperature at the tank, big water changes won't harm the fish or the bacteria. The temperature does not have to spot on, within a couple of degrees is OK.

 

[NICKOLAS]

Okay sweet, and when you say dechlorinate, what do you mean by this. Does that mean adding water conditioner like prime and bacteria starter?

 

[Essjay]

Dechlorinators are often called water conditioners. They remove chlorine, split chloramine (where that is used in the water supply) into chlorine and ammonia; most of them also detoxify metals. Some also detoxify ammonia though this only lasts for 24 hours after which time it becomes 'undetoxified' again. Prime does this and also dextoxifies nitrite, but again only for 24 hours.


Bacterial starters can help. The better ones are Dr Tim's One & Only and Tetra Safe Start, though even these won't work if they've been stored incorrectly at any time since they left the factory.

 

[Colin_T]

Post #8 in your previous thread (found at the link below), has the answers you need.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/help-me-asap.452754/#post-3822504

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On a side note, if you have another African cichlid tank and it is bigger than the 20 gallon with the electric yellows, you can do a 90-100% water change on the 20 gallon and refill it with water from the bigger tank. Just leave enough water for the fish so they aren't exposed to the air and then fill it up. This will dilute any ammonia and reduce it quite significantly. And it won't stress the fish because the water is aged and should have a similar pH and GH to the other tank.

After you have done the huge water change on the 20 gallon, you refill the bigger tank with dechlorinated water and your done. Both tanks get a water change and the smaller tank gets rid of the ammonia.

You can do this big water change any day you have an ammonia reading.


If you have a piece of foam in the filter on the bigger tank, you can take some of that and put it into the filter on the smaller tank and it should help cycle faster.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Note: If you choose to use Tetra Safe Start then don’t use Prime for 24 hours. It destroys the bacteria. After 24 hours it’s safe to use the Prime and recommended. Just use a cheap dechlorinator for the first 24 hours. It will be fine if you do a big water change first. Good luck!