Want To Be Prepared For The Ammonia Spike...

[xoedusk]

Ammo-Lock will help out a lot.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah i would take them all back to the store and do a fishless cycle.

however it is perfectly possible to cycle with fish without loosing any, but it does require a lot of work. you actually need a half decent amount of fish in to start the cycle, do it with too few fish and they won't generate enough ammonia to get the bacteria going, i think you need 25-30% of your final stocking in to cycle the tank. you need to test the water every day, any day that you get a reading for ammonia or nitrite do a 20% water change, don't clean the filter at all, feed sparingly every other day, and yes using ammolock can help. It converts the ammonia to something else less harmfull to fish but that can still be used by the bacteria to feed off.

 

[TigerIssey]

Ammo lock converts Ammonia to ammonium. If you still read ammonia on your test kit you add more ammo lock. It will tell you on the container how much to add to reduce the ammonia by a certain amount.
Water changes will be hard work if you go with the fish, but it is possible and it was not your fault, you did ask at the lfs who you thought knew what they were talking about. Happens to alot of people.

 

[lillykinloo]

Thanks to everyone for all of the help! I really, really appreciate it. I'm going to the store to pick up some Ammo-lock. I started the 20% water changes yesterday. Today, the Ammonia level is at 0.25, so it's on its way up. Hopefully, the daily water changes & Ammo-lock will help to get the Ammonia level down.

 

[InaneCathode]

I really dont think ammo lock is neccesary unless you don't do regular water changes.