Help,Help, Help!

M

mlowry

AC Members
Dec 19, 2005
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I posted this in the newbie section, but not many responses...
After hours of reading posts, I decided to start my new tank on a Bio-Spira cycle. I set up my new ten gallon with top fin filter, and heater. I put gravel, polished stones, fake plants, and a sunken ship attached to an air pump (tons of bubbles by the way) then added water. I let my system run for a couple of days, went to the fish shop last night, got the Bio-Spira, 4 zebra danios, a dwarf gourami, and a dwarf cory. Dumped the bio-spira and the fish in my new setup. Here's the problem... water from my tap has ammonia at 2ppm, and Ph of 8.2. Will the Bio-Spira work in these TERRIBLE water conditions. Will my fish live in this water? Thanks for any advice!!!
 
The advice given in the newbie forum was good advice.

you MUST get the tank cycled & balanced before putting fish in it...unless you want dead fish.

The Bio-Spira needs a good 24 hours to establish the proper bacteria colonies to work on balancing out the tank before you add the bioload of fish.

If your amonia levels and such are that high out of the tap, you very well may be looking at dead fish(or extremely sick ones) by tomorrow morning.

What are the current readings from the tank now? has amonia/nitrites/nitrAtes leveled off or is everything still way out there?
 
:huh: :thud: If YOUR FISH ARE Still Alive Half Your Problem Is Solved Now You Gotta Lower Your Ph To At Least 7.o! Probably Lower The Amonia.MAY I SUGGEST Live Plants ! :rant2: DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN :rant2:
 
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Everything's still way high. I don't want to kill the fish, so what should I do. Just wait and see what happens? Like I said in the newbie forum, pet shop is 100 miles away!
 
If your ammonia and pH are that high out of the tap, you might want to look into filtered or R/O water to keep your fish or cutting the tap water with it. Most grocery stores sell some form of filtered water for 25¢-50¢ a gallon.
 
Do you know if you have chloramines in your water? At a guess, you do, and the test kit you're using is giving you a false positive for the bound ammonia from the chloramines (ammonium). Read the test kit and see if it gives you total ammonia (ammonia + ammonium) or just ammonia. If it's the former, you'll want to get a different test kit, and verify that your water treatment is breaking the chloramine bond and binding the resulting ammonia.
 
:hang: YOU NEED SODIUM BIPHOSPHATE TO LOWER THE PH. I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THE GOURAMIS BUT I KNOW THOSE DANIOS NEED A7.O PH. AS FOR THE AMONIA AMMO LOCK. START TREKIN IFYOU WANT THEM TO LIVE! YOU PUT THEM IN THAT SITUATION U NEED 2 GET THEM OUT! :rant2: BUT I FORGIVE U NOW FIXIT! :duh: :hang: :cool2:
 
OrionGirl said:
Do you know if you have chloramines in your water? At a guess, you do, and the test kit you're using is giving you a false positive for the bound ammonia from the chloramines (ammonium). Read the test kit and see if it gives you total ammonia (ammonia + ammonium) or just ammonia. If it's the former, you'll want to get a different test kit, and verify that your water treatment is breaking the chloramine bond and binding the resulting ammonia.
Click to expand...

Yes, Just checked with the water plant. We do have chloramine in our water.
 
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