Question about ammonia/chloramines

[eohippus]

I believe my betta fish has columnaris and on the advice of my LFS I have decided to medicate him with Pimafix and aquarium salt. I didn't want to add these things to my fish tank, so I removed him to a new 5 gallon aquarium that has nothing but water in it -- no filter, decorations, nothing. It is obviously not cycled -- I figured that I'd just keep doing giant water changes as necessary.

He's not eating so I was surprised that my ammonia readings for the last 2 days have been 1.0. I thought that was odd, so I checked the water coming out of my tap and it is 1.0. Further reading suggests that ammonia in my tap water means that my town is using chloramines in the water (although since it is Sunday, I can't call the town to confirm).

I am using Prime, but is that enough to keep from killing him with ammonia from my tap?

 

[Rbishop]

You'll have to treat the tank he came out of for columnaris. I don't believe its worth the effort....I just euthanize all and nuke the tank.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Prime detoxifies ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. It doesn't remove it.

 

[Hebily]

You will have to dose the whole tank with prime every 24 hours. It should keep the ammonia in a non-toxic form if you dose according to the label. You will still see the ammonia on tests.

 

[eohippus]

Thank you all. He didn't make it. But now I know that Prime only works for 24 hours. Do aquarium people keep hospital tanks running and cycled even if they have no sick fish? What do most people do?

 

[Hebily]

What I do, is keep a small quarantine (QT) tank clean and dry, and keep a sponge filter for it in an operating tank. That way, bacteria live in the sponge, and when I need the QT, I can put the sponge filter in it. When I'm done with the QT, I break it down, clean everything, and put the sponge back in the other tank to get seeded again. I don't put any substrate or decorations in the QT, just the tank, heater, sponge filter, and water. Some people do effectively the same thing with a bag of bio media or a filter cartridge, especially if their QT uses an hob filter. Others use a specific, easy to clean decoration. Make sure that whatever you use to seed the QT, you don't clean it between being seeded in another tank and used in the QT, but you DO clean it very well before putting it back in the other tank - this is extra important if treatment of whatever needs QT was not successful.

Some people just keep a QT running and feed the empty tank every day to simulate bio load.

Some people keep a few hardy fish in a continuously operating QT. Keep in mind if you do that, that you are risking their lives whenever you need to use the QT.

 

[eohippus]

That's a really thoughtful method. Once I get a little better at all of this, I have to think about planning ahead more, the way you have.