Miracle fish still alive!

[Ridgerunner]

I thought I had passed these miserable milestones of too high ammonia, to high nitrites, to high nitrates. Yesterday, I did a `10-12 gal water change on my 320 gal tank. Tonight, I did the testing and they were all through the roof. My poor fish, I had no idea. Again, I did a 10-12 I did a 10-012 gal water change.. In the morning, I'll test again. If the parameters are not in the correct range, I'll do another 10-12 change. I used a water conditioner and stability. If that doesn't work, I need suggestions what to do. Gladly accepting advice. Thanks. Ridgerunner

 

[Fishmanic]

How many, what species, and what size fish are in the tank?

Your tank is obviously not cycled. You should be doing at least a 75% water change daily till the reading of ammonia and nitrite get down to a reasonable level. Stressing your fish while doing a fish-in cylce is why we recommend cycling a tank without any fish in it. It may take a month or more to do a fishless cycling but no fish would suffer. You might speed it up a bit by adding bottle bacteria or transfer some media from a cycled tank.

You are now doing a fish-in cycle . You can read about fish-in cycling here:
Scroll down to fish--in cycling.

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

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You might speed up the cycling a bit and make it easier on your fish if you add lots of plants. But it will still take time for the plants to get established enough to absorb ammonia.

Your choosing to do a fish-in cycling is not fair to your fish. Can you return some or all of them or rehome them while you do a proper cycling of your tank?
@Essjay @Colin_T

 

[Deleted member 149562]

You seem to have been caught in one of the easiest traps when cycling with fish.

Cycling with fish is often more difficult and almost certainly takes longer than cycling without fish. Reason being is as fish get stressed due to water chemistry changes they produce more waste which in turn spikes your water chemistry which stresses the fish even more and they produce even more waste......catch 22

Even without the fish being there, your water change percentage is way below what it needs to be. That is a large aquarium, so the work you have to put into it will be extensive....a minimum of 75% water change daily as @Fishmanic states, then once you are cycled, a minimum of 50% every 7 days.

No matter how big or small your aquarium, you need to get into a constant routine of maintenance, some people think or are even told that the bigger the aquarium, the less water you have to change and less work there is to do and that they "look after themselves".......... thats a myth.

Your aquarium is a completely contained box, the water chemistry will change on a daily, sometimes hourly basis depending on a variety of different things. The waste products from livestock and plants has to go somewhere. An aquarium that size would benefit from 2 maybe 3 filters, its a big body of water that needs to be kept clean.

I would hazard a guess that your aquarium with fish could take anything upto 2-3 months at least to reach optimum due to this stall and then you need to do your 50% water changes every week once it has reached the optimum.

 

[Fishmanic]

Is this the first tank you've ever owned? Usually most people start with a much smaller tank and then once they learn enough about cycling the tank and caring for the fish, then they will upgrade to bigger tanks.

 

[Ichthys]

You’re changing a 30th of the water, which will reduce the levels by... a 30th, which is negligible. You need to change as much as is necessary to remove the ammonia and nitrite, which means most if not all of it.

 

[Essjay]

Can you confirm that the tank really is 320 gallons. In an earlier thread you said you had a 30 gallon tank so unless you've upgraded in the last few months......

I thought I had passed these miserable milestones of too high ammonia, to high nitrites,

Have ammonia and nitrite ever been zero? If they have, something has happened to make them shoot up again.

Can you run through with us:
Exactly how big is the tank - 320 gallons or 30 gallons?
What types of fish and how many of each?
What is the filter, and what media does it have?
How do you clean the filter media, or do you replace it?
What is your usual water change regime - how often and how much?

 

[Fishmanic]

How long has the tank been set up? Did you attempt a fishless cycle before adding fish?

 

[Ridgerunner]

How many, what species, and what size fish are in the tank?

Your tank is obviously not cycled. You should be doing at least a 75% water change daily till the reading of ammonia and nitrite get down to a reasonable level. Stressing your fish while doing a fish-in cylce is why we recommend cycling a tank without any fish in it. It may take a month or more to do a fishless cycling but no fish would suffer. You might speed it up a bit by adding bottle bacteria or transfer some media from a cycled tank.

You are now doing a fish-in cycle . You can read about fish-in cycling here:
Scroll down to fish--in cycling.

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

www.fishforums.net

You might speed up the cycling a bit and make it easier on your fish if you add lots of plants. But it will still take time for the plants to get established enough to absorb ammonia.

Your choosing to do a fish-in cycling is not fair to your fish. Can you return some or all of them or rehome them while you do a proper cycling of your tank?
@Essjay @Colin_T

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sorry for the typo. Tank is 30 gal. It's been running for 6 months. I had excellent parameters, PH 6 Ammonia .53, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0 Hardness 5.1, Alkalinity 8 average. I was told by someone here that because I have low PH, the Ammonia didn't matter. I've been doing the same 30% water change for months. I recently got a Python and it takes out about 40-45%. Perhaps I am overfeeding? I have 3 golden gourami and 2 smaller 3 spot(blue) gourami, 6 corycats, and 1 very small pleco. I've had fish before, but there's a gap of about 15 years.

 

[Fishmanic]

320 gal to 30 gal is quite a difference. I would still do 75% water changes daily until api test reads .25 or less for ammonia, 20ppm or less for nitrate, and close to 0 nitrites since you have fish in the tank. If your tank is not cycled, the ammonia will rise again so you will have to do 75% daily water changes till it stays at .25 or less and nitrites are near 0 and nitrates 20 ppm or less. DO NOT overfeed..too little is better than too much at least for now. Look for any dead fish and remove as soon as you notice them.

 

[Fishmanic]

To speed up cyclng your tank, you might add beneficial bacteria either by transferring some media from a cycled tank or by buying bottled bacteria such as Dr Tim’s One and Only or Tetra Safe Start. Follow directions on the bottle.

 

[Essjay]

Ammonia with that low pH is not harmful for a few days since the free ammonia level is well below 0.02, but it should really be zero for long term. Even with your pH the highest I would try to keep ammonia below 0.25.

What are you using to measure ammonia - most testers can't measure 0.53, the closest they can measure is 0.5.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How many, what species, and what size fish are in the tank?

Your tank is obviously not cycled. You should be doing at least a 75% water change daily till the reading of ammonia and nitrite get down to a reasonable level. Stressing your fish while doing a fish-in cylce is why we recommend cycling a tank without any fish in it. It may take a month or more to do a fishless cycling but no fish would suffer. You might speed it up a bit by adding bottle bacteria or transfer some media from a cycled tank.

You are now doing a fish-in cycle . You can read about fish-in cycling here:
Scroll down to fish--in cycling.

Cycle Your Tank! A Complete Guide For Beginners

Fishless cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ Silent or plant cycling https://www.fishforums.net/threads/planted-silent-cycling.470400/ Fish-in cycling...

www.fishforums.net

You might speed up the cycling a bit and make it easier on your fish if you add lots of plants. But it will still take time for the plants to get established enough to absorb ammonia.

Your choosing to do a fish-in cycling is not fair to your fish. Can you return some or all of them or rehome them while you do a proper cycling of your tank?
@Essjay @Colin_T

it was cycled long ago (started in May) . This seems to be another problem altogether.