Help!!!!

[Madratter]

The tank wasn't cycled properly and ammonia is now going to spike. How high remains to be seen.

What I would suggest at this point is immediately start making replacement water for the tank. Get yourself a trashcan, plastic tub, or something else of that variety and make up a whole bunch of saltwater. Stick a powerhead in it to aerate and mix it and a heater to bring it up to tank temperature. Make sure specific gravity of the new water matches the tank as well.

Then start measuring ammonia twice a day. If the tank goes over 1 ppm, then replace enough of the water to bring it down to 1 ppm ammonia. For example if it goes to 2 ppm you are going to need to replace half the water to get things back to 1 ppm. As long as you stay below that number, your fish and the critters in your live rock will probably make it. Don't bring it down much below that number or you will just prolong the cycle. The beneficial bacteria need ammonia to get going.

More than likely, you will be making a lot of water changes the next couple of days and some of those water changes may be massive. You have to have the water ready ahead of time. Once the ammonia comes down to near zero and stays down you are basically out of the woods. The nitrite levels will still be going up but the nitrite is not particularly toxic in saltwater tanks.

You had better feed the fish very lightly until the ammonia comes back down to zero.

Anyway, all is not lost but you NEED to be able to make those big water changes.

How bad this is going to be is going to depend on how high the ammonia spiked originally before you added the fish - in other words, how robust a cycle you originally had in the tank.

 

[screwsloose]

if you ran into a financial crunch setting up a 55 gl tank then the water changes alone over the next two weeks to try to save the fish is going to break you. i would guess you are going to have to go through 1-2 buckets of salt before the cycle is complete which is at least 80.00 on top of what you have already spent. if you cant afford that right now then your only option that will work is getting the fish out and waiting for teh natural cycle to complete. this means taking them back to the store. finding a local club that may be willing to temporarily house them for you until you are ready for them add them back slowly, or selling/donating to a local reefer that can properly house them long term.

i know this isnt what you wanted to hear but its the best advise. you mentioned that the other levels are perfect but that wont hold for long. the ammonia gets broke down into nitrites so once that starts happening the nitrite readings will rise like the others. both the ammonia and nitrite cycles are very hard on the fish. the nitrate isnt as bad but can also kill long term if levels get to high but thats another story. and as mentioned above, a 7 day old tank cannot support a scooter blenny in any way. he will starve to death in a couple weeks more then likely.

so to make this work you are going to need 40gls of ready made salt water daily to make sure you can do what ever changes need to be made. on top of that an ammonia detoxifier like mentioned. i prefer sea chems "prime" and another heater and thermometer to make sure the water change temps match. its going to be alot of work to try to fix what they have lead you into but it can be done. it would be much easier to take teh fish back and wait for the cycle to complete. even adding more live rock wont help much right now. even precured will still have a certain amount of die off and add to the ammonia levels increasing. good luck in your choice

 

[Chiefsurfer]

All advice above of how to keep the fish is feasable, and good advice. The best thing I think you can do is return all the fish. As stated, the tang and 2 parrotfish are FAR too large for that tank. Maybe not now, but in the future. As stated, the scooter blenny needs a LARGE system with PLENTY of what is called "pods" to survive. Your tank, unless a 55 gallon+ sump are added, will likely not be big enough for that large of a "pod" population. The only fish I would say you could keep are the banggai cardinals, but as stated, premature. If they want to charge you, or give you anything but a full credit, They ought to be ashamed of themselves, and you should really give them a piece of your mind.

I suggest at the VERY LEAST that once you return all the fish, you get more rock, in the neighborhood of 30-40 lbs for that tank. Then you get a test-kit, test daily til you see an ammonia spike. If you do not see this within 5-7 days, throw a raw shrimp in there, continue testing daily. You should see a spike. After 3-5 days of the shrimp being in there, remove it. Once that ammonia spike returns to zero, test every 2-3 days. You should see a nitrite spike, then nitrates. Once you see your nitrate spike, do like a 20% water change. Then test your nitrates. If your nitrates are still above 100, do another 20% water change the next day. Then test again. If it is going down by itself, let it be until your nitrates fall below 20 ppm, then do another 20% water change, and you can start adding fish slowly. On the average of 1 every week. That rule is not hard and fast. If you see an ammonia spike after a fish is added, let it be(so long as the ammonia does not get above 1.0ppm), and wait til amm and nitrite go to zero, and nitrates are under 10ppm. Most times, this takes around a week, which is why we use that as a guideline Then you can add another fish.

Your LFS will likely say we are exaggerating, but would you rather flush all that money you just spent down the drain, or no? we usually advise people for long-term success. Usually fish stores will not warranty, guarantee, or even advise for any kind of success past them putting it in the bag at the store. For that reason, they do not really care if they live or not. Just another way to get more dough out of your pocket.

Read everything you can in the 4-6 weeks it takes your tank to cycle.

 

[Madratter]

What we really need to know to give you proper advice and what you have not said was how robust a cycle you had initially. In other words, how high did the ammonia level get before it dropped down and you added the fish. My advice was predicated on that level likely being small (since I think you would have said if it had been robust).

 

[Chiefsurfer]

^Mad, he said he started adding fish on day 3. He hasn't seen the spike, let alone the cycle.

 

[Madratter]

Hmm. Chief Surfer, you are right. Between his one post saying tank was up a week and another post saying livestock added over last 4 days, the tank has not spiked. Which means my advice was on base assuming he wants to try and do this with the livestock in the tank.

Of course he would be better off if the livestock could be returned. His chances of really doing all those large water changes while correctly matching salinity, temperature, getting the water aerated properly, etc. aren't real good. Especially since more than likely, he doesn't have a refractometer, an extra heater, etc.

 

[mehaffydr]

Does the ammonia guard work right away? Is it safe for the fish? Is that the best thing to do at this point?

The Best Thing to Do at This Point is To RETURN those fish before your are posting about how to save your dying fish.