Ammonia ? Need Immediate HELP!

Emergency

My Nitrite readings are really bad tonight. I added the Bio-Spira on Saturday around 4:30PM. I left the water alone like you all said to do. Today I checked the water and it was bad.
H.R. pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25 (was 0.50ppm on Friday night)
Nitrite - 5.0ppm or more (it was off the chart)
Nitrate - 20ppm (up from 10ppm on Friday)

I did an immediate 50% water change and added Prime. I just tested the water again and it is:
H.R. pH - 8.8
Ammonia - 0.50ppm
Nitrite - 2.0ppm
Nitrate - 10 to 20ppm

I'm really scared (crying scared). My male Oscar has white/gray spots/lines all over his head and face when I got home today. They were not there yesterday (Sunday).
The hole in his head is no better or worse. Could this white stuff be burns from the Nitrites? What else can I do? I can't stand to see them suffer or die. Bella Tru (my girl Oscar) seems fine. Rockbass (my male) isn't acting like his usual self. He is still begging for food and swimming but something in his eyes worries me. I have not fed them in three days.
Please help I don't know what to do and there is not a vet in Oklahoma City that treats fish. Help please.
 
rockbellab said:
My Nitrite readings are really bad tonight. I added the Bio-Spira on Saturday around 4:30PM. I left the water alone like you all said to do. Today I checked the water and it was bad.
H.R. pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25 (was 0.50ppm on Friday night)
Nitrite - 5.0ppm or more (it was off the chart)
Nitrate - 20ppm (up from 10ppm on Friday)

I did an immediate 50% water change and added Prime. I just tested the water again and it is:
H.R. pH - 8.8
Ammonia - 0.50ppm
Nitrite - 2.0ppm
Nitrate - 10 to 20ppm

I'm really scared (crying scared). My male Oscar has white/gray spots/lines all over his head and face when I got home today. They were not there yesterday (Sunday).
The hole in his head is no better or worse. Could this white stuff be burns from the Nitrites? What else can I do? I can't stand to see them suffer or die. Bella Tru (my girl Oscar) seems fine. Rockbass (my male) isn't acting like his usual self. He is still begging for food and swimming but something in his eyes worries me. I have not fed them in three days.
Please help I don't know what to do and there is not a vet in Oklahoma City that treats fish. Help please.
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50% again.
Make sure what you are putting in is very good water-

I might have missed where you discussed this before, but did you notice your pH jumped a whole point with that water change, AND, you ammonia went up???? I am not worried about your fish's ability to live in that pH, considering what they are... but that is a heck of a jump... could be pretty stressful...
 
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The addition of Bio-Spira settled the ammonia nitrifiers, but not the nitrite nitrifiers. The ammonia nitrifiers reduced ammonia levels from about 2 ppm to about 0.25 ppm, releasing H+ and lowering pH. The water change increased the pH by replenishing the buffer. After the tank stabilizes and finishes cycling pH levels will be much more consistent.
 
happychem said:
The addition of Bio-Spira settled the ammonia nitrifiers, but not the nitrite nitrifiers. The ammonia nitrifiers reduced ammonia levels from about 2 ppm to about 0.25 ppm, releasing H+ and lowering pH. The water change increased the pH by replenishing the buffer. After the tank stabilizes and finishes cycling pH levels will be much more consistent.
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Yes- but does that truly account for all that is going on?

Is he using the RO water still/currenty?

If not, here are his tap readings:

rockbellab said:
These are the readings directly from my faucet (using the master test kit).

High Range pH - 8.8 (probably higher because it looks off the chart)
Ammonia - 2.0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 5.0ppm
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.
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Adding that ammonia is not exactly a great idea. That is why I was stating he should be adding very good water.

You are going to have to find a way to obtain better water, IMO, or this tank is going to be all over the place.
 
I am not currently using RO water. I tried it, it did not help and it was too expensive. Most everyone agreed that I should just use my tap water. I know my tap water isn't perfect but there are two or three pet stores within two or three miles of me that have the same quality of water and their fish are fine. As a matter of fact I bought my two Oscars from one of the shops and they had lived there for over a year.
I add Prime and salt when doing a water change using my tap water. I also added the Bio-Spira on advice and really think it helped in one respect (ammonia) and hurt in the other (nitrite). Right now I'm most concerned about keeping my fish safe and alive. After a lot of research I found a vet an hour away that will see my fish. It is at the Oklahoma State University Vet School. I'm taking them both in on Friday morning to have the hole checked out and the silver stuff as well. I'm just taking my female to make sure she is healthy also. I will be taking a sample of my tap water and the aquarium water to let them check it all out. I've also kept a journal of everything I've done for the last month and will be taking it along. My new filters should arrive any day. I'm doing everything I can possibly do.
My readings tonight after doing a 50% water change last night and a 25% water change this morning are:
High Range pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 5.0 or higher
Nitrate - 10 to 20ppm
dKH - 3 and KH - 53.7ppm
dGH - 11 and GH - 196.9ppm
Once again I'm going to do a 50% water change and add Prime and salt. I have a feeling that the Nitrites are going to keep at it but at least I'm trying to be on top of it.
My online order of Bio-Spira will not be here until tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm not sure but maybe I should wait to add more until after I take the Oscars to the fish vet on Friday. Any thoughts on that?
Any advice that anyone has would be helpful. Thanks for everything.
Bridget (she)
 
What does IMO mean? I keep seeing you all using it but I have no idea what it means.
 
rockbellab said:
What does IMO mean? I keep seeing you all using it but I have no idea what it means.
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IMO is "In my opinion"... kind of a net acronym like LMAO or like we use FYI in the real world.

The problem I have with these kinds of approaches is they do not allow you to establish baselines so you can deduce what is happening overall. Nearly everything is out of whack because we are starting with things that are out of whack then adding things that will help "dewhack" things, which in turn makes things more out of whack so we do 50% water changes daily which add nitrates and ammonia so you really can't tell when things that are supposed to NORMALLY be indicators of cycle progress are happening or not, because, we keep throwing things out of whack. It is akin to putting out fire with gasoline, but not quite as bad. Maybe more like trying to treat poison ivy without getting out of the patch first.
 
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Bridget,

At this point all you *can* do is water changes. The Bio Spira will take a few days to establish itself well enough to deal with the nitrites. Until then, change the water as often as you can and get the nitrites down.

Roan
 
Hi everyone,
Just to update you all it has been one crazy week. After adding the 3oz package of Bio-Spira last Saturday my nitrites by Monday had shot straight up. I've spent the entire week doing 50% water changes and trying to keep some control of them. They have been 5.0ppm or higher all week. The water changes only help for a short time and then they shoot back up. The good news is that my Ammonia is going down. It has now been between 0 to 0.25ppm all week. High Range pH is usually 8.8 when I first fill the tank then it goes down to around 7.6 to 7.8. Nitrates are between 10 and 20ppm.
Yesterday (Friday) at 8:00AM I added a 1oz package of biospira to my tank to see if it would help with the Nitrites. I rechecked the tests yesterday evening and the results are:
High Range pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0 to 0.25ppm
Nitrite - 3.0 to 5.0 ppm (was 5.0 or higher)
Nitrate 10ppm
I didn't do a water change yesterday because I wanted give the bio-spira 24 hrs to work.
I just checked the water again and it is:
H.R. ph - 7.6 to 7.8
Ammonia - 0 to 0.25ppm
Nitrite - 5.0ppm or higher
Nitrate - 10 to 20ppm
I'm not making any headway with the Nitrites. I'm getting ready to make a 50% water change and add Prime with the change. Do you have any other suggestions? My new filters are not here yet, at the latest on Monday. Should I just keep up the water changes and not add any more bio-spira until I set up my additional filtration? Any advice is appreciated.
Bridget
 
This may sound a little bit contrary but I am going to recommend that you stop doing water changes and instead gradually raise the salinity of the water to 0.3% over 24 hours. Add one teaspoon per gallon of aquarium salt to your water every 12 hours making sure you completely dissolve the salt prior to adding it to the tank. Add the salt to the tank as far away from the filter as you can so that you give it a chance to dillute and not mess up your biofiltration. Do this until you have 3 teaspons per gallon of salt in the tank. This will give you fish immediate relief from the nitrites and help heal any injuries/infections that this stress is providing him. By doing the water changes you are just adding tons of ammonia to the water which gets converted into a massive ammount of nitrite by your strong ammonia oxidizing colonies. Though your nitrites drop right after the water change, they will shoot up very quickly possibly higher than before. Unless you can get good water for the water changes, you are just making the problem worse by doing the water changes. Keep adding the biospira since more bacteria can never hurt and make sure your tank is well airated. One more thing I would like to point out is that because your water has such a high pH, the ammonia you add is in its most toxic form and will do more damage than the nitrites in your water.
 
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