Ammonia problem - recovery?

[Chris1212]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice on my swordtails that aren't doing so great.

So I think I finally go to the bottom of what has been plaguing my relatively new aquarium and likely led to Ich, the death of one of my Platy and likely soon to be death of two swordtails - ammonia. Everyone that said use the liquid test instead of test strips, you were right. Finally gotthe liquid test kit and today and ammonia was between .25-.5. Good news is nitrite was 0 and nitrate was 5ish. So I did a 50% water change, treated the new water with Prime.

Honestly, it is amazing that two of the Platy and 1 swordtail are doing so well (they actually seem to be flourishing).

The two sickly swordtails swam a bit when I first did the water change but now are just still on the bottom (alive but...). If they are going to recover, how long should it take generally? I'll also do another 25% water change tomorrow.

20g, originally 3 male Platy and 3 male swordtail, now down to 2 Platy and 3 swordtail (only one healthy).

 

[FishBearer9845]

Have you tested the water today
It sounds like your tank is uncycled, and when mine was uncycled and I made that mistake I was testing at least once per day, and changing water up to 2 times per day to keep ammonia and nitrites at 0. This lasted 5-6 weeks with a final week of tests to ensure they stayed at 0.

 

[Chris1212]

Yup, tested this morning with the liquid kit (first time using that instead of the strips). Will test and do water changes daily.

 

[FishGuest5123]

You can do a methylene blue dip to help with ammonia damage.

 

[Chris1212]

Thanks, unfortunately the two sickly swordtails died. Remaining swordtail and two platy look and act great, also no more aggression from the bully swordtail.

Have been testing with that kit for 3 days and consistently get .25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5-10 nitrates. Ph is 7.8ish. Over the last three days I have done a 50% and a 33% water change, treated daily with prime and seachem stability.

So what should be my game plan moving forward. How do I get that .25 ammonia down to zero before adding any new fish?

 

[jonnyc88]

Sorry to hear about your fish. Regarding cycling I find Stability really helps in cycling. I've had 2 mini-cycles recently and Stabiity seems to do the job after 2-3 days.

I would recommend getting your water parameters stable before adding new fish. Remember that new fish could come with diseases so you wouldn't want to juggle too many issues at once.

I'd test the water everyday for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. If ammonia and nitrite is above zero carry out a water change. Hopefully when the cycle progresses you'd see zero ammonia and some nitrites.
The cycle is considered complete if you see zero ammonia and nitrites over a few days.

 

[Chris1212]

Ok thanks, I'll keep testing and using prime and stability. I'm awful at water changes (always make a mess) so it isn't my favorite thing to do but I'll do 25 percent daily.

 

[FishGuest5123]

If your city uses chloramine, you May never get a reading of ammonia below .25ppm. However, it is really ammonium which is safe at that amount for fish. Mine always reads .25 due to chloramine and I take that as 0.

 

[Chris1212]

Interesting. I just looked through the city water site and it says chlorine is used but doesn't mention chloramine.

 

[FishGuest5123]

You’ll need to get it to 0 then.