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!!!
Did I Do It Right?
- Thread starter mlowry
- Start date
I would get the fish out of there. If your amonia is at 2ppm when you start then the fish will get amonia poising. This will eventually kill the fish. Plus that is a pretty big bio load for a system that isn't even set up yet. If you do keep the fish make sure you do a lot of water changes.
As stated, my tap has high ammonia, so where would I put the fish? If I do a water change, will that really make a difference since ammonia in tap is high, also, it has been less than 24hrs since adding bio-spira. If I do a water change now, won't that take out a lot of my bacteria that I'm trying to get to settle and stick?
Ask the fish store you bought from if they can hold the fish in a tank for you for a week while you finish cycling...maybe if you explain you might kill the fish because of the ammonia they will help you. I know even my local petsmart has hospital tanks they keep in the back. (since they have to replace the fish if they die in 15 days, they want to help any way they can.) For the ammonia issue, have you looked into ammonia removal products for your tap like AmQuel Plus, etc? They can at least stabilize the water and also remove chlorine and other harmful products in tap water for your water changes? Anyone agree or have other suggestions? I am pretty new to this (10 months) so be sure and get second opinions.
Again, I am not an expert...but reading this amquel bottle it says..."AmQuel+ does not interfere with the biological filtration or nitrifying bacteria." "eliminates Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Chlorine and Chloramines." "Does not generally affect water's pH." "Completely non-toxic to humans, pets, and aquatic life."
It was recommended to me by a fish store manager with over 20 years in fish keeping. He said its the only thing he will use. Our water in Dallas,TX is not so hot in the summer...it reaks of algae and chlorine and sometimes has high ammonia also. My understanding is alot of people here use this to prime their water before water changes.
It was recommended to me by a fish store manager with over 20 years in fish keeping. He said its the only thing he will use. Our water in Dallas,TX is not so hot in the summer...it reaks of algae and chlorine and sometimes has high ammonia also. My understanding is alot of people here use this to prime their water before water changes.
pH of 8.2? Isn't that a bit high? I'm sure the fish stores aquariums are not that high.
How did you acclimate these fish? Did you just dump them in?
I would strongly suggest you read more thoroughly on cycling your tank before you purcase anymore fish. BioSpira is the final thing you should be concerned about when setting up the tank.
Adding aeration to the tank could make things worse by making the ammonia more toxic to the fish. That pH should also be a big concern.
Do you have a local store that stocks drinking (R/O'd) water in gallon jugs? I would suggest getting a large container and start dilluting your tank water. This is not necessarily going to get rid of all the BioSpira from your tank but, it should help in dilluting the ammonia and bring the pH down a bit. Do this CAREFULLY and slowly!! Take tests everytime you pour the water back in to the tank. Drastic pH/temp changes could harm the fish. If the BioSpira has had a chance to settle, it may have already attached itself to the biofilter and ornaments in the tank so, you may have little to worry about if you dilute some of the water. Otherwise buy some more, you can't overdose it.
Good Luck!
How did you acclimate these fish? Did you just dump them in?
I would strongly suggest you read more thoroughly on cycling your tank before you purcase anymore fish. BioSpira is the final thing you should be concerned about when setting up the tank.
Adding aeration to the tank could make things worse by making the ammonia more toxic to the fish. That pH should also be a big concern.
Do you have a local store that stocks drinking (R/O'd) water in gallon jugs? I would suggest getting a large container and start dilluting your tank water. This is not necessarily going to get rid of all the BioSpira from your tank but, it should help in dilluting the ammonia and bring the pH down a bit. Do this CAREFULLY and slowly!! Take tests everytime you pour the water back in to the tank. Drastic pH/temp changes could harm the fish. If the BioSpira has had a chance to settle, it may have already attached itself to the biofilter and ornaments in the tank so, you may have little to worry about if you dilute some of the water. Otherwise buy some more, you can't overdose it.
Good Luck!