**PLEASE HELP ** Water parameters out of whack! Worried about fish.

[justin96]

I will admit in advance that what I did was kinda stupid


I bought 2 new clown fish about a week ago and my ammonia levels have started to spike from all of the food sinking to the substrate. The water also started to smell a bit foul. When I first cycled my tank I bought gallon jugs of purified water from Walmart and kick started the nitrogen cycle with nitrifying bacteria. It was all decent until I decided to do a 60% water change today because of the foul water smell and cloudy murky water. Bought more of the purified water and mixed with Instant Ocean sea salt. I now have extremely high nitrites and nitrates. My ammonia is about 0.50 which is bad as well, but the nitrites are past the readable scale on my API test kit. I know the Nitrifying bacterial is recommended to be added after water changes as well, but won't this just make my nitrites even HIGHER? I don't have extremely high ammonia so it probably would fall quickly, but I don't know how much longer my fish can be exposed to the high nitrites. How can I get my parameters back down. One of my clowns looks fine and swimming, the other has been laying low to the sand almost barely touching it and is breathing heavy. I am panicking because I don't know how to fix my parameters, meanwhile time is ticking and they are in the tank. I don't have a QT to transfer them too

Ammonia: 0.50 ppm (greenish yellow)
Nitrite: Above 5 ppm (bright purple)
Nitrate: 20-40 ppm (orange)

 

[Rtaylor]

I will admit in advance that what I did was kinda stupid


I bought 2 new clown fish about a week ago and my ammonia levels have started to spike from all of the food sinking to the substrate. The water also started to smell a bit foul. When I first cycled my tank I bought gallon jugs of purified water from Walmart and kick started the nitrogen cycle with nitrifying bacteria. It was all decent until I decided to do a 60% water change today because of the foul water smell and cloudy murky water. Bought more of the purified water and mixed with Instant Ocean sea salt. I now have extremely high nitrites and nitrates. My ammonia is about 0.50 which is bad as well, but the nitrites are past the readable scale on my API test kit. I know the Nitrifying bacterial is recommended to be added after water changes as well, but won't this just make my nitrites even HIGHER? I don't have extremely high ammonia. How can I get my parameters back down. One of my clowns looks fine and swimming, the other has been laying low to the sand almost barely touching it and is breathing heavy. I am panicking because I don't know how to fix my parameters, meanwhile time is ticking and they are in the tank. I don't have a QT to transfer them too

Ammonia: 0.50 ppm (greenish yellow)
Nitrite: Above 5 ppm (bright purple)
Nitrate: 20-40 ppm (orange)

Add Seachem Prime. Other options, large water change, adding bacteria will help, but maybe not fast enough. Ammonia is the deadliest problem. Prime converts it to a non-toxic form. It will also convert nitrite to non-toxic. If you don’t have prime. You should do as large of a water change as possible or at least move the fish to a temporary tank with new saltwater. Even a 5 gallon bucket will work temporarily.

 

[laverda]

A water change should not cause a spike in any of those if your using RO/DI water with close to zero TDS. Ammonia is the biggest issue. There are many products sold that will reduce ammonia. Prime is one that comes to mind.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Fresh saltwater in a tote or garbage, can plus powerhead plus hang-on-back filter, and perhaps a heater at this time of year, equals an instant quarantine/hospital tank. Don't think you have to go fancy with this. At the very least, I'd get the clownfish out of the tank while you do a complete water change, as they may be suffering from ammonia burn at this point.

 

[Spare time]

Just pour a whole bottle cycling bacteria in. If the water smells really bad that is a concern and so do a water change. Feed the fish very slowly and add some nassarius snails or hermit crabs to deal with leftover food

 

[nick7948]

I missed your mention of purified water. I'm less familiar with that but when I look online it appears that it would be safer than spring water. Adding bact7 or similar won't spike your nitrates but it will take time to help. Another thing to keep in mind is that while fish can adapt to a wide range of parameters, they are not good at adapting when those parameters change quickly. So if your ammonia and nitrite are zero and you're comfortable with whatever route you choose with the water, leaving it alone may be your best option. I wouldn't worry about nitrate in the short term unless it's through the roof. .

 

[nick7948]

Looks like my earlier reply didn't take. What I meant to say before my last reply was that you may want to do some research on peoples experience with spring water. Spring water may be OK but it may also be contributing to your issue because it's difficult to know which minerals were added to whatever vendor/type you used. The safest route would be to get distilled water from the grocery store to be sure that the spring water isn't your issue. Or if distilled isn't practical I would at least go back to purified water. I'm not familiar with purified but looking online it appears safer than spring water, but RO or distilled would be ideal.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Add Seachem Prime. Other options, large water change, adding bacteria will help, but maybe not fast enough. Ammonia is the deadliest problem. Prime converts it to a non-toxic form. It will also convert nitrite to non-toxic. If you don’t have prime. You should do as large of a water change as possible or at least move the fish to a temporary tank with new saltwater. Even a 5 gallon bucket will work temporarily.

Note that Seachem Prime will bind the ammonia for 48 hours only. I would add some Poly Filter to pull the ammonia out. Make sure you are using any test kits but API. You might also ask your LFS to hold your fish until you get your tank cycled and stable.