Ammonia In DT with new fish . NEED HELP !!

Powder Blue107

Powder Blue107

New member
MY SITUATION
40 Gallon breeder 1 yellow tang
(Upgrading to 90 gallon soon)
20 gallon high QT 2 clowns


Two clowns are in quarantine the yellow tang is in my DT I skipped quarantine because there was nitrite in the qt so I had no choice but to put him in the DT. There's no other fish in the DT so he has the whole tank to himself but now I have ammonia .25 in the DT (lowered with prime). My clowns are finished with quarantine and now in the observation stage. My yellow tang is doing this weird erratic it movement where it jerks its head left and right rapidly so I'm not sure if it's a parasitic issue or if he's showing stress from acclimation . I've acclimated him for an hour and all my parameters were good prior to acclimation and I also left the lights off for the night. This is his fourth day in my tank and he seems to show signs of stress (when someone passes he darts into rocks) . Before I had a quarantine tank I put my clowns in my DT and my female showed signs of flukes so I immediately purchased a Qt to Aid them which was 3 weeks ago and I'm assuming my DT's beneficial bacteria starved causing my ammonia to spike. Not sure if i should put the tang in with the clowns of leave it; or medicate the tang with copper and prazi and put the clowns through another round of treatment. Or even if someone else has a better options that i didnt mention, feel free. I NEED ADVICE
 
How long has the tank been setup?
Are you using API test kits? They are notorious for showing ammonia when there isn't any..

But if you think the ammonia is real then you should be using prime and doing water changes.. As much as possible..

Frankly I'd also recommend taking the tang back to the store.. Purchase one when you have a suitable tank.. You do not as you are aware so why rush/stress it,etc..? take it back to the store..
 
Sounds like both your QT and DT are still cycling or just dont gave enough of the good bacteria yet to handle your bioload. Ammonia and nitrite are byproducts of that process. I' go with mcgyvr's reccommendation and return until they are ready. Id your not willing or cant do that look up running a qt tank as an emergency setup (not cycled). Put your fish in there and do daily water changes to prevent the start of a cycle as well as daily filter management. This means you will need to empty your current QT, remove your media that already has some chemicals and bacteria in it, put new water in it at the same salinity that your fish are acclimated to (+/- .01) and the same temp. Then manage them in this non cyclimg environment until your DT is ready, the key being to not let a cycle start in the QT so theres no toxins. Another option is doing a TTM, tank transfer method, foofle search it. Both of tbe above require a notable effort. Also even if your foinf ro have a 90 but not yet, the tang needs bigger. You might be able to get by with him as a juvy but he maystill stress and become ill given the lack of area to swim. Hence my recmnd to go with the return option. Now if you can get that 90 in the next few days, you can cycle it and use the 40 as an emergency tank...

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mcgyvr said:
How long has the tank been setup?
Are you using API test kits? They are notorious for showing ammonia when there isn't any..

But if you think the ammonia is real then you should be using prime and doing water changes.. As much as possible..

Frankly I'd also recommend taking the tang back to the store.. Purchase one when you have a suitable tank.. You do not as you are aware so why rush/stress it,etc..? take it back to the store..
Click to expand...


Tank has been established for 5 months and yes I am using API but I'm pretty sure there's ammonia because my Tang was breathing a little fast before I dose the tank with Prime. Do you think my tank is going through another cycle if it is will water change and Prime be enough to re-cycle it?
 
A 5 month old tank should NOT be having a cycle..

Why do you think your DTs bacteria has all died?
 
Bit out of topic, but what is the point of qting clowns if you already did not qt the tang.


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Tripod1404 said:
Bit out of topic, but what is the point of qting clowns if you already did not qt the tang.


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Click to expand...


I had nitrite in my tank so i figured the tang is more sensitive than the clowns so rather than adding stress by exposing him to nitrite i placed it in DT where my perameters were good and i bought the tang from a fish store ive had a lot of success without QT ( before i knew about QT) so i took the gamble . :headwallblue:
 
I think i found the source of its stress. My powerheads were on 100% so i lowered them to 25 and its out in the open. For the record i forgot to mention the tang is eating like a fat fu*k so should that indicate hes ok?
 
Powder Blue107 said:
My clown showed signs of flukes so i took them out and out them to QT and left the tank fishless for about a month
Click to expand...

So? The bacteria will stay viable in there for a long time (studies show a year or more) without needing any additional "ammonia" source...
 
Powder Blue107 said:
I think i found the source of its stress. My powerheads were on 100% so i lowered them to 25 and its out in the open. For the record i forgot to mention the tang is eating like a fat fu*k so should that indicate hes ok?
Click to expand...

Thats better... I did not believe for 1 second that ammonia was the problem..
You just had a false reading and were jumping to conclusions there..
 
mcgyvr said:
So? The bacteria will stay viable in there for a long time (studies show a year or more) without needing any additional "ammonia" source...
Click to expand...

If thats true how come the bacteria isnt converting my ammonia? I did a fishless cycle, added 2 clowns and my parameters stayed in check. If we're talking about insufficient bioload do you think 1 tang requires a bigger load than two clowns? Cause that would be the only logical explanation
 
Powder Blue107 said:
If thats true how come the bacteria isnt converting my ammonia? I did a fishless cycle, added 2 clowns and my parameters stayed in check. If we're talking about insufficient bioload do you think 1 tang requires a bigger load than two clowns? Cause that would be the only logical explanation
Click to expand...

Do you think 1 tang requires more BB than two clowns
(Thats better put):fun4:
 
Do you honestly think one tang, that requires a 100+ gallon tank, would NOT test a tank's bioload more than 2 clowns?
 
Powder Blue107 said:
If we're talking about insufficient bioload do you think 1 tang requires a bigger load than two clowns? Cause that would be the only logical explanation
Click to expand...


Its so annoying that i cant edit my posts. Ughh
Let me refrain the entire sentence

If we're talking about insufficient BENEFICIAL BACTERIA do you think one tang has a bigger bio-load and requires more BB than 2 clowns?:debi:
 
So what should i do from this point on? WC with prime until BB stabilizes? I'll be by in the 90 gallon in 2 cuz that's when I'm moving and there's no point on setting up a giant tank to tear it down to move it. Do you guys think the time will be good ? Also thank you everybody for your input I was kind of freaking out but I checked ammonia today and it's reading zero
 
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