Deadly Ammonia

[kreblak]

Hey all, I need some very specific help here. I am cycling a 46 gallon tank. I started with 4 damsels. I am now 9 days into the cycle, and ammonia is spiking through the roof. According to the graphs and such in my SW bible, the ammonia should be around 4 PPM by now. The fish were tolerating this well until today. Now, three are dead, and the fourth is pale, listless, and breathing much more rapidly than he should be. Obviously a water change is due, but how much of one? I was thinking 20%.

Anyway, in the meantime, I have been adding "Prime" to detoxify the water. Prime says it neutralizes 0.6 mg/L of ammonia when used in a ration of 1 ml prime to 10 gallons SW. How do I correlate this to the approximate parts per million of ammonia in the tank? In other words, how many milliliters do I add to 46 gallons of water?

[lawnman]

I know when I started my tank I was doing 30% to 40% water changes a day. It was more stressful to me worrying about my levels than the fish. Hope this helps.:D

[BrianH]

I wouldn't add any ammonia detoxifier. Your goal in cycling a tank is to grow the bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrites and then nitrites into nitrates. By detoxifying the ammonia you are eliminating the food necessary for the bacteria to grow to appropriate levels to handle a fish load.
I would recommend you return the last damsel and put a couple of uncooked cocktail shrimp in your tank to begin a enw fishless cycle.

Brian

[kreblak]

Allright, I am a little unclear on the fishless tank cycling. If I am understanding all the posts I have read correctly, I go out and buy two or three cocktail shrimp, drop them in the tank and let them rot? Do I just wait for them to biodegrade and then the cycle is complete, or do I add another shrimp every couple of weeks? Someone please explain this in detail!!!!

[kreblak]

I think I may have been a little unclear in my original post. I am aware of how the nitrogen cycle works, and what the final result should be: a fully functioning biofilter. What I am asking is how much detoxifier to add to the water to keep my fish alive. I am not looking to get ammonia or nitrites down to zero. That would clearly defeat the purpose of the cycle. I just want my fish not to be suffering and gasping for breath while cycling.

Basically, the fish was handling everything fine at about 2 PPM of ammonia. How do I get the water back to tolerable levels whilst maintaining ammonia levels for the bacteria to consume?

[VoodooChild]

I can't answer your question really about the lowering of the ammonia, but as far as the shrimp thing goes I can help. I'd take the damsel back no matter what happens. Things are pretty hellish for him. As far as re-cycling, two shrimp and lett'im sit for 2 weeks. Net them out and let it sit for another two weeks, test, and hold out till you gets zeros. Otherwise if they're still not dropping after 5 weeks you can buy some poor live rock, you know, like $5 a pound and let that take things down for a week.