Ammo Lock In Hospital Tank

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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studmaster
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 148
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:24 am

Re: Ammo Lock In Hospital Tank

Post by studmaster »

Myaj wrote:Hopefully in a hospital or quarentine tank you'll be doing daily water changes anyways and that will help control ammonia. But yes, Ammo Lock is okay to use on a temporary basis. Its only when trying to set up a permanent tank that you run into problems using it (the bacteria can never get established because they starve to death due to no ammonia available).

I keep extra filter media or even just a sponge filter in all my tanks. You don't have to run the sponge filter, just leave it hidden and when you need it, it will be seeded with bacteria and ready to go. That way it doesn't add to the noise levels or electrical usage.
Yeah I was doing daily 50% water changes but the two GSPs were creating a lot of ammonia. I used ammo lock just to tide me over until I could find a better solution. I just did a 70% water change and added some filter media from my established brackish water tank and that should start a good seed going. I'll stop using ammo lock now and test the water in a bit to see if there is any ammonia reading. I know using Ammo Lock throws off your readings but hopefully with a 70% water change it will dilute that enough. I'll also continue with the daily 50% water changes to make sure the water conditions are optimal.

thanks for the advice!
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StormySkiez
Fahaka Puffer
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My Puffers: 55G 2- 1 3/4 inch GSP's ~Bud AKA Jaws and Puff~
Location: USA~TN

Re: Ammo Lock In Hospital Tank

Post by StormySkiez »

Myaj wrote:
I keep extra filter media or even just a sponge filter in all my tanks. You don't have to run the sponge filter, just leave it hidden and when you need it, it will be seeded with bacteria and ready to go. That way it doesn't add to the noise levels or electrical usage.
This is the first I have seen someone suggest this. Would it be ok to hide it under the gravel Myaj? Would it need to be replaced monthly?
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