What to Do about an Ammonia Spike?

[green_spotted_girl]

I have 2 small GSP and some mollies in a 33 gallon tank for now until they get bigger. I have a 70gallon for when they are bigger. Anyway, the puffers use to be freshwater and I have been slowly making it brackish. I think my latest water change (which I used a SG of 1.010 to bring the SG of the tank to 1.004) might have been too soon because now I noticed that my water is a little cloudy which might mean a slight ammonia spike. My water use to be perfect until this water change. I ran out of tesing kits, I have to go get more. I will be going to town tomorrow to pick some up, while I'm out is there anything I can get to help with the spike? My GSP's are sensitive and I don't want them to die. As of now they seem ok, they're colors are fine and they are acting the same. The mollies are fine aswell. Let me know if there is anything I an do or pick up at the pet store that will help. I don't want to do another water change as I just did one today. Or is it best for me to just wait until the Brackish water bacteria start growing more? I also want to pick up java fern to help a littlke aswell. Any insight would be great thanks.

[Pufferpunk]

More WC. Never run out of test kits when you're changing water parameters. How long has the tank been cycled before you started raising the WC?

[green_spotted_girl]

It had been a fully cycled and established FW tank for probably close to 5 months before I started turning it brackish.

[Blaine]

When raising the sg on a tank I find it best to do it in 50% WC's....

From FW it means a 50% water change with 1.004= 1.002 sg
From 1.002...50% water change with 1.006= 1.004
From 1.004....50% water change with 1.008...and so on up

Remember,...to maintain your biological filtration you need to raise the sg by no more than .002 sg per week.

The high jump in Sg staright to 1.004 probably killed off some of your bio-filter, causing the ammonia spike

You will need to monitor the test levels closely and do daily water changes to keep the ammonia levels in check

HTH

[green_spotted_girl]

Oh, I didn't jump all the way to SG 1.004 I frst started at SG 1.002, but I think I did the next SG raise too soon. I think it was only 5 days that I waited insead of whole week. Stupid me.

[Pufferpunk]

No need to raise it quickly at all. .001/week is good. Might want to do a WC & drop it back to 1.002 & leave it there until the water is stable again. You may need to add fresh bacteria---Tetra Safestart is good. Add it to your filter.

[RTR]

Cloudy water does not mean an ammonia spike. It means ether algal or bacterial growth - which might be due to am ammonia spike, but equally well might not. Changing specific gravity does mean non-trivial changes in any bacteria in your tank - all will either adjust or be replaced by other species as you move up in density.

Fw nitrification bacteria are not at risk until >1.008, but as PP said, there is no rush and slower is always easier on the whole system than too fast. The slower you go, the lower the stress on the whole system. I also strongly agree with PP that you really should not do any specific gravity changes without being able to test properly.