Mistook Ammo Lock For Stress Coat And Now Water Cloudy - Help!

[sussexgirl]

I'm really annoyed with myself. I cleaned my tank out last weekend giving it a 40% water change. API are celebrating their 25th anniversary and to mark that have temporarily changed their bottles from white to silver. Stupidly, I was on autopilot (I've had my aquarium for over 3 years now) and just grabbed what I thought was my stress coat bottle and did my water changes. It was only as I was clearing my things away that I noticed the silver stress coat bottle sitting in my cabinet. "Oh ####" shot through my head and I raced into my kitchen to look at the white 'stress coat' bottle I had been using only to find that it was actually some Ammo Lock that I had used early last year when I had some problems. I instantly repeated the 40% water change to get rid of the product and used the correct stress coat.

The problem is that it's obviously upset the chemistry of my water and I've had a cloudy tank all week. I've done another 25% water change today but it's still cloudy. Can anyone tell me what's going on and how to recify it please? I'm so annoyed with myself as I've had perfect water conditons for 18 months and my fish are thriving. They're all still looking happy and healthy and I'm hoping that I'm having a bacteria bloom and it'll all go back to equilibrium. The worst thing is that I had intended to throw the ammo lock away as I had been warned against using it.

 

[WILDER]

Can you post your water stats please in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Did you overdose the ammo lock.

 

[three-fingers]

Over dosing the ammo lock shouldn't have caused this THB. You can use ammo lock instead of stress coat if you want as they both will work to get rid of chlorine/chloramine. Neither is a good value option though, for that look for Seachem Prime or pond dechlorinators.

All of the products mentioned are based on the same main chemical - sodium thiosulphate, they are all just differnt concentrations (hence some are better value for money).

Seachem Prime mentions on the bottle that you can use up to 5x the normal dosage in emegencies, and I have done so myself with no ill effects at all. So even if you overdosed, it shouldent be an issue at all.

And it would be nearly impossible to overdose if you were adding the ammo lock to the new water before it goes into the tank, rather than dosing directly into the tank afterwords.

So IMO your experiance has nothing to do with the ammo lock (which you may as well keep and use), it will be something else you did when making the water change.

Any other info about the routine you went through when you did the water change?

Is the water a whiteish cloudy or a greenish cloudy?

Any water stats you can give? (it's a pretty good idea to test the water when anything strange happens).

 

[sussexgirl]

Can you post your water stats please in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
Did you overdose the ammo lock.

Stats this morning read:

PH: 6.6
Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

Water is still slightly cloudy but after the water change yesterday is not quite so bad as it was. I reckon I must have overdosed on the ammo lock but if the follow up to your post is correct then that shouldn't really matter?

Think I will just keep an eye on my stats and see how I go, would you be inclined to leave the water for a couple of weeks or do you think I should do another partial change soon?

 

[sussexgirl]

Any other info about the routine you went through when you did the water change?

Is the water a whiteish cloudy or a greenish cloudy?

Any water stats you can give? (it's a pretty good idea to test the water when anything strange happens).

Water is a whiteish cloudy not green. When I did the original water change I replaced one of my white filter floss pads and rinsed my ceramic noodles round in a bucket of tank water. Aside from that I removed the bogwood that I've had in the tank for a year and did a thorough gravel vac.

 

[Curiosity101]

What are the chlorine levels in you tap water? If you don't have a test kit to hand that does chlorine you can google you local water board. They should have an area where you can put in your postcode and they give you the average values that should be coming out of you tap.

 

[sussexgirl]

What are the chlorine levels in you tap water? If you don't have a test kit to hand that does chlorine you can google you local water board. They should have an area where you can put in your postcode and they give you the average values that should be coming out of you tap.

searched high and low on Southeast Water's website but can't find a link for it.

 

[Curiosity101]

Are you sure this isn't your water board?

http/www.southernwater.co.uk/

 

[sussexgirl]

Are you sure this isn't your water board?

[URL="http/www.southernwater.co.uk/"]http/www.southernwater.co.uk/[/URL]

southern water supplies our sewage services but southeast water supplies our drinking water. Not sure how to get hold of stats, can't find link on their website.

 

[Curiosity101]

Well I couldn't find a link on southeast waters website. Have you tried putting your post-code into Southernwater? And clicking water quality as opposed to sewage.

 

[sussexgirl]

Well I couldn't find a link on southeast waters website. Have you tried putting your post-code into Southernwater? And clicking water quality as opposed to sewage.

yes it just says that it doesn't supply drinking water to our postcode and to contact Southeast water for details. I've just seen on SE water's website links to drinking water but it doesn't give any specifics, only that no fluoride is added and that some people may choose to fit a water softener. I think I would need to contact them for full readings.

 

[Curiosity101]

Sounds like it. That's annoying though, every other water board has a postcode search facility!
Well good luck, the point I was making is, is that ammo lock wouldn't have removed any chlorine in the water. If your tap levels are particularly high then combined with half the filter media being changed it could've caused a bit of die-off of the remaining bacteria.

Just an idea.

 

[sussexgirl]

Sounds like it. That's annoying though, every other water board has a postcode search facility!
Well good luck, the point I was making is, is that ammo lock wouldn't have removed any chlorine in the water. If your tap levels are particularly high then combined with half the filter media being changed it could've caused a bit of die-off of the remaining bacteria.

Just an idea.

Mmm that's a good point. I guess the the filter had started running again for about 2 minutes before I spotted my mistake so some cholrine may have passed through the filter by that point. It's looking less cloudier now and my levels are currently ok so I hope it's just a question of time before my filter is fully cycled again and things are ok. Would you wait a week to do a water change if you were me or do another one in a couple of days? If my levels are ok then I don't think I need to bother do I? Thanks for all your help by the way!

 

[Curiosity101]

If your levels are ok then I'd just leave it to sort itself out. If you're already noticing the bloom subside then it shouldn't be too much of a problem. The only real problem with bacterial blooms is that the bacteria are aerobic, so lower the oxygen content of the water faster. Unless you've noticed fish gasping/breathing from the surface then it isn't causing any problems.

 

[three-fingers]

OK, I have seen no evidence here that the cloudy water has anything to do with the Ammo Lock, for that to be the case would make no sense.

Keep the Ammo Lock and continue to use it as a dechlorinator.

Even if you had used no dechlorinator, it shouldn't have cause this, as the bacteria should be resistant enough to cope with a slight amount of chlorine before it gasses off, and since the bacteria came from the tap water in the start, they should be able to use up the ammonia in chloramine and leave the chlorine to gas off.

All you are seeing here is a harmless bloom of infusoria, brought on from disturbing the tanks substrate and filter pads.

Water stats are all great, and as Curiosity101 mentions, as long as the fish aren't gasping (which is unlikely to happen) you will have no problems at all.

Read this page: http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/hazy.shtml