Re: Emergency ! Ammonia problem. Help Please
#2
Hi
The first thing to do is get the ammonia level down by partial water changes. That may raise pH a bit, but if you're removing the ammonia by changing water that's OK to do.
Start by changing 50% of the water for fresh water at the same temperature as the tank, treated with your usual dechlorinator. That should take the ammonia reading down from 1.5 to 0.75 which will be much better, but not enough. First thing tomorrow change another 50% in the same manner and then 25% in the evening. By then you should be down to just over 0.25 ppm. From then onwards, follow
this guide to dealing with emergency ammonia/nitrite spikes until the cycle has re-established. Monitor nitrite daily as well as ammonia as a nitrite spike often follows a few days after an ammonia spike.
Beyond that, we need to work out why this happened so if you can post back with the following info it will help:
How often do you do a partial water change and how much each time?
Do you use dechlorinator on every water change?
Does your dechlorinator also treat for chloramines?
How often do you clean your filter and media?
When was this last done and how was it done?
Has the filter been turned off for any reason recently?
Is it possible the fish have been overfed?
Is it possible a fish has died somewhere in the tank?