My son dumped 1 oz tropical flakes into aquarium!

[jjb2263]

My 3 year old dumped flakes into planted aquarium! I quicky siphoned out as much flakes as i could. Siphoning out the flakes required me to do a 90% water change and then fill it back up and do a 50% water change. Any help appreciated!
Aquarium: 29 gallon with sponge filter, planted aquarium
Species: 6 young Corydora (which i moved to my 10 gallon with my RCS fry and 6 celestial pearls)
12 - 1 inch Zebra Danios ( no where to quarintine them)
a few adult RCS
Parameters: (after water changes)
PH: 8.5 !!!
Ammonia: 1.0
Nitrite: .25ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
TDS: 172 ppm

I dont think i have room to put the zebras in the 10 gallon. Could the ph and ammonia spike be caused by all the debri kicked up by the substrate? if so, will it go down fast enough for my zebras to survive?

 

[Stefan3289]

@Byron or @Deanasue or @Colin_T? Those reading, especially ammonia are quite high. Even after a 90% water change? Did you use any conditioner for the water?

If you did, I would continue water changes daily emptying about 75% of the water. Could also be useful to add some salt or I’d even say stress coat (don’t know which one is better hence why I tagged the above) to avoid getting diseases since it’ll be stressful

 

[FishGuest5123]

Just keep doing large water changes and vacuum the substrate daily. Stress coat doesn’t really reduce stress, it just conditions water.

 

[Retired Viking]

I had the same thing happen when my son was 4, He emptied an entire container of fish food into my 20 gallon tank and proudly said "Dad I fed the fish" it was a mess. I Spent the next several days doing water changes. He was so cute and innocent I could not yell at him just taught him how much to feed the fish. He is now 27.

 

[Naughts]

Remember to clean the filter too, food will have accumulated there. Squeeze the sponges in a bucket of old tank water.

 

[Colin_T]

You have done everything you can do, basically a big water change and syphon out as much of the food as possible.

Do another big (75%) water change and gravel clean each day until there is no ammonia or nitrite left. Then go back to once a week water changes.

Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels.

If you are really worried, get some Ammogon/ Zeolite and put that in a filter in the tank. It removes ammonia. However, take it out once the ammonia levels are back to 0.

On a side note, you need a picture on the back of the tank to make the fish feel more secure. Some floating plants would help too, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) is the best plant for this. If you grow too much, it can be planted in the substrate where it will grow into a lovely light green shrub.

Push the filter down a bit so it's a bit closer to the bottom. It will help to circulate the water better.

Maybe get some Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma or narrow Vallis to grow along the back of the tank.

 

[jjb2263]

I added some seachem stability that I had lying around and the ph and ammonia have dropped. I will continue water changing daily. Thanks for the help everyone! All my fish are doing good still.