Emergency ammonia spike help

[Amphibious Wallet]

Definitely disagree, and your knowledge is waaaaaaaaaaaaay above mine and pretty much everyone else for this stuff....but it did work. :) I would have lost all my fish at the time if it wasn't for prime in that 40g.

Interesting conclusion.

 

[Kzang]

I’ve done several large water changes but it’s not seeming to help. I’m not sure what this person did while cleaning the house. I checked the tank thoroughly and nothing was dead that I could find. I have a bunch of bubblers going right now to try and create more aeration. The bleach smell in the hall where the tank is was bad enough to give me a headache when I walked in.

I know RHF says it won't help or wouldn't recommend prime, but just do a double dose of it. If my **** was dying, I'd do it. It shouldn't cause any harm if you do use it, unless you use certain copper stuff, like cupramine, in your display. You can't really overdose it, but if you do, it can deplete oxygen.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Definitely disagree, and your knowledge is waaaaaaaaaaaaay above mine and pretty much everyone else for this stuff....but it did work. :) I would have lost all my fish at the time if it wasn't for prime in that 40g.

How do you know for sure you would have lost them? That's the limiting question in a great many situations where folks have identical support claims to yours.

 

[MnFish1]

I’ve done several large water changes but it’s not seeming to help. I’m not sure what this person did while cleaning the house. I checked the tank thoroughly and nothing was dead that I could find. I have a bunch of bubblers going right now to try and create more aeration. The bleach smell in the hall where the tank is was bad enough to give me a headache when I walked in.

The unfortunate thing is with these things is that sometimes there is kind of a cascade effect - and sometimes things show effects at different rates. Can you do another measure of your ammonia, and pH and salinity?

 

[Kzang]

Well technically I have 1 fish now. Everything else but the gem has passed. And although I appreciate the response you’re scolding is doing literally nothing to help with the issue. How does a disease cause a giant ammonia spike in an hour and how does a tank spike that much that fast? Overstocked or not?

I'm not scolding you. I'm just telling you what I think, and if that truth hurts, I'm sorry. A diseased fish can die more easily and quicker than a healthy fish, when something does go wrong.

 

[Kzang]

Well, then we have a disagreement.

Read the thread where folks demonstrated chemically that it does not work, then we can debate whether your results are evidence of it working, as opposed to them surviving anyway.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/does-prime-actually-detoxify-free-ammonia-nh3.849985/

Feel free to PM to discuss if you'd like, as to not clog up his post. It won't let me PM you for some reason.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The unfortunate thing is with these things is that sometimes there is kind of a cascade effect - and sometimes things show effects at different rates. Can you do another measure of your ammonia, and pH and salinity?

I agree that many tank crashes are caused by a small thing that picks up speed as more problems are caused by released ammonia, toxins, etc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Feel free to PM to discuss if you'd like, as to not clog up his post. It won't let me PM you for some reason.

I think a good place to follow up is at the end of the thread I linked.

I don’t do pm’s in general because I think others can benefit from public discussions.

 

[prestonrabe]

Update: saved the clowns, gem yang and the chromis and mandarin by removing them in a bucket with a heater and a ton of bubblers and they’re reviving a bit. The problem was that the prime I dosed took out the oxygen in the water.

 

[prestonrabe]

Gonna do a large water change and retest

 

[prestonrabe]

Is there any way to save my corals that expelled the zooxanthelle or am I just screwed?

 

[MnFish1]

Is there any way to save my corals that expelled the zooxanthelle or am I just screwed?

if they are still open- they can recover. If they smell like they are dead (assuming you can lift them to the waters edge I would remove them. Generally - much of the time coral can come back

 

[prestonrabe]

Ee

The unfortunate thing is with these things is that sometimes there is kind of a cascade effect - and sometimes things show effects at different rates. Can you do another measure of your ammonia, and pH and salinity?

ammonia 0
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.026
As of 4:46 AM

 

[prestonrabe]

if they are still open- they can recover. If they smell like they are dead (assuming you can lift them to the waters edge I would remove them. Generally - much of the time coral can come back

Gonna leave them in then as long as I can and see. It hurts to see how far everything is set back

 

[prestonrabe]

I'm not scolding you. I'm just telling you what I think, and if that truth hurts, I'm sorry. A diseased fish can die more easily and quicker than a healthy fish, when something does go wrong.

Nothing seemed sick though is the thing. Everything was eating great and looking great.

 

[Nano_Man]

Nothing seemed sick though is the thing. Everything was eating great and looking great.

That's ammonia kills qiuck
When doing big water changes your diluting the ammonia but not the problem your fish are in a bucket that in time will get consumed with ammonia. If you're tank has dry rock if you can afford it put some mature live rock pieces in. Or buy some bottled good bacteria
What you need is a big population of good bacteria to consume your fish waste. The bacteria has been trying too keep up but failed hence the ammonia spike in my option
Anything that looks dead or decaying remove straight away

 

[Malcontent]

Update: saved the clowns, gem yang and the chromis and mandarin by removing them in a bucket with a heater and a ton of bubblers and they’re reviving a bit. The problem was that the prime I dosed took out the oxygen in the water.

Prime doesn't do that. Get yourself a good dissolved oxygen meter and test it yourself. A lot of the widely held "facts" in the hobby don't hold up when subject to actual testing.

 

[ScottJ]

I’ve done several large water changes but it’s not seeming to help. I’m not sure what this person did while cleaning the house. I checked the tank thoroughly and nothing was dead that I could find. I have a bunch of bubblers going right now to try and create more aeration. The bleach smell in the hall where the tank is was bad enough to give me a headache when I walked in.

Could bleach have splashed up and gotten in the tank? Or maybe into your ATO reservoir or sump? If it got into the ATO, that would explain how you got it down but it came back up. Just a thought, don't know your set up, though.

 

[MnFish1]

Gonna leave them in then as long as I can and see. It hurts to see how far everything is set back

Can you post a picture?

 

[MnFish1]

Prime doesn't do that. Get yourself a good dissolved oxygen meter and test it yourself. A lot of the widely held "facts" in the hobby don't hold up when subject to actual testing.

Agreed Prime would not do that, but am curious, why are you suspecting low O2? Bacterial bloom? You make a good point, Unless the ammonia level is closely monitored in the bucket, with even moderate feeding there could be problems. Since the OP has relatively normal parameters now, I would tend to put the remaining fish back in the tank (he has many fewer than he did before) - assuming that the ammonia in the tank remains low.