Ammonia won’t go down.

dmh41532

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Evening everyone, I know this isn’t a saltwater post, but I was hoping someone here could help. I have a pufferfish currently in brackish water. It will eventually need to be acclimated to saltwater, but I added it to a fully cycled tank, about a week after I added it, i noticed the fish at the top, breathing fast...so I tested the ammonia and found it .25. It spiked to 1, nitrite spike to .25 for a few days before dropping. The ammonia is still high, the fish still isn’t eating, and getting thin. I asked people on a Facebook pufferfish page, as well as our local group, I was told to use seachem prime and seachem stability along with continuing daily 50% water changes. But the ammonia just isn’t dropping. The feeder shrimp I put in are doing fine, they don’t seem bothered by the ammonia. The puffer is in a 55 gallon with a specific gravity of 1.10.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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The prime is known to cause false positives at that stated level. Can you post a full tank shot, disease or other stressors are more likely than ammonia if there’s plenty of surface area. pics will show. That level you state is the same degree of report that thousands of posters have identified as a misread, although at lower pH we read that trace levels of ammonia become more toxic, Dan P and Neon Rabbit pointed out recently how minor ph drops can be really harsh if too much free ammonia is present. It’s also well known prime causes temporary false positives with api tests and Red Sea too as I read it, will be nice to see pic layout


cloudy water makes it even more likely to be free ammonia issue, and clean clear water makes it less likely. These details help us proof out the test likelihood. (We can read in the chemistry forum that ammonia is clear, the clouding we think is bacterial bloom capitalizing on excess waste)
 
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Azedenkae

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Evening everyone, I know this isn’t a saltwater post, but I was hoping someone here could help. I have a pufferfish currently in brackish water. It will eventually need to be acclimated to saltwater, but I added it to a fully cycled tank, about a week after I added it, i noticed the fish at the top, breathing fast...so I tested the ammonia and found it .25. It spiked to 1, nitrite spike to .25 for a few days before dropping. The ammonia is still high, the fish still isn’t eating, and getting thin. I asked people on a Facebook pufferfish page, as well as our local group, I was told to use seachem prime and seachem stability along with continuing daily 50% water changes. But the ammonia just isn’t dropping. The feeder shrimp I put in are doing fine, they don’t seem bothered by the ammonia. The puffer is in a 55 gallon with a specific gravity of 1.10.
How is the pufferfish doing now? Prime should detoxify ammonia so that it actually does not affect your pufferfish (or livestock in general), so if the pufferfish is not doing great, it might be something aside from ammonia.
 
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dmh41532

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The prime is known to cause false positives at that stated level. Can you post a full tank shot, disease or other stressors are more likely than ammonia if there’s plenty of surface area. pics will show. That level you state is the same degree of report that thousands of posters have identified as a misread, although at lower pH we read that trace levels of ammonia become more toxic, Dan P and Neon Rabbit pointed out recently how minor ph drops can be really harsh if too much free ammonia is present. It’s also well known prime causes temporary false positives with api tests and Red Sea too as I read it, will be nice to see pic layout


cloudy water makes it even more likely to be free ammonia issue, and clean clear water makes it less likely. These details help us proof out the test likelihood. (We can read in the chemistry forum that ammonia is clear, the clouding we think is bacterial bloom capitalizing on excess waste)
I’ll post a picture as soon as I get home from work. The pH is 7.5, and I haven’t had any changes in pH. The water is clear now, but it was slightly cloudy for two days, about a week ago.
 
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dmh41532

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How is the pufferfish doing now? Prime should detoxify ammonia so that it actually does not affect your pufferfish (or livestock in general), so if the pufferfish is not doing great, it might be something aside from ammonia.
Still not eating, it swims around the tank, but I don’t see it looking for food. Every puffer I’ve kept, except for the ambush predators, always cruised the tanks looking for something to eat. This one is just meandering around.
 
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dmh41532

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Here’s a full tanks shot
 

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brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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In my opinion the ratios found in the tank carry more of a bioload than just that fish alone, especially with sand and the hob filter plus it’s surface area. If the tank was truly cycled, meaning at least three weeks wet before the fish + bottle bac of some kind, there’s no indication ammonia would be a concern now given the interactions we know prime causes on these measurement kits. I’d look for another concern, fish disease isn’t uncommon in these guys


youre taking all known measures against free ammonia it’s likely something else as his feeding issue. The feedings given to him plus his own bioload would cloud up and rot the tank obviously, quickly, were it truly not cycled
 
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dmh41532

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I cycled it 6 weeks before I added it, making sure the tank could handle a large bio load. I was thinking disease too, maybe internal parasites? Would that cause a lost off appetite?
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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Not sure there w have to wait for fish folks to chime in
 
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dmh41532

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Just an update, I’ve been getting incredibly odd and inconsistent results for everything. Today, when I came home from work, the puffer was not good. It’s fine we’re clamped, color is faded, it’s scratching against a few decorations and shaking its head…seems like it may have flukes? I got some prazi pro and treating now. I really don’t know how long it’s been scratching and shaking its head, been pretty busy and haven’t been able to observe it much this week.
 

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