Newbie Help Re Ammonia

[weezebegs]

When testing the nitrate make sure you shake the 2nd bottle vigorously - if you don't follow instructions it can lead to a falsely low reading. Of course this is only relevant if your using the API freshwater kit lol!

+1, give bottle 2 several taps on a hard surface as well.

Keith.

Well I have been doing daily water changes and the ammonia is still at .50, both nitrate and nitrite are still 0.
I thought that I was aiming for 0 on both !! this is getting confusing.

Having been shaking 2ns bottle so will retest now...

Tank has been going for 3 weeks, took water to lfs last sunday and said that cycle was complete so added 4 guppies to Danios'.
Now this morning I have noticed that on the original Danio that I had in a previous tank, looks like it has fin rot...

Just about to google to fin rot picutures to see.....I do appreciate all this help....

OK just retested nitrate and it is inbetween the 0 - 5.0, I am using the API test kit, so in novice terms, it's not yellow it's not orange a golden colour inbetween....

Will try an pload photo of fin rot to see if you think it is, tail looks cloudy

Just did another 50% water change and the ammonia is still at .50 but improving.

Will I loose this fish to fish rot, going to the LFS tomorrow for some advice but thought you guys could help me first, is it contagious

 

[Skins]

I would be inclined to perform a 75% water change/gravel vac to get your ammonia level below 0.25ppm.

Keith.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Change more water asap. You need that ammonia at 0ppm or as close as you can get it.

Fin Rot is caused by a bacteria that is always present in aquarium water. fish become subseptable when they are kept in poor water conditions, and it is common in fish kept in unfiltered tanks. If untreated it will erode the fins especialy the tail & can even enter the fish's body & cause death.

 

[Harlequins]

The info the lfs has been giving you lately hasn't been good.... tbh i wouldn't listen to them...

Listening to the advice & experiences from others on here will help you more than listening to the lfs.

If you dont continue to do waterchanges to keep the ammonia has close to zero has you can,then the situation will get worse.

Finrot is caused by poor water has mentioned several times so far...

 

[weezebegs]

The info the lfs has been giving you lately hasn't been good.... tbh i wouldn't listen to them...

Listening to the advice & experiences from others on here will help you more than listening to the lfs.

If you dont continue to do waterchanges to keep the ammonia has close to zero has you can,then the situation will get worse.

Finrot is caused by poor water has mentioned several times so far...

I put a post on here a few weeks ago about having a dominent danio nipping the other fishes fins, do you think that this has also compounded the weaker Danio to get fin rot.
What should I do with this agressive danio ??

 

[weezebegs]

The info the lfs has been giving you lately hasn't been good.... tbh i wouldn't listen to them...

Listening to the advice & experiences from others on here will help you more than listening to the lfs.

If you dont continue to do waterchanges to keep the ammonia has close to zero has you can,then the situation will get worse.

Finrot is caused by poor water has mentioned several times so far...

I put a post on here a few weeks ago about having a dominent danio nipping the other fishes fins, do you think that this has also compounded the weaker Danio to get fin rot.
What should I do with this agressive danio ??

Have done a really big water change this morning and a good gravel clean.

Have left it 2 hours and now retested the water,

Ammonia is now .25 / .50
nitrite is 0
Nitrate is between 0 / 5

Bought a new gravel cleaner as my existing one didn't seem to be working properly.

I have a question in that would it cause stress to the fish to remove them into a bucket with existing tank water to give the tank and gravel a good clean out or would that upset the filter too much and have to start a cycle again.

 

[waterdrop]

In my opinion there should be no need to remove the danios to do the big cleans. They hardly need a puddle above the substrate at the bottom of a gravel-clean-water-change and are not really stressed by them, rather liking the activity. It's great that you've done a really large water change. Unfortunately, whenever you see an ammonia result like the one you report, it is the typical bad news that the fish-in cycler often receives almost daily: time to do a second follow-on water change because the first was not enough somehow! (there's not ammonia in the tap is there?)

The fin-nipping is because there are only 2 (right?) and you need at least about 6 to distribute out the nips! They will still race around and do some nipping but they will do less of it because they will no longer feel they are in trouble (when fish that are used to being in hundreds get down below about 6 individuals, one interpretation is that they more or less constantly feel something major is wrong and they may be in trouble if they don't find their shoal.. that sort of thinking) (which of course is yet another of the major problems with fish-in cycling, ammonia induced fin-rot being another.)

The best conversation with the LFS folks are about the outdoor whether and perhaps whether they've given you the correct change. They are a wonderful resource for obtaining things more quickly than via transport but as a rule you wouldn't want to get in to a hobby related discussion!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[weezebegs]

In my opinion there should be no need to remove the danios to do the big cleans. They hardly need a puddle above the substrate at the bottom of a gravel-clean-water-change and are not really stressed by them, rather liking the activity. It's great that you've done a really large water change. Unfortunately, whenever you see an ammonia result like the one you report, it is the typical bad news that the fish-in cycler often receives almost daily: time to do a second follow-on water change because the first was not enough somehow! (there's not ammonia in the tap is there?)

The fin-nipping is because there are only 2 (right?) and you need at least about 6 to distribute out the nips! They will still race around and do some nipping but they will do less of it because they will no longer feel they are in trouble (when fish that are used to being in hundreds get down below about 6 individuals, one interpretation is that they more or less constantly feel something major is wrong and they may be in trouble if they don't find their shoal.. that sort of thinking) (which of course is yet another of the major problems with fish-in cycling, ammonia induced fin-rot being another.)

The best conversation with the LFS folks are about the outdoor whether and perhaps whether they've given you the correct change. They are a wonderful resource for obtaining things more quickly than via transport but as a rule you wouldn't want to get in to a hobby related discussion!

~~waterdrop~~

I did check my tap water to me sure and that was 0, do you think it will be ok to do one again tonight then, not too stressful for them.

I now have 3 danio's (lost Mr fin rot over night he has one of the original fish) and 4 guppies, and Mr Dominent Danio is still nipping

 

[OldMan47]

A water change that improves your chemistry will not cause much stress to your fish. I have been known to drain a tank so far that fish like zebras would have a hard time swimming and then refill it with fresh dechlorinated water. After just such a water change, the fish always look better, not worse. Water quality seems to trump any flow or disturbance effects. Please carefully evaluate how your fish look before and after such a change and let me know if there is something different about zebras that I have not seen.

 

[weezebegs]

A water change that improves your chemistry will not cause much stress to your fish. I have been known to drain a tank so far that fish like zebras would have a hard time swimming and then refill it with fresh dechlorinated water. After just such a water change, the fish always look better, not worse. Water quality seems to trump any flow or disturbance effects. Please carefully evaluate how your fish look before and after such a change and let me know if there is something different about zebras that I have not seen.

Have done a big water change and finally the ammonia has dropped to .25 - took it's time, I think the new gravel cleaner gadget did the trick as it was better than my original one.

Emptied the water right down to an inch and the fish were fine, obviosly swimming a bit fast as they couldn't understand where the water had gone, bt once refilled they are back to normal

 

[Aqua Tom]

A water change that improves your chemistry will not cause much stress to your fish. I have been known to drain a tank so far that fish like zebras would have a hard time swimming and then refill it with fresh dechlorinated water. After just such a water change, the fish always look better, not worse. Water quality seems to trump any flow or disturbance effects. Please carefully evaluate how your fish look before and after such a change and let me know if there is something different about zebras that I have not seen.

Have done a big water change and finally the ammonia has dropped to .25 - took it's time, I think the new gravel cleaner gadget did the trick as it was better than my original one.

Emptied the water right down to an inch and the fish were fine, obviosly swimming a bit fast as they couldn't understand where the water had gone, bt once refilled they are back to normal

Excellent work. Now keep a very close eye on that ammonia. if it starts to rise again you know what to do.


~Tom~

 

[weezebegs]

A water change that improves your chemistry will not cause much stress to your fish. I have been known to drain a tank so far that fish like zebras would have a hard time swimming and then refill it with fresh dechlorinated water. After just such a water change, the fish always look better, not worse. Water quality seems to trump any flow or disturbance effects. Please carefully evaluate how your fish look before and after such a change and let me know if there is something different about zebras that I have not seen.

Have done a big water change and finally the ammonia has dropped to .25 - took it's time, I think the new gravel cleaner gadget did the trick as it was better than my original one.

Emptied the water right down to an inch and the fish were fine, obviosly swimming a bit fast as they couldn't understand where the water had gone, bt once refilled they are back to normal

Excellent work. Now keep a very close eye on that ammonia. if it starts to rise again you know what to do.


~Tom~

yes i am going to check it daily and hopefully get down to partial water changes rather than 80 %.

I am still stocking my tank so will I have to go through this process everytime I add more fish

 

[Little_Nemo]

In my opinion I wouldnt keep stocking up with fish for the time being, simply because your ammonia levels will increase thus putting more strain on the new fish.
I'm sure someone with more knowledge will explain things in more detail though.

 

[Harlequins]

In my opinion I wouldnt keep stocking up with fish for the time being, simply because your ammonia levels will increase thus putting more strain on the new fish.
I'm sure someone with more knowledge will explain things in more detail though.

+1 - adding fish whilst still in a fish cycle,would only lead to more waterchanges.
Its better to wait until your tank is fully cycled i.e - when both your ammonia & nitrite reads zero for seven days without a waterchange,then you know you are cycled.

 

[OldMan47]

Well put Harlequins. Adding fish to a tank that is not yet fully cycled is a terrible idea. Sorry folks, I do not understand or follow PC ways of saying things.
Weezebegs, please do not add any more fish. Harlequins is quite right. Any new fish that you add will simply make things worse, (I admitted that I had no skill at being PC didn't I?) What you are facing is that you are doing water changes simply to stay even with the present biological load of the tank.
If you add any fish, that task will become harder. Unless you are some kind of ironman, you will fail by adding more fish that require more and larger water changes. In my own way of advising new hobbyists, I always suggest that even deaths of new fish not be replaced until the cycle has finished. That means that a loss of a fish indicated that the regime you have adopted is not enough for the number and size fish that you had. By refusing to replace them, you will come closer to being able to support the remaining fish. In my own, perhaps flawed, opinion that places you closer to a population that you are willing to support with water changes.