Need Help ammonia way too high!!!

[johnpacejr]

My 20 gallon aquarium is keeping almost a constant ammonia level of 1.0-2.0
yesterday it was @ 2.0 so I did a 50% water change and did not feed my fish.
Today it was 1.0 so I did a 25% water change but I had to feed my fish about a half portion(which I did before I changed the water) I was wondering if Biospira would work at this stage? My test levels are as follows:
Ph 7.0 Alkaline 80 Chlorine 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 total hardness 75
I have an UGF and a regular Top Fin 20 filter.
I am only in the 2nd week with fish in the tank so I know its kind of early to expect the cycle to complete, but I was hoping it would show signs of starting by now.
Fish in tank 2-silver mollies 2- prestilla tetras 2-lyretail mollies 2- cory cats
(I know, I have too many fish to start with, now I know better than that as I am trying a fishless cycle in a 10 gallon tank)
Please give me some advice

[Lady Hobbs]

From what I've been reading about biospira is it works great if directions are followed to the letter.........biospira added one day, fish go in the next. Once you have already reached high levels of ammonia it is claimed to not work well. It controls ammonia and nitrite from reaching those high toxic levels but once the levels are already there, it does very little.

Others will probably disagree but it's what I've read about the product.

You can continue doing water changes but you're going to have to keep the ammonia level down to .50 or less.

Yes, too many fish and too soon.

PS......turn your heat up to about 82 and aerate the water. This should help get that bacteria growing faster. Feed very sparingly as food=ammonia. Clean nothing and don't change the filter media.

[johnpacejr]

My water temp is at 82 degrees now and I have aeration thru the UGF filter pump. (I have the main pump in 1 tube and aerator pump thru 2 other tubes) Should I add more aeration?

Also, in my 10 gallon tank, do you think I should dump the water and start over adding Biospira and then add the ammonia to try to get it to cycle faster?

[Lady Hobbs]

If you add the biospira, you will not need the ammonia. Your fish will supply it for you. What you might be able to do in the 20 gallon is do a large water change of about 75%, fill with the dechlorinated water and then add the biospira. It should be fine and work for you then.

You will still get ammonia and nitrites but not in such toxic levels.

Your fish can get to the surface for more oxygen but those corys have got to be in a bad way by now. Ammonia burns.

[johnpacejr]

Ok, thanks for the info I will try that tomorrow in my 20 gallon tank that has fish. ( 75% water change and biospira) But what do you think about the 10 gallontank should I start over with it? (10 gallon Im doing fishless cycle that is why I was adding ammonia)


P.S. I live about 45 minutes from the petstore, should I keep the Biospira in an ice chest to keep it refrigerated?

[RobbieG]

You probably don't need to - but if you don't have any fish in it anyways and are struggling - it wouldn't hurt to take a step back and give it a fresh start.

[Lady Hobbs]

I'd continue with the 10 as you are with the fishless cycle. You will almost be starting over the the cycle on the 20 gallon with biospira but it will still be faster for you. Aerating is fine. Make sure you can get biospira. Not all fish stores have it.

Make sure you enough of it, tho. Too little won't work. Use what they recommend to use. You can not overdose on it so if you have a bit left, add that too.

Good luck.

[MeganL3985]

Everyone here's given great suggestions, but just as a temp solution that someone else had given me was to get some amquel and that will keep the ammonia from harming your fish too much. I was having horrible problems with my ammonia. When I used that a couple times during water changes my ammonia has been great now. Its always down to a .25 or lower.

[johnpacejr]

Amquel, is that the same thing as ammo lock? If it is I have some of that.

[RobbieG]

Pretty much - if you use it your tester might still show the ammonia even after it has been nuetralized - just keep that in mind so you don't wind up with a 50/50 mix of ammo lock and water

[Chrona]

Amquel is a good temporary solution, though the ammonia will rise again since there isn't enough bacteria to take care of it. Biospira is the best solution as it's basically bacteria in a pouch, and will drop your nitrite/ammonia levels like a rock. (Though you will probably need to do a water change a few days after as you'll have a lot of nitrates)

[johnpacejr]

well the last 2 weeks were rough, I lost my 2 cremesical mollies, but my ammonia levels are down, both tanks are nearly finished cycling. Nitrites are a little high in main tank but daily water changes (20%) seem to be helping there. One good point is before my mollies passed they had babies!!!
But, I was only able to save one of them. I put it in my 10 gallon that I was doing a fishless cycle in and he/she is doing great (also sped up the cycle in that tank) Next week I will go get some more mollies. Any way thanks for all the suggestions and help thru this first cycle stage.

[Lady Hobbs]

Sorry you lost a couple fish a long the way but I'm afraid it's not unusual. Cycling with fish is very hard on them.

[johnpacejr]

Thanks, and you seemed to be right about the biospira. It did not seem to work in the tank with the fish already in it but it seemed to work on the other one that I was trying the fishless cycle.

[RobbieG]

Congrats on your cycles - sorry you lost a couple of fish