1pm ammonia need help fish will die tonight!

P

pookandpaul

AC Members
Jan 1, 2005
23
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Virginia
Still need help. Did 50% water change with prime added, no change in level. Fish looking sick, probably not make it through the night. Ph is up also. I think water supply got extra dose of chlorine today. Can I go to store and get some water if so what type? Nitrite 0.

Fish streaked with red stripes. Not very active. (guppies)
Platy's acting funny.
 
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I would do another 50% water change, and double the amount of prime you are adding just in case there is extra chlorine. 1ppm of ammonia shouldn't hurt healthy fish, but if they are sick then it can be very harmful. Do not feed them for the next couple of days to reduce the amount of ammonia in the tank. If the fish looked really stressed then I would suggest turning the lights off and leaving them off unless you need to examine them. And if they do die remove the dead ones as fast as you can so they do not pollute the water.

Good luck.
 
call water department

Call the water department to see exactly what they may have added. Odds are it will clear the line before long, if that's what is the trouble. More likely it is a problem in your filter or crap stirred up from the gravel. Any power outages, major gravel disturbances?

If you ammonia test has one bottle of reagent, it is not going to tell you if the Prime has bound up the ammonia, you are getting a total ammonia, not free ammonia. Double dose of Prime will not hurt.
 
Water changes never hurt.

Well, sometimes. Those buckets get heavy. But they're always good for the fish.

Ditto Anona on the Prime, ease up on the food for the next little bit. They're not going to starve and the food is the ultimate source of the ammonia.

Also, if you feel like its a crisis, there's no harm in unplugging the heater and letting the tank drift down to room temp. Ammonia is more toxic at higher temps. Of course the bacteria are happier at higher temps as well, but if you think it's life and death its a step you can take.
 
Ammonia

There is probably something in the tank that is still decaying. I'm assuming that you've stopped feeding altogether. Clean out the gravel very well and perhaps change or clean the filter pads thoroughly. There are media that you can add to your filtration that will take care of excessive ammonia levels.
 
they made it through the night, I checked ammonia at midnight and it had dropped to .5/pm. I will do another 50% water change this morning. Will adding too much Prime hurt them. I fill the tank back up 2 gallons at a time. So I the first notch on the cap is for 10 gallons, its hard for me to divide that up and I am sure I am putting in too much.

I have live plants in the tank, how do I tell if they are the cause? They don't look like they are decaying? The only thing that looks weired if that the hairgrass came with this clump attached to the roots, and it looks kinda of nasty, but I was told to just bury it.

I have a python, when cleaning the gravel how far do I dig down. My bottom consists of 2 in florite with a 1-1.5 gravel top, so when I dig deep the flourite makes the water cloudy for a time. Thanks for everyone's advice.
 
Don't dig in a flourite bottom with the python, no need in a planted tank. If that is hair grass, trim it back. I find that it can often trap food and gunk. It was the cause of a major algae bloom in my tank. You should be able to cut it right back and it will grow back in no problem. As for the Prime, double the amount. It won't hurt and add the whole thing at once instead of measuring out separate doses. By the tiem the tank is filled up all will be good. Putting in too much (unless it is a massive overdose, won't hurt the tank, just your wallet.
 
Usually Prime comes with a tiny eyedropper thing inside the bottle that measures out one ml at the topmost notch. Open the bottle and look for it, you may have to use tweezers to pull it out of the bottle. If not, then you probably want to buy a baby medicine dropper at a dollar store or Walmart so you can measure 1 ml or less correctly. When adding water, pour the amount of Prime into the tank to treat the entire tank volume, then add new water.

So in a 20 gallon tank, when replacing 5 gallons of water, add 2 ml to the tank to treat 20 gallons, then fill the tank up. If you use a 5 gallon bucket, you can add 1/2 ml to the 5 gallon bucket of water, then add that to the tank, according to the directions.
 
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