If the ammonia gets too high, I think they said it stalls the nitrification process.... the bacteria won't grow.... right? You may be hitting that limit until you do some water changes and get the ammonia down.
My first Aquarium!!!
- Thread starter sharky7777
- Start date
A tank shouldn't have a 'smell' to it at all unless your doing a fishless cycle and you can smell the ammonia you put in or dead shrimp you put in.
Are you vaccuming the substrate? If not this is probably where most of your amm. is coming from. All the food from over feeding is there in the substrate as well as any fishwaste. Vaccuming the substrate WILL NOT do any damage to your cycle process, bacterial count etc.
Red-tailed sharks are bottom dwellers. Thats why he won't go up to the top (not to say he will never go anywhere but the bottom). They are scavengers, and will usually look for the missed food on the bottom.
The most likely reason why it would take longer for a tank to cycle with higher ammonia is probably because the more ammonia there is the more bacteria it takes to 'kill' it. So the more bac. you need to grow the longer the process.
With the ammonia at 7+ you're lucky to have only lost 1 fish. You may want to consider giving your friend the swords and the shark to hold for you right now until your cycle is complete. They won't last the nitrite cycle.
Using the nitrate to notify you when to change the water will only work after the cycle has taken place. Unless your water comes with nitrate already in it... there shouldn't be any nitrate in the water except from the nitrification process. The nitrate is a waste product of the bac. that take care of the nitrites. So in other words if there isn't anything producing nitrates you won't see the nitrates. Nitrates are the end product of the whole process.
Keep doing the water changes. If you try to keep all the fish through the entire cycle you will have to do a lot more changes then that to try to keep them alive.
I hope this info helps you. Don't get discouraged about it. Everybody makes these mistakes the first time around. And if not informed or mis-informed repeat them.
Are you vaccuming the substrate? If not this is probably where most of your amm. is coming from. All the food from over feeding is there in the substrate as well as any fishwaste. Vaccuming the substrate WILL NOT do any damage to your cycle process, bacterial count etc.
Red-tailed sharks are bottom dwellers. Thats why he won't go up to the top (not to say he will never go anywhere but the bottom). They are scavengers, and will usually look for the missed food on the bottom.
The most likely reason why it would take longer for a tank to cycle with higher ammonia is probably because the more ammonia there is the more bacteria it takes to 'kill' it. So the more bac. you need to grow the longer the process.
With the ammonia at 7+ you're lucky to have only lost 1 fish. You may want to consider giving your friend the swords and the shark to hold for you right now until your cycle is complete. They won't last the nitrite cycle.
Using the nitrate to notify you when to change the water will only work after the cycle has taken place. Unless your water comes with nitrate already in it... there shouldn't be any nitrate in the water except from the nitrification process. The nitrate is a waste product of the bac. that take care of the nitrites. So in other words if there isn't anything producing nitrates you won't see the nitrates. Nitrates are the end product of the whole process.
Keep doing the water changes. If you try to keep all the fish through the entire cycle you will have to do a lot more changes then that to try to keep them alive.
I hope this info helps you. Don't get discouraged about it. Everybody makes these mistakes the first time around. And if not informed or mis-informed repeat them.
ive made sure to get all of the left over food from the bottom but usually the sword eats the rest. I usually stir the gravel daily to get any junk from it and the smell has gone down as well as the ammonia after the 50% water change. Do you think i should get some food that sinks to the bottom for the shark?
Personally, with NH3 readings as high as you're getting, if it were me, I'd fast the fish for a few days and do a lot of water changes. You said you're doing 25% daily, I really do suggest you increase to 50%.
If giving the shark and swords to your friend for a few weeks (or permanently) is an option, do it, I totally agree that they might not make it through the cycle.
Later when the chemistry's under control, you can get bottom feeder pellets to target feed your shark. For now I'm sure he'll be fine on the bits he finds; you want to feed your fish VERY little right now to keep the NH3 down.
If giving the shark and swords to your friend for a few weeks (or permanently) is an option, do it, I totally agree that they might not make it through the cycle.
Later when the chemistry's under control, you can get bottom feeder pellets to target feed your shark. For now I'm sure he'll be fine on the bits he finds; you want to feed your fish VERY little right now to keep the NH3 down.
should i get some sort of chemical like ammo lock to reduce the ammonia? and i just did my 2nd 50% water change of the day and the ammonia has gone down to around 6ppm so im making progress!!
Last edited:
A chemical that binds the ammonia will make the tank safe for the fish, though you'll continue to get high NH3 readings on your tests, so you won't be able to really tell where the levels are at, and I'm not sure if the bacteria could still use the bound ammonia as a food source... hopefully someone else knows whether it's a good idea or not. I have never used this kind of thing; when it comes to chemically altering the water parameters, I'm clueless.
How deep is your gravel? You don't want to be 'stirring' the gravel. Try to use a gravel vac and just do an up and down motion until you cover the tank. When you stir the gravel everything gets kicked up, and depending on how good your filteration is it won't get taken care of until it does get sucked into your filter and/or broken down by bacteria. By simply doing the up and down motion you cover everything and it all gets sucked up right away. Not only that but depending on how long the food has been sitting down there you may not want any of your fish to be eating it.
The shark will be just fine with flake food. I've kept a few of them and they've been very healthy w/o any target feeding. The only thing that sinking food will do right now for you is give you more amm. If your talking algae wafers then they spoil rather quick (24 hrs some maybe less) once introduced into the tank. If your talking like shrimp pellets it just breaks up into tiny little peices and if your shark can't get to all the little peices then they will spoil your water too.
Fasting the fish for a few days is a good idea and will not hurt your fish. Get your amm. down to a good level first.
As I understand from all my reading of the cycle, the nitrites are more deadly to fish then the ammonia. If your amm. is already above 7 you can expect your nitrites to be pretty high as well.
As for chemicals, I personally try to stay away from chemicals as much as I can. Some products don't work when you have extreme levels of one thing or another. Also as stated some products will throw off your tests and give you poor results. The more stuff you add to the water the more the fish have to deal with. Also the more you have to keep in mind before you want to do anything else with the tank. (i.e. Everytime you change the water your gonna have to figure out how much of product x your gonna need to put in to balance out with how much is already in there, and if you forget how much trouble will your tank be in.)
If it were me I would just find a safe temp. home for the swords and the shark, or see if I could bring them back to the store. Then get the tank under control. After that, cycle the tank. Finally, get the fish back. I hate to see fish that I really like or have spent money on go to waste and then have to get them again.
The shark will be just fine with flake food. I've kept a few of them and they've been very healthy w/o any target feeding. The only thing that sinking food will do right now for you is give you more amm. If your talking algae wafers then they spoil rather quick (24 hrs some maybe less) once introduced into the tank. If your talking like shrimp pellets it just breaks up into tiny little peices and if your shark can't get to all the little peices then they will spoil your water too.
Fasting the fish for a few days is a good idea and will not hurt your fish. Get your amm. down to a good level first.
As I understand from all my reading of the cycle, the nitrites are more deadly to fish then the ammonia. If your amm. is already above 7 you can expect your nitrites to be pretty high as well.
As for chemicals, I personally try to stay away from chemicals as much as I can. Some products don't work when you have extreme levels of one thing or another. Also as stated some products will throw off your tests and give you poor results. The more stuff you add to the water the more the fish have to deal with. Also the more you have to keep in mind before you want to do anything else with the tank. (i.e. Everytime you change the water your gonna have to figure out how much of product x your gonna need to put in to balance out with how much is already in there, and if you forget how much trouble will your tank be in.)
If it were me I would just find a safe temp. home for the swords and the shark, or see if I could bring them back to the store. Then get the tank under control. After that, cycle the tank. Finally, get the fish back. I hate to see fish that I really like or have spent money on go to waste and then have to get them again.
well nitrites are rising but slowly and ammonia is going down also slowly. Just lost another fish too.
Ammonia 4
nitrates .25
Ammonia 4
nitrates .25
I hear ya sharky.
Mine was at 8.0
I did tons of water changes, got it down to 2.0. I left it alone for a couple of days. I checked it last night during RAW is WAR, and it was showing 1.0.
This weekend, I will do some water changes, and hopefully get the chemistry right. If all goes as planned, I am hoping to start stocking my tank in the next couple or few weeks.
Mine was at 8.0
I did tons of water changes, got it down to 2.0. I left it alone for a couple of days. I checked it last night during RAW is WAR, and it was showing 1.0.
This weekend, I will do some water changes, and hopefully get the chemistry right. If all goes as planned, I am hoping to start stocking my tank in the next couple or few weeks.
