# Scarily High Ammonia Levels - Help!



## knuckle (Oct 26, 2008)

HI All. I have a 63 litre tank with 2 x Ranchu goldfish. The larger of the 2 I've had for 18 months & has had periodic swimbladder issues which have been overcome thanks to peas. I added a tank mate approx 4 months ago, and Fish 1 has in the last 2 weeks started floating Belly up once again. 
I tested the ammonia levels today & was horrified to get a reading of 8.0.
I have performed a 60% water change. Added some new plants, changed one of the 2 fluval filter pads, and added a Fluval carbon filter for good measure.
This immediatly brought the ammonia level down to 4.0......What else can I do?!?! Any Advice gratefully accepted! xx


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

More water changes, another 80% should get it down to 1. The other thing you can do in an emergency is to use a 4x normal dose of Prime to "detoxify" ammonia. It will still be high and could still kill you filter bacteria and cause you to repeat the cycling process, but it can reduce the odds of dead fish. And if you ever find high ammonia, but don't have time to change water, it can buy you some time until you can.

If the high ammonia comes back, you need to know why. Maybe the filter isn't big enough for how much you feed or something is hurting your filter bacteria (like meds or low pH from high nitrate).


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

A part of the issue also could be that you have 2 goldfish in a 16 gallon tank. Although I admit, those numbers are extremely high even for that.

I would keep changing the water until you bring the ammonia down to at least under 1. It may shock your bacteria, but you can always buy the bottled bacteria to replace it. Even the 4 PPM is dangerous to your fish, so get that number down to 1 quickly. It is better to cycle your tank again, than to have your fish exposed to that level of ammonia.


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## knuckle (Oct 26, 2008)

Thank you both for your replies. I plan to do daily water changes for the next few days...and look to invest in a larger tank too for the longer term. In the meantime, I thought it may be a good idea to get a bigger filter as I suspect the Fluval 2+ doesn't quite have enough guts to cope.

Thanks again
x


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

When you replace your filter, keep the old one in the tank for a week, while you run the new one at the same time. This will ensure you don't loose your bacteria (if you have any left after the water changes  )


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

If your ammonia level was really 8, then your bacteria are all dead anyway. Don't worry about them; just save the fish.


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## knuckle (Oct 26, 2008)

Cheers everyone. A quick Update. I've just done the 2nd 50% water change & retested, and it's come out at 2, so far so good. Any my No1 fish is actually swimming about the right way up which is a relief.
Top tip about running the 2 filters, thank you for that. 
I'm off to the aquatics shop tomorrow to enquire about a whole new (bigger) set up. I'm looking at getting one that holds 135 litres... I hope that's sufficient as that's the biggest I can fit with the space I have....I'll ask them about filters etc & check back on here to see if everyone agrees xx


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

look for wide tanks. Going 18" or 24" wide instead of 12" will give you 1.5X or 2X the volume of water in the same length. The downside is that those tanks are usually harder to find and more money.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

135 Liters = 35.6 US Gallons

A tank that size should be good for the goldfish. Good job on being a responsible pet owner! For that tank, I would suggest an Aquaclear 50 or a Marineland Penguin 300.


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## knuckle (Oct 26, 2008)

Thanks again everyone. A further upday. Fish 1 is back to being upside down, and I can't seem the get the ammonia levels down to 0, they're hovering at 1-2. The other fish seems to be fine. I've given the fish shop my specifications & they're goibg to price up a custom build tank...but I'm going to have to get these levels down 1st before I invest such a lot of money.
I do love my fish, he's so cool...I just hope I can keep him going! x


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Sounds like you just have to much fish for the tank. Might have to make an executive decission and decide which one goes back to the fish store, or takes the deep freeze.

Barring that outcome, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj1Glx5anfM this may help or a commercially produced version.

Also more water volume could also help, sealed 5gallon work bucket with a power head and diy input output can help with that, or something similar along those lines.

Either way, keep up with the waterchanges, and good luck.


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