Hey reefers,
I made the bonehead move of putting my prized angelfish (tough & thick 3-4” captive bred fish) into a new system which I thought was finished cycling.
I was under the impression based on the instructions of the ammonia kit that 0.5 ammonia was ok, not necessarily toxic for fish. Under this impression, I put the fish in the new tank tonight and noticed it breathing very heavily. I did some research and found that the 0.5 ppm ammonia level is toxic to fish.
I decided to take the fish out of the tank and put it back in it’s long cycled, established, but small 20 gallon holding tank (usually used as a coral quarantine tank). The fish was in the 0.5 ppm ammonia water of the newer tank for maybe 40 minutes, hour tops.
Is this enough time at 0.5 ppm to cause ammonia burn or serious damage to the fish, that would require treatment? It is back and hopefully resting and recovering now with the lights off so I can not ID it’s status till tomorrow morning. But I can confirm it is breathing heavily, but alert and moving like normal.
Thank you very much.
I made the bonehead move of putting my prized angelfish (tough & thick 3-4” captive bred fish) into a new system which I thought was finished cycling.
I was under the impression based on the instructions of the ammonia kit that 0.5 ammonia was ok, not necessarily toxic for fish. Under this impression, I put the fish in the new tank tonight and noticed it breathing very heavily. I did some research and found that the 0.5 ppm ammonia level is toxic to fish.
I decided to take the fish out of the tank and put it back in it’s long cycled, established, but small 20 gallon holding tank (usually used as a coral quarantine tank). The fish was in the 0.5 ppm ammonia water of the newer tank for maybe 40 minutes, hour tops.
Is this enough time at 0.5 ppm to cause ammonia burn or serious damage to the fish, that would require treatment? It is back and hopefully resting and recovering now with the lights off so I can not ID it’s status till tomorrow morning. But I can confirm it is breathing heavily, but alert and moving like normal.
Thank you very much.