pump? or bubbles?

this is why a test kit is important.

as for water conditioners..I use prime to dechlrinate the water. setting ot out overnight may not work any more as many municiple water sources now use chloramine ..this is basically chlorine bound with ammonia(more stable).
many conditioners now neutralize chloramine as well as ammonia and chlorine(some work on nitrites too)

I am guessing that you may still not be completely finished with your cycle.

how have you been maintaining your tank(cleaning)?

if you have been replacing filter cartridges in the whisper you may have been removing beneficial bacteria.
 
ok here goes guys.
I looked very hard this mornign for th fancy male guppy but could not find him. I figured he had died and I would get him as son as we got back.
I took a sample of water and everything looked very good excpet I had dangerous levels of amonia( who would have thought) that is what was killing my fish he said it was a big possibility. I dod not get fish today. I still have a sunburst platty and 2 guppies in the tank. I got a algea scrubber to clean the algea with, I was told to do a 50% water change today as soon as possible and to add some drops he gave me that is called Prime and it says on the bottle it removes Chlorine,Chloramine,Amonia detoxifides nitrite and nitrate an provides a slime coat. I hope I di the right thing here. i also took the nasty plastic green planrts out and he helped me find 3 small plants that will fit ok in the tank when grown. He was a very nice boy and actually seemed to know more than anyone I have spoken to thus far at the store. he told me if I got more fish they would die and it would be a endless cycle of death and amonia so he gave me his cell number and told me he wanted to help me get my tank right. He said since the other fish are already in the tnak we would let them help us if they are not too sick.
I also got a air stone and pump but fogot the tubing for it so gotta go back or to walmart to get some.
I came home did as I was told and cleaned the tank,did the 50% water change added the prime and found my fancy guppy male but have a problem. he is covered in small white spots. He is a orange fish what is this and can it be due to the amonia troubles?
I appreciate all the help everyone has been giving me and I do plan to get a bigger tank but want this one set up first s that the new one can go through a full cycle before any fishes are added.
 
Now I am kind of new here to fish but I would say the fish had ich...and yes high ammonia levels are deadly...higher the ammonia level...higher chance of disease or death :( ...and it will take sometime to get the ammonia level down but just keep doing water changes everyday and keep testing your water until it goes all the way down to 0, thats your goal. But thats what i would do, but Im pretty much a newbie...other people correct me if Im wrong!
 
the problem is if it is ich then I need to medicate and then the water changes are making the meds go away so i am kinda out of ideas.
 
Someone will come give you better ideas, but my suggestion is- get a bigger tank. Much easier to cycle/set up.

But if you want to stick with the 5 gal, keep up with your water changes. Do one daily. Add nothing but your Prime. You can add 5 times the labelled amount (which it also says) to detox in an emergency. I went through a whole bunch of that stuff while I was cycling my two tanks. (just recently). I think you can treat your ich easily, but luckily I haven't had to deal with it.
I *think* ich can be treated with salt, but I might be terrifically wrong. However, go back to the petsmart (and actually, if you want, go on to their website and print out the products you plan on buying, they will honor the online price and in some cases it is a big savings), get your airline tubing, and get some ich treatment. Get enough to treat for a while.
Does your whisper filter have activated carbon? I'm pretty sure you have to take that out if it does.

My other suggestion is get Bio Spira. You may not be able to get it at petsmart, is there another fish store around? Search online to see- this stuff is a miracle. It should be in a small foil packet and refrigerated. IF it isn't don't buy it- and don't accept any substitutes (aka, Cycle, Stability, etc- they don't work). But with the Bio Spira and Prime, you can keep the ammonia and nitrites from being toxic while you treat without water changes. I went almost a week without doing a water change (daily checking of my water parameters though) using Bio Spira (I was letting it set itself up in the tank so I wouldn't change it out- same as you won't want to change out the meds).

However, if you can't find the Bio Spira, just simply do a water change and treat the tank afterwards. Do a water change the next day and treat it immediately afterwards. So you'll be changing out, but adding in at the same time.

Did you get a test kit? API Master Test Kit is the best. I'm assuming since you had a sky high ammonia and no nitrites and no nitrates, you haven't cycled yet. Read all you can, that will help.

But I promise, don't give up, it will get better.

And honestly, if you can get yourself a 15 g or larger, it is so much easier. My 55 gal cycled so much quicker than my 10 did, and the larger a tank is it is actually easier to do the waterchanges, and maintenence. Plus, the larger tank size means you can keep more fish.

But don't give up- it is worth it.
 
thanks

I do plan to get a larger tank but in the mean time I need to get this one stable.I then plan to purchase a nice one with all I need. But for now I want to try to save this tank( as I plan to use it for the little babies that were born or better yet a hand in case of a emergency. I drove over an hopur today to do what I did and tomorrow I have to go t6o another town about 45 minutes from here and they dont have a petsmart but do have a petco I am looking for tubing,ick meds and I gather more of the prime as I got a small bottle and can use more than I need.
Do you think I should change at 25% water changes? I did the 50% today and he said do it daily. Also do i need to remove my filter from my whisper pump in order to medicate I read that someplace I think?
I really appreciate all your help
 
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