Still no nitrite and a false positive for amonia

[k2snowboards88]

I've had fish for 3 weeks now. Some were dying for the first two weeks because of ich. So i started treating them with jungle labs ich guard II. I stopped treating a little over a week ago and tried treating them without medication by raising the temp. It worked perfectly. I added Stress Zyme which is supposed to add benneficial bacteria. A few days ago i started getting amonia readings that were off the chart 5+ppm, but my fish seemed ok. So for the last 4 day i've been changing 40% of the water daily. Every time i change the water the amonia level is still 5+ppm. I don't get it. I also haven't even begun to get any nitrite in the tank. I'm getting really sick of having to change that much water each day. 40% of 55 gallons also takes alot of aquasafe and its getting expensive. Whats wrong?

ps i treat my water with aquasafe before adding it to the tank. Except one week when i used jungle labs start right.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[WILDER]

You shouldn't be doing water changes till your nitrite raises.

 

[k2snowboards88]

i wouldn't. but i can't just alllow my fish to die like that. I've also seen some pinned thread called something like "record of cycling". He changed his water alot and it still worked. Maybe i'm jsut misguided, but i dont' want my fish to all die because i let the amonia level skyrocket.
thanks for your input though, if it doesn't start to cycle in a few weeks i might take your advice.

Also i just tested tap water to make sure my amonia kit isn't broken. ITs not, the tap water tested 0ppm.

 

[sylvia]

What fish are in that tank? If they are hardy enough, change your water every other day. Don't vacuum the gravel or wash out the filter. Make sure you are using de-chlorinated water and continue to test regularly. Also, what size tank is this and are there any live plants in there? Get a new test kit as well - just in case. Deffinately DON'T stop water changes altogether - I have cycled several tanks with water changes every other day and there have been no problems, including no fish deaths which I consider to be the priority. Next time, or if (lets hope not) you must get rid of your current fish or they die, fishless cycle your tank with pure ammonia before adding any fish.

 

[isu_guy]

When you tested your tap water had you already added the conditioner?

A possible situation - you test your tap water - 0ppm Ammo,
You add conditioner to tap water and then test - 5ppm Ammo.

Water conditioner will break down chloramine into ammonia (although this is a safe ammonia that is "locked" whatever that means, its just like using ammo lock on your water, it makes it into some safe version of ammonia). If youre tap water turns into something with 5ppm and you are doing water changes very frequently, your ppm will not go down (until the bacteria have multiplied to a point to handle all the ammo from your fish and the ammo from your tap+conditioner).

My tap has chloramine, so I get an ammo reading if I test the water after adding conditioner. Its not as high as 5 ppm but yours could be.

If you were testing the water after conditioning it and came up with 0, then you must just have a boat load of ammonia in your tank and the 40% water changes are a needed thing.

good luck

 

[k2snowboards88]

thanks for your help guys.

My tank has 4 tiger barbs a peacock eel and a red fin shark. Its 55 gallons.

I just tested my tap water again after dechlorinating it this time. Its still 0ppm. I changed the water again and this time the amonia levels actually dropped. to 4ppm. So i dont know what the deal with that was. I just hope the cycle starts soon. I'm really irritated with having to change the water every day.

 

[k2snowboards88]

anyone else?