Questions About High Ammonia, Ammo-lock, Etc.

[cryslea]

I have a 20 gallon tall with 7 harlequin rasboras and 6 neon tetras.

I did a fishless cycle from September until mid-January. I added the harlequins, and everything looked good on the water tests. With a week of 0amm and 0nitrites, I added the neons. That was about a week ago. I saw a slight spike in ammonia (up to .25), but I expected that.

Water tests yesterday were 0/0/30 or 40.

This morning I turned on my tank lights, and the water was super cloudy. Did a water test: Ammonia was between 2 and 4!!! I did a 75% change this morning, and dumped in some prime and ammo-lock.

Now, about 6 hours later, ammonia is 1, nitrite 0. Did another 50% change, dumping in some more prime and ammo-lock

All fish are accounted for, and all appear to be acting normally.

Have not done anything stupid to my filter (like rinsing it in tap water, or changing it), haven't added untreated water Haven't used cleaning chemicals by the tank.

So, my questions:

1. Any idea on what caused this and how I can prevent it again?
2. I'm assuming that using both prime and ammo-lock is redundant. Is that true? Is one better than the other for detoxifying ammonia levels?
3 I'll keep up with the water changes, but really I won't be able to do a middle of the day one the rest of the week. Will my fish be okay with the ammo-lock or prime for 12 hours?
4 If I'm using the ammo lock or prime, do I need to keep doing water changes, or should I just wait for the bacteria/filter to catch up from whatever screwed it up?
5 will aquarium salt help?
6. i won't feed the fish today, but how long c an they do without food?


Thanks guys!

 

[rdd1952]

1) Really no clue what could have caused that. Adding 6 neons to a tank with 7 harlequins really shouldn't have even resulted iin a mini cycle. Have you tested your tap water to make sure it isn't the problem?

2) Using the Prime should be enough. Both do the same thing, transform ammonia into ammonium which is non-toxic but will still show on your test kit as it measures total ammonia and not just toxic ammonia. I don't know that either one is any better than the other.

3) The fish should be fine for 12 hours especially with you using the detoxifier. The fish you have shouldn't produce even 1 ppm of ammonia in 24 hours.

4) I would do the WCs just to ease my own mind. I still hae a problem trusting chemicals so as long as there is an ammonia reading, I want to keep it low, even if it is non-toxic.

5) I would not use salt with the fish you have. It really won't have any effect on the ammonia anyway but can be helpful with nitrite. The fish you have would possibly suffer as much damage from the salt as the toxins.

6)They could easily go a week or more. Mine have gone unfed for a week on several occasions when I was on vacation. For now, try feeding once every other day.

 

[cryslea]

Thanks, rdd.

I have no idea what happened; to get THAT MUCH ammonia basically overnight is bizarre. I haven't tested the tap water lately, so I did it today: still 0. I'll keep up with the Prime and the water changes- I don't totally trust the chemicals either, so I'll do water changes twice a day until this is resolved.

Thanks for the advice about the salt and the feeding.

I love this board.

 

[cryslea]

Hmm.... So, I went to do one last water change before bed, and noticed that my tap water test tube was left out, and it has... 1ppm of ammonia! I retested it twice, same results.

So, right now, one of two things is happening:

1. My test kit is bad. I'll take a water sample to the LFS tomorrow night to see what their test says.

or

2. My tap water really does have ammonia in it. This seems less likely to be the cause of my problems since my last water change before all this started was on Monday... and my daily readings were spot on until this morning. If it were a problem with the water, I'd expect to have seen whacked out tests last week. Still, it seems odd that the test kit went bad overnight.

Well, I've added extra Prime, and for now all the fish look awesome/normal, so I'm not going to worry too much.