# ammonia poisoning???



## nvmyluv420 (Mar 29, 2007)

ive been trying to figure out whats going on with my tank for about a week now. ive had three fish die and i thought myabe ich. then i read that ich is flat on the skin and my fishes spots were lifted. i believe the whit spots are fungus. the algae eater that died today has red all over him which i read is ammonia poisoning. my ammonioa levels have been up for some time now. ive done 3 water changes in the past week and a half two 15% and one 40%. i cyphined the gravel out the last time but still no change in ammoia levels. ive reduced feeding and changed filter bags, in one filter. ive added ammo lock and still nothing.

my tank is 55 gal., aeation stone, 5 live plants, 2 fake, 3 decorations 2 big one small. i have 5 angels 3 large 2 small, one crab, had two algae eaters (rip), two neons, and two tetras. 

my ammonia is between 4.0 and 8.0, my nitrite is at 0, my ph is 7, and my nitrate is 40 ppm. 

what will bring my params back to norm? how often should i be doing water changes and how much should i change? i dont want anymore of my fish to die is like a child dieing to me, i cant take looking at the tank and knowing im to blame for killing these beutiful creatures.


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## nvmyluv420 (Mar 29, 2007)

another thing is that the two fish that died first only had white spots on the fins and half of on fin fell off. the last fish to die had spots all over him and none on his fins. im thinking three things are going on in my tank, ammonia poison, fin rot, and a fungus. i think ive ruled out ich but im still not sure whats going on. not only did i add ammolock ive added melaluca oil (leading ingediant of melafix), cycle, and aquarium salt. im not sure if the mix is ok but ive been keeping a close eye and the fish all seem fine. one of my large angels has whit on her eyes and on her fins, the fins look like somebody took a chunk out of them. still clueless as to what is happening.


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## Marco (Jul 8, 2007)

Is your tank cycled? I read somewhere that the white spots that you see on your fish are possibly a type of disease (sorry for sounding so vague). I know that black spots on fish are called "black blood" or something like that and is caused possibly from high nitrites or ammonia.

The best course of action right now is to not buy any more fish until the problem is solved. Talk to your LFS retailers for more information.

By chance, do you have all the fish in the same category (tropical, semi-aggressive, aggressive, goldfish)?


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## JouteiMike (Oct 7, 2006)

How long has the tank been set up?

Sounds like it hasn't cycled yet, which can kill all your fish. 

For a newly set up tank, you need to let it cycle before you add fish, either by the fishless cycling, or with a couple hardy fish....THEN add the fish slowly little by little with 1 or 2 week intervals. That's how I've always done it.

Keep doing small, frequent water changes to dilute ammonia. Try and give some fish back. And for future reference, neons and tetras are a schooling fish, they needs to be in larger groups of at least 5 or 6. What kind of crab?


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## nvmyluv420 (Mar 29, 2007)

ive had this tank established for 4 monthes now. it was cycled, i did this by waiting a week befor adding any fish, and useing bottled cycle. then i added a bunch off feeders. i waited another week, testing the water frequently, to add my neons, tetras, algae eater, and angel, about todays apart from each other. all my levels were fine, the last fish i added was my crab and that was a month ago. im not sure what type of crab it is, is about an inch in diameter, all blue/gray with a distict brown what i call a butterfly on his back. i do relize that the neons and tetras like to school but i origanally had all the above in my 10 gal. hence i bought a bigger tank primarily for my angel fish. i think my angels are considered tropical but i dont have any goldfish. im pretty sure they fallen victum to overfeeding betwen me my husband and my mother all feeding them. ive talked to them about it and they promised to let me handle it from now on. im not sure what i could have done to upset my biological filter but i am trying to reastablish befor any more fish loss.


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## JouteiMike (Oct 7, 2006)

What's the temperature of the water?


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## Julie's Julies (Jun 11, 2007)

With your ammonia reading that high, it is probably stressing the fish out, which is leading to the secondary infections/fin rot/fungus. Are your angelfish growing rapidly right now? I suppose a sudden growth spurt in your fish combined with the severe overfeeding could cause the ammonia spike. Keep doing frequent water changes to bring down the ammonia levels. 

What kind of filter are you using? I have a Penguin 350 Biowheel on my 55-gallon angelfish tank, and it is working really well.

Others have suggested raising the tank temperature two degrees to aid in killing off the fungus. What temperature is your tank at? If it's around 78 degrees, try bumping it up to 80.

Good job to cut back the feedings. I feed my tank once a day (even though my husband is sure I am starving my fishes) and they seem to be doing really well with that. If I feed them any more, they get too plump!


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## nvmyluv420 (Mar 29, 2007)

my temp is always high even when i add aome small amounts of cold water. in the morning its at 82 and by night its at 86! angels like the higher temp but it bothers me some. i have two aquatech 30-60 filters, when i change carbon bags in one i leave the other for about two week then change that so i dont bother the cycle, i thought any way. one of my angels is growing very rapidly but he has no fungus or any other funky skin infections on him. the other now only have it on there fins. unfortunatley petsmart was not sure what was going on so im going to call another fish store thats about 45 minutes away to try and see if they know anything. is 25% every 24 hours good enough or should it be more frequent?


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