I'm Afraid These Fish Won't Survive...

[KuronoEnyo]

(Not really related to helping you out with your most recent question)
Maybe there's someone *Active* on this forum who's near by who might be willing to give you some of there filter media as a way to jump start your cycling process or try to call any local aquariums see if there willing? I mean I remember reading up on a donation area I think somewhere on this forum. Could help with your current cycling issue.

 

[CezzaXV]

Changed 50% and it's still between 0.50-1ppm (color is similar) but I'll say 1 ppm... Not sure. So do you mean I need to change their water 50% once a day until it's 0ppm or change the water all in one day until it tests 0? that would ruin good bacteria though I think... sorry for misunderstanding, just wanted to confirm

Hopefully the levels go down so I can feed them normally. I'll give them a little food tomorrow night before water change.

p.s. Im getting the water I test with from the filter flow. That wouldn't somehow affect the results right?

Water changes won't affect your bacteria at all as long as the water is dechlorinated. Your fish will also be fine with big changes as long as you do them slowly and gradually. In fact, I would highly recommend doing a massive (as big as you possibly can) water change right now to get rid of the ammonia. Any risk of shocking your fish (which you shouldn't, as long as you do it slowly) is far outweighed by the definite present risk of having ammonia in your water.

 

[bmonki]

tbh, if you are unsure if you are dosing enough dechlorinator then do more rather than less. yes it may cost more in the long run, but the very very last thing you want to happen is for chlorine to get anywhere near a cycling filter... it will just kill off all the bacteria you've already grown and set you right back to the beginning again. better safe than sorry you could use a medicine syringe or similar to measure the right amount

 

[Ale_xis]

Changed about 60-70% tonight. It's now at 0.50 ppm I'll do another large change (75%?) tomorrow. Hopefully this weekend I can get it right .

And yeah, I found a little dropper that i'm using to measure the conditioner better safe than sorry

 

[Ale_xis]

Just to my luck, my filter broke as I was changing the water. It won't turn back on, even when it has water in it. I took it apart, looked at the fan and cleaned it. Sigh... I had just finished doing about a 75% water change too.
Headed to the store again.

 

[Flute]

Try dunking it in and out of the water a few times. I had a filter that was an absolute pain to get going again after a water change, and sometimes the only way to get it working was to dunk it in a few times and take it apart and re-assemble it.
If you can get it going again it does sound like it's going to be a very unreliable filter and I would advise you to start saving for something more reliable

Well done for doing so well with your rescues by the way!

You've had some fantastic advice from the members on here, and if you carry on with the way things are you and the fish will do great

 

[KuronoEnyo]

Could try aqueon till you can get a better one, I've ran aqueon filters on my aquarium since the beginning so I can raise up enough money to upgrade to an external. Pretty cheap and easy to set up also very reliable and silent.

 

[Ale_xis]

I returned it at the store and got the external version instead. I bought the internal by mistake first, so I guess it kind of worked out. I have it running and cleaning the tank. Hopefully my media is okay... I let it just sit in the tank when I was out.
Anyways, tonight's testing of ammonia is still 0.50ppm... I thought for sure that it would go down after that huge water change. I'm not doing anything wrong here am I?

 

[9murphy9]

well done i don't think you are just keep doing the mass water changes and hopefully it should go down soon,why don't you upload a picture of the water test so we could check if your not mistaken as it is hard at first,the colours are all too similar in my opinion,my question is why did you tank the two large fish back and the minnows if you only took them because of the poor condition's they were living in,as this bit confused me,i thought it was a rescue / anyway well done on the tank and keep up with the water changes

Alex

 

[Ale_xis]

Tonight's testing was a lot easier to read, it is definitely reading 0.50ppm. Plus when I tried taking a picture before, the colors came out very different on the image than what they were.
I took the minnows back because the teacher wanted them back, and I took the 2 larger fish because he asked for a couple more. Plus, they were being mean to the corys and I was afraid they would injure the smaller one. I think the tank at school is fine now, since he said he had done a 50% water change, and it's an already cycled tank. It cleared up a lot over the break and looks much cleaner, so they should be fine in there now that it's not overstocked anymore. I can do a water test when I go back on Monday to make sure that tank is healthy, but they looked a lot happier when they were back in there. Plus, my tank was already very full so I would have had to give away a couple anyways. At least this way, I can help take care of the other 2 when I'm at school too. I didn't want to give them up but I figured it would be the best option.

 

[9murphy9]

fair play,how about investing in some Ammonia-lock it doesn't defeat the problem of ammonia but it may help but coverting the ammonia to a non toxic level but if you do go for this i'd use it with the water changes i hope it all goes well and well done for looking after them,you soon may be bitten by the fish keeping bug.I got into fish 5 months ago and i've already got 5 tanks and i'm talking about turning my 12ft square cellar/basement into a fish room

.

Alex

 

[Ale_xis]

Sigh.... Did a 90% water change and 2 test, one from filter and the surface of the water- both STILL say 0.50ppm and nitrite is still 0. should I just do a 100% water change? I'm lost as to why the level isn't going down at all...

 

[MrsM]

Keep up with the water changes, you will see nitrite spike soon, which is just as deadly....water change water change until you see zero ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate levels are riing... Your doing great keep it up!

 

[KCB]

Sigh.... Did a 90% water change and 2 test, one from filter and the surface of the water- both STILL say 0.50ppm and nitrite is still 0. should I just do a 100% water change? I'm lost as to why the level isn't going down at all...

Test the water again, if it's above 0.25ppm do a water change, repeat the test and repeat the water change if the reading is still above 0.25ppm. Do this one after the other until the level is acceptable .

 

[bmonki]

im sure someone told me to wait an hour before testing after doing a large water change, and yes, keep doing them til you get to 0... could be 3/4 times in a row.

im sure someone has asked this already but have you tested your tap water after dechlorinating it for ammonia?