Ammonia > 8ppm

[FishyJimBob]

Long story - basically my tank broke, everything was moved into a new tank around 4 hours afterwards. LR and 2 fish (tomato clown and beau damsel) we moved immediately into a 5 gallon bucket of water drained from the leaking tank. That was New Years Eve.

My ammonia has been > 8ppm (beyond what test kit's maximum value) for severals days. Initially when I noted the ammonia levels increasing, I added Amquel+ and have also added Ammo-Lock. Levels appeared to stabilize at around 2ppm. I have done several water changes and when testing a few hours after the changes ammonia levels retest at > 8ppm. Tried a couple test kits and they are the same.

No idea what I should do now. Obviously a new, quite strong cycle has started or there is no good bacteria in the tank. The fish look stressed and have been only fed a small amount every few days. My snails and scarlet crabs do not appear active and are staying in their shells. Looking like a total loss at the moment.

There is no detectable nitrite levels and nitrates are < 5 ppm. Nothing appears to be moving on the cycle. My skimmer is not pulling a lot of junk either, very little to be honest. I need some help on how to proceed here. Thanks.

[BurntOutReefer]

Bummer.....and no QT tank?
The clown is the one to worry about...(the damsel might/should make it)...write your snails/crabs off aswell.....
Can you move life stock to LFS / friends tank to baby-sit?

[FishyJimBob]

to get out the fish will probably require a complete teardown. No biggieI guess, just a pain in the you know what.

My neighbor has a reef tank, but his is small and he has a few fish already, so that would probably screw up his bio load. I called 2 fish stores and "they cannot be of any help at the moment", whatever that means. One of the stores I called is where both fish came from too. They must think they are diseased or going to die. No idea. I hate watching something that's going to die. Its depressing.

[BurntOutReefer]

borrow some water from your neighbour and set-up a cheap QT tank real fast....just a heater/powerhead and get the clown and anything else you can in there......
hey..the clown would do it for you....
regardless....no guilt trip meant...
good luck

[zoomfish1]

I bet that if you used the sand from the broke tank that it started a cycle all over again. Sorry for the probs.

[BurntOutReefer]

welll.......I wouldnt ever go to those LFS again......

[bertoni]

Lots of water changes and Amquel... In this case, I'd be tempted to try large (70-80%) water changes, but match the temperature and SG closely. I'd remove any animals that are or might be dead to reduce decay in the tank. Ignore the nitrite and nitrate. They won't harm your animals.

Ouch! :(

[FishyJimBob]

Yeah, just was at the neighbors house. He has a 55g with a lot of LR, but has 6 fish and a lot of corals. He said he would take them for now, but I'm afraid its gonna screw his tank.

[billsreef]

Some types of ammonia test kits are incompatible with Amquel and will give those type of readings. You need a kit that uses the Salicylate method.