Ammonia Levels Are Sky High!

[Eigdoog]

Hello,

I have a pretty big problem i need to try and sort out. A few days ago i started to notice that a few of my fish were dying. I have a 100gallon tank with a few parrot fish, dollars and 1 oscar fish.

I noticed that one of my 3 tinfoil barbs was lying on the bottom of the tank dead - that is when i started to panic and tested the water. It read that the nitrite was ok, except the PH was reading red which means it was FAR below what it was meant to be. I made the mistake of not testing the ammonia.

Over the course of the night i noticed that the majority of my fish were acting strange and that the remaining tinfoil barbs were floating upside down NOT dead.

However, when i checked the next morning they died.

I went to my LFS and they tested my water and did an ammonia test. It read 7! The lady at the fish shop was shocked and said i must not do a water change as this will increase my PH levels which in return would make the ammonia rise. I was quite confused with that. She gave me Sera Nitivec bio cultures to raise the bacteria which might have been lost. She also gave me AmQuel+plus which removes nitrate, nitrite and ammonia. I was told to add the bio cultures and then wait 20minutes before adding the AmQuel.

I have been adding the medications for about 2 days now and there is no difference my fish are still not moving much and seem shocked.

I need to know if the information that she gave me was correct and what i should do because i think i'm going to lose my fish at this rate.

I have just noticed that the majority of my fish look rough looking like the scales and fins are tattered. I have also just noticed that my fish seem to have white over their eyes.

Any help would be appreciated please!!!

Many thanks Eigdoog

 

[seanie112]

we had high ammonia 8.0 dark green on friday we added ammonia remover and had the water tested on sat and it was on 0.0
we lost loads of fish my breeding pairs of bristlenose and 200 fry in one wk

 

[petertr]

Personally, I think the LFS has served their own interest and made a buck out of you.

50% water changes every day is how I would have handled it.


Is this a new tank, or a tank that has only recently been set up, by any chance?

 

[seanie112]

done that for two wks and no change any way i brought the ammonia remover from ebay lol 250ml

 

[shelaghfishface]

oh what a shame, this is bad advice from your lfs, do a water change(50%) every day, even twice /3ich a day if you need to, give a couple of hours in between, you could get that ammonia down to 0 in no time at all, the oscar should be fine, but not sure about the others.
buy your own API master testing kit to, it will prove to be a life saver!!
do me a favour, in future ask in here before you ask the lfs, there is no money to be lost here and you could have had this sorted days ago


EDIT** did all the fish die??

done that for two wks and no change any way i brought the ammonia remover from ebay lol 250ml

that is complete rubbish. whats the point of adding chemicals to an already toxic tank?? the only way is to do water changes which dilute and eventually remove ammonia

 

[seanie112]

since we added the ammonia remover our water was bk to normal test the water to nite and its good all clear

we have 7 tanks and trouble with 4 tanks used to ammonia remover in 2tanks its all gone not used it in other two tanks still got high ammonia so tomrw going to test the water again and if it not change then going to used ammonia remover again your way hasnt worked in the last two wks lost 7 breeding bristlenose and 200 fry and some corrys list goes on done it every ones way and lost the fish now doing the other way its working
after two wks of losing fish had do some thing as not good losing fish like having hot dinners is it

 

[shelaghfishface]

its not MY way..its a proven way.. up to u tho

 

[seanie112]

but it didnt work for us so had to do something before we lost all our fish then theres no point then is there m8

 

[shelaghfishface]

so u tried 50% water changes once/twice daily and after 2 weeks it still was high??

 

[seanie112]

it didnt work ok do u take the hint

 

[shelaghfishface]

lmfao.. who the hell do u think you are !!

 

[seanie112]

100% didnt work had 4 tanks had trouble done the water changing nothin changed so use treatment

4tanks had it use treatment in two tanks cleared it with in couple hours
still got it in two more tanks your way not working just done another test its the following ok
nitrite o.0
nitrate 0.0
ph 7.4
ammonia 0.0

in the other tanks that tanks not treated is the following
nitrite o.0
nitrate 0.0
ph 7.2
ammonia 3.25

had enough trying to say wot we have done and wot has happened to the tanks

after all this we have lost over 200 fish most of them are fry (babies)
and 7 breeding bristlenose common
breeding trio L182 bristlenose
breeding corrys x5
200 babies bristlenose tank has no fish in now as the fry babies are dead
list goes on ok

only have abt 12 fish left in the tanks we have had problems in









not going to reply anymore plus taking of the email notification of replies

 

[shelaghfishface]

you have 2 tanks at least which dont look to be cycled.. i was offering advise not getting at you.. dunno what " do u get the hint" was for,, anyway you obviously know what your doing so get on with it

taking email notifications?? oooohhhh thats fine!

 

[seanie112]

all i was saying is your way wasnt working so done it the other way and the ammonia has gone from the tanks that we have treated end of sorry if i done that two wks ago wldnt of lost all the fish may only lost couple
we did now the wife is saying the tanks that have no fish or couple in can go in another tank when they had been sorted then i have to be closed down the tanks so be down to 4 tanks after all this..................................................
happy fishkeeping



never had this trouble when we had cichlids

 

[SharonCC]

If Ammonia is very high, it is impossible for Ammonia NOT to lower during water changes...assuming that there is no high Ammonia in tap water. Something's funny, here....