What am I doing wrong?

WarDaddy

WarDaddy

New member
I have 2 percs in a QT, Bare Bottom.

I am fighting Ammonia so bad. I am barely feeding, dropping the salinity to 1.009.

I am doing 2 50% water changes a day and still seeing my ammonia between .25 and .5

I have a sponge filter (air driven) that was only in my sump 2 days.

Should I ditch the sponge?

How do I get this tank to cycle without killing the poor fish? (I already killed one)
 
The fact that your doing 50% water changes can be a factor.

And yes a sponge filter is a nitrate factory wich will lead to ammonia. Ditch that internal filtration ur doing and get a HOB filter like a penguin wheel or something. Ive had my fish in QT for 4 weeks now with a Bio penguin wheel 10% water changes every friday at 1.010 and all my fish plus ones aqcuried are doing great!
 
I think the tank should've been cycled before you put the fish in. Also such large w/c's are not required imo, maybe those large w/c's are keeping your tank from cycling.

/2cents
 
You are probally right, I have an ICH out break I am trying to get undercontrol...

I am hoping I can keep ammonia present, but not kill my fish, so the tank will slowly cycle. The reduced salinity will save the fish from the ich, but wil the ammonia kill them?

I will reduce the water changes to 10% a day, as long as the ammonia is under .5

I will ditch the sponge and replace it with a bio wheel, but I think it will take time for either to cycle, and ammonia will be present until the Nitrate and Nitrite are going...

Fun stuff the cycle :)

I wish I would have had the darn sponge in the water longer... grrrr.r
 
The cycle and your levels will take more than a few days to settle down. And having a fish in there isnt doing the fish any good :( put the fish in one of those $4 goldfish ''aquariums'' and put it in your main tank.
 
I am confused...

What will that tote, do for me in the QT?

So you are saying the fish are best in the main with the ich and not in a qt with lower salinity? How fast can I bring the Salinity bach up so I can get them in the main?

I am more than confused....

But for the health of the fish I will put them in the main and let them fight the parasite, I guess.
 
Clownfish can deal with lowering the salinity real quick, but once you drop it, you have to bring it up slowly over the course of a week or so, about .02 a day.
 
Bryan -

The sponge filter is fine, leave it. Nitrates are irrelevant here, not that there is any chance they will rise very high anyway.

The 50% waters changes are fine, provided you are matching temp and salinity. .25 to .5 should not kill a healthy clown, but one that is already stressed is another story. (My baby clowns have quite a few times been swimming around in .25 ammonia or higher. It doesn't phase them.)

Sometimes it's just not enough to do water changes. First, if you can keep the pH down, the ammonia will be less toxic. 7.8 or so is plenty fine for a QT. However, the problem in QT is usually keeping the pH up at an acceptable level, so be careful before deliberately dropping the pH.

Second, get a little chemical help. For a small temporary operation, get a bottle of Amquel+ Plus -- yes, two pluses. It's the more expensive one, but it's better for marine tanks since it's buffered and won't cause a pH dip. Available at Petco, etc. If they don't have the +Plus, get the Amquel+ or some other ammonia binding chemical.

If you want, come by tonight and I will give you some Clor-Am-X. It's an ammonia detoxifier -- not as fancy as Amquel+ Plus and does notihng for nitrite or nitrate, but I buy it by the bucket.

The babies are sick, you need to feed them! Do NOT put them back in the main tank or you will infect your tank.
 
What I have done to speed up the biological filtration, is putting a piece of liverock in the tank, you can also put some of your live sand in the tank to speed it up also, never done it after I lower the salinity though might end up killing the bacteria. When I quarantine, I buy the aquaclear pouches of ammonia remover and the bio media, it helps alot because I do less water changes and the ammonia doesn't get higher than 0.25. If you don't want to be testing the water constantly you can buy the ammonia badges to keep an eye on the ammonia. Only do a 50% water change once a day. Don't ditch the sponge either, you probably have bacteria starting to grow on it.
 
Bryan

I had similar problems with my BB QT, the day after I lowered the sg to 1.009 I was battling nh4... in my case I had several dead turbo snails ( I forgot they can't take the hypo).
Amquel save my fish :)

I have a sponge filter and that probably also helped the nh4 levels to stay low. I have 2 pieces of sponge in my filter, I can probably swap one. I can't guarantee its disease free because it has been in the QT with the sick fish for 2 weeks so far.
 
My F1sh R D34D! wrote:
"And yes a sponge filter is a nitrate factory wich will lead to ammonia."

Huh?


good luck Wardaddy.
 
IME Barebottom QT tanks do not cycle. there is nothing for the bacteria to grow on. Constant water changes are needed. A HOB filter will help, and can be used as long as there is no medication being used that will kill the bio filtration in the filter.

If I were going to run a HOB filter I would run it on the display first to get some of the bacteria in the water column before putting it on the QT tank.

When I have had to do long QT's or hospital tank treatments I have always relyied on heavy water changes and products like Amquel.

Long term lower salinity treatments have proven to be the best remedy for ich. You do need to bring the salinity back up slowly over an extended period of time so you don't shock your fish.

The clowns need to eat, sucking out any uneaten food will help some with the amoninia but WC's incorrelation with a treatment product are your best choices.

Good Luck.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6914148#post6914148 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sharkdude
My F1sh R D34D! wrote:
"And yes a sponge filter is a nitrate factory wich will lead to ammonia."

Huh?


good luck Wardaddy.
Click to expand...

Please correct me guys Im a noob. Just dont leave me hanging like that!:lol:

Sam
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6914148#post6914148 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sharkdude
My F1sh R D34D! wrote:
"And yes a sponge filter is a nitrate factory wich will lead to ammonia."

QUOTE Sharkdude
Huh?


good luck Wardaddy.
Click to expand...

Please correct me guys Im a noob. Just dont leave me hanging like that!:lol:

Sam
 
O ok. I thought nitrite converted to ammonia.

So what causes ammonia in an established tank? High nitrites right? What the heck :lol:
 
Ammonia (NH4) is ALWAYS being created in a tank, established or not. It's waste from the organisms, like fish poop and pee.

There are bacteria that eat ammonia. They produce waste in the form of nitrite (NO2)

Then there are other bacteris that eat nitrite. They produce waste in the form of nitrate (NO3).

NO2 is clightly less dangerous in marine aquaria than NH4, but still toxic. Nitrate is really not dangerous at all, but high levels serves as a good indicator of poor nutrient export which causes other problems.

The "cycle" of a tank is the various bacteria populations balancing out. If you add a fish, for example, you now have more ammonia being created in the tank, which can support more ammonia eating bacteria so they make babies... and so on.

A sudden upswing in bioload -- by adding organisms or something dying and rotting, etc. -- will cause an ammonia spike that is too much ammonia for the existing bacteria to eat.

Ammonia is not the only limiting factor -- bacteria need houses. Live rock, sponges, etc. have a great deal of surface area for bacteria to live on, which is why they make good biological filter media.
 
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