Crazy Ammonia Issues!

[Kojak]

Hey guys,
I have been scouring the web looking for advice about what to do with my ammonia problems!

I have a fairly new betta (2-3 months) that i have been keeping in a 1.5 gallon tank, specifically this package http/www.petco.com/product/102093/Tetra-Water-Wonders-1.5-Gallon-Aquarium-Kit.aspx.

I use all of its components plus a small heater to keep the water around 75 degrees. He was doing fine for quite sometime and then started acting strangely. He began to hide and only come up for air, his fins rolled together into a more tentacle shape, he lost color as well as his appetite. I rushed a sample to a local petstore who tested it for me and found my ammonia in the 4.0 range! I immediately bought ammonia tablets that initially helped. He perked up a bit until about 2 days ago when the tablets became less effective and the ammonia has been staying at around 2.0. I have since removed him from the tank and am keeping him in a bowl. I bought small guppies with API stress zyme plus to hopefully get the apparent lack of bacteria going? the guppies have been in for 2 days and seem to be doing fine despite losing one to the filtration system. I have since made it impossible for them to get sucked in.

My question is why does a friend who lives across the hallway have a betta in a bowl for its entire life and have no issues while mine, whose in the lapse of luxury for most common bettas, have so many issues? i have a feeling its actually the filtration system. should i just remove it?

any help at all would be appreciated. thanks!

 

[jpeterson]

How long has the tank been set up? Did you cycle the tank before you put the betta in?

 

[Kojak]

How long has the tank been set up? Did you cycle the tank before you put the betta in?

I had done what i thought was a cycle but later it came into my knowledge i was wrong. however he did fine for 2 months without the cycle. I have 3 guppies in the tank now to cycle it, theya re super tiny, maybe half inch if their lucky. However it still leaves the question of why does a betta in a bowl do better than my set up tank?

 

[jpeterson]

Ok you need to get your self a test kit form API and start cycling your tank. Since you have fish in it i would suggest a fish-in cycle. Look here... http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=224306

 

[fluffycabbage]

have you given the betta fresh water? with that much ammonia you need to do a full or almost full water change. he'll slowly be being poisoned. theres no need to add chemicals to help, they wont. but fresh water will. if that means you have to do a complete water change every few days til the bacteria in the filter can cope, then thats how it has to be. could be a couple of months yet.

 

[Kojak]

have you given the betta fresh water? with that much ammonia you need to do a full or almost full water change. he'll slowly be being poisoned. theres no need to add chemicals to help, they wont. but fresh water will. if that means you have to do a complete water change every few days til the bacteria in the filter can cope, then thats how it has to be. could be a couple of months yet.

I had been doing partial changes, about 10 percent, daily. So basically by changing the entirety of the water, it will still be able to create the bacteria colonies i need? iw as afraid that by swapping water that hard i would ruin any bacteria made.Update on the beta, hes in a small bowl that i am changing out daily, he has stopped being so lethargic but it seems he cant get his mouth wide enough to eat the biogold anymore, probably due to him being so weak. would using tropical flakes still work? just smash them pretty good? or maybe crushing the beta biogold?

 

[Geoff-]

10% daily is nowhere near enough if your ammonia levels are high.

if your ammonia level is 2.0ppm and you do a 50% water change it drops to 1.0ppm. Add another 24 hours and it'll be higher because fish continuously produce waste. So it might be 1.5ppm. Another 50% change and it will be 0.75ppm and after a day it might be 1.25ppm. Another 50% change and it drops to ~0.6ppm. Can you see how a 10% water change is going to achieve very little in practice? Takes a few days of 50% to achieve anything significant.

You gotta get the ammonia down for the sake of the fish. What is the tank's pH? If your pH is acidic (< 7) the ammonia problem is not so bad but if your tank is alkaline (> 7) then you really have to be on the ball because ammonia is a bigger problem in alkaline water. My tap water is pH 8 and any ammonia above 0.50ppm is bad news at that pH.

Get the ammonia down first, so your fish will survive. A tank will cycle even with a tiny amount of ammonia in it, might take a little longer but at least you're not making your fish suffer.


If you do an 80%+ water change (or even 100%) then dechlorinate the replacement water in a bucket and let it sit for half an hour. That will make sure there isn't any chlorine left to kill the bacteria in your main tank. The bacteria in your tank will survive in the gravel and the filter there's not as much in the water itself as in those two places.


Tank cycling is everything - a cycled tank will process ammonia and nitrites to 0ppm - these are both poison to your fish. If your friend's bowl was cycled then he'd be fine. Your tank is not that's why you're having problems

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Anything above a reading of 0.25mg/l of either ammonia or nitrite needs a MASSIVE water change, as in removing al water except just enough to cover your fish!

Yes, they might be temporarily stressed by this, but they have a chance of thanking you with their lives, once you add fresh dechlorinated water of a similar temperature.

Given your reading of 2mg/l, its very possible that one big water change may not get levels safe, when you test about an hour later... Be very prepared to do another big water change that day!

• Be very wary of overfeeding fish, especially in a new tank, think food the equivalent of one eye per fish per day.
• Excess food will be ate by greedy fish (more waster, more ammonia), or it will rot in the tank floor and within the filter itself (producing ammonia).
• A siphon tube will help you "vacuum" the tank floor of rotting food, VERY GENTLY rinsing the filter pads/sponges in some removed TANK WATER might help too.