Runnaway Ammonia spike, I'm going nuts

[clawlan]

It's good you are seeing nitrates.

I'm trying to picture what you mean about doing a water change every 30 minutes or so... are you taking out a bit of water and then adding clean water back in and repeating this every 30 minutes? If you, you aren't getting out enough dirty water because your 'dirty' water is now mixed with the clean you are throwing out.

Can you use a big - clean - trash can or large plastic tub and mix all your clean water in it? Drain off that same amount from your tank and then add all the clean in at once? I know you are in a dorm room and it might get tricky but it is the most efficient way of getting out the dirty water...

Oh, yes, use the biosafe on all your tap water. I don't know that I'd bother with the biocoat right now.

Cathy

Cathy you are confusing me a little, I think we may have a little mis communication . I said "30 minute water changes" because from reading the previous posts, I was assuming that I should be doing 50% water changes about every 30 minutes until the ammonia gets back to .25ppm. As far as HOW I am doing the changes, I have a python system so I am just hooking it to the sink and siphoning/vacuuming out 50%, then flipping the switch on the unit which starts adding clean tap water back into the tank. During the adding of the fresh tap watter, i add bio-safe to detoxify.

My question was is it ok for me to do a 50% change, add bio-safe, then wait 30 minutes, do another 50% change, add another dose of bio-safe, and so-on until the ammonia is down? I do make sure that the water temp is the same before I start adding it.

 

[clawlan]

thats still a lot of ammonia. you be doing a couple 50% a day. when i do water changes i use prime. Amquel is another good one.

going along with my question in the last post, if i am doing multiple 50% changes a day, is it safe to add full dose of biosafe or prime each time to detox the chlroine? I ask because on the bottles, it says "do not overdose".

 

[Mgamer20o0]

yes you should use prime or biosafe each time you do water changes. as for prime it says you can add 5 times the regular amount.

 

[Reddog80p]

going along with my question in the last post, if i am doing multiple 50% changes a day, is it safe to add full dose of biosafe or prime each time to detox the chlroine? I ask because on the bottles, it says "do not overdose".

The recommended dose of Prime (1 ml per 10 gallons) is capable of removing up to 3 ppm of chloramine or up 4 ppm of chlorine. I suspect that the recommended dose will suffice. 3x the dose is also acceptable although may be a bit wasteful. As a general rule it is usually not harmful to slightly overdose dechlorinators as they are not very strong reducing agents. An extreme overdose could lead to problems as it could bind oxygen depending on the situation (this holds true with any dechlorinator).

 

[clawlan]

ok thanks for the help. I'm gonig to do my first 50% now, and another in maybe 30-45 minutes and continue until the ammonia comes down. But I guess that leads me to one other issue, which I will start in a new thread.

 

[clawlan]

Alright, purchased that "Ammonia Alert" and it is reading normal safe levels! Fish are also much more active then what htey were a day or two ago! I think the struggle may be over.

 

[Reddog80p]

Glad to hear it that why it's so important to test and do water changes regularly.

 

[clawlan]

Glad to hear it that why it's so important to test and do water changes regularly.

Oh I totally understand, I was doing tests 4-5 times a day at least. And as for water changes, I plan on 25% once a week but seeing how the tank is brand new, I have only done 2.

 

[vootsy]

Ammonia Tests

I was freaking just like you but my test showed 4.0 amm. and the fish seemed fine. Since I am using Prime I also went out and bought ammonia alerts. It showed safe levels of toxic ammonia. I also bought Seachems ammonia multi test. My toxic ammonia was less than .1, with rest being ammonium. I have tried Bio spira three times since mid November with no luck. I can't live with such odds of getting a good batch, so I went to a different LFS and they suggested Sera Nitrivec which they used on over 100 tanks and I could'nt be happier with the results.

 

[clawlan]

I was freaking just like you but my test showed 4.0 amm. and the fish seemed fine. Since I am using Prime I also went out and bought ammonia alerts. It showed safe levels of toxic ammonia. I also bought Seachems ammonia multi test. My toxic ammonia was less than .1, with rest being ammonium. I have tried Bio spira three times since mid November with no luck. I can't live with such odds of getting a good batch, so I went to a different LFS and they suggested Sera Nitrivec which they used on over 100 tanks and I could'nt be happier with the results.

interesting. what exactly is Sera Nitrivec?