Chemistry went sour QUICK!

[Sandra the fish rookie]

I went to do a baseline chemistry before starting the med trio in the QT tank. THANK GOODNESS I did (and always do).

All the fish are fine, no distress swimming normal no signs of illness at all. 

PH 6.8 (baseline 7.4)

Ammonia: 1.0 ppm (baseline 0)

Nitrites: 1.0 ppm(Baseline 0)

Nitrates: 40 ppm (Baseline 20)

Temp 79.6 (I usually have it higher when in QT) (baseline 78.4)

I noticed POOP 💩 everywhere.. they must have had a poop party (I fed them a bit when they arrived yesterday). I did a STAT 60% water change, vacuumed up all the poop and cleaned the sponge filters of poop as well. Added prime to the new water (2 full caps). Folks are not kidding that plecos poop A LOT. Its a 10G QT tank with 5 guppies and 1 pleco in. WOW.  I have never seen so much poop in that tank! Glad I was able to see it on the bare bottom and most of it out. It was even all over the sponge filters! 

I am going to re check the chemistry tonight and tomorrow A. I am thinking I will start the QT med trio tomorrow morning to make sure the chemistry is back to baseline.

Is that the right step?? Do I need to wait longer to start meds?

 

[RockMongler]

What you could do, rather than immediately going to meds, is keep an eye on them for a few weeks with no meds, and see if you notice any problems!  You could also instead treat with aquarium salt immediately, because that is cheap and effective.  Treating with meds shouldn't be too much of a problem, but part of the reason you keep a quarantine tank is to keep an eye on them and then treat them if necessary. 

I know the co-op treads all of their fish coming in, but they don't really have the ability to watch something for a month to see if anything is wrong before medicating.

[SWilson]

I would maybe wait until you have the water parameters under control before starting the med trio, esp since you're not seeing signs of illness right now.  

It sounds like the cycle crashed in the QT tank - You may also want to retest before doing anything, as both of those seem kinda high for the fish to be totally fine? 

If you still see high ammonia and nitrite, I think proceeding with the water change as planned and adding some prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite.  You could also add bottled beneficial bacteria and/or add a few scoops of gravel from your established tank.    

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@SWilson and @RockMongler The tank was empty and cycled because the last batch of fish just left there. Maybe it was already high before I added the fish? I am thinking about it now.. I think I checked that tank chemistry Friday April 23rd but I did NOT clean the filters because I did not want to ruin my bacteria. I also added Fritz yesterday before adding the fish. Dang it! I should have checked it yesterday before adding them.. ugh.. We will see if I got lucky and they continue to do okay. 

Its a bare bottom tank. It has a sponge filter, sponge filter on the return and a HOB (which I have not cleaned at all that has matrix and a coarse sponge filter as well) so it should have bacteria in it still. the fake plants, rocks have not been cleaned of bacteria either. I will monitor them closely and add bacteria as well. 

I have never seen fish poop that much overnight.. the first batch did not do that at all. first time I ever see that. I also have not had chemistry look like that EVER! I completely freaked out.. stopped everything I was doing to do a water change. 

If I don't medicate them, should I DARE feed them??? 

[SWilson]

If you're having high ammonia and nitrites, I would also hold off on feeding, since that will only add more ammonia to the system.  And the fish will be fine without food for a few days, there's probably plenty of miniscule critters, biofilm, etc. in there that they are eating all the time anyway.   You could also consider temporarily putting some live plants in there to take up the ammonia and nitrites - floaters are good for that I've found.  

I definitely don't think you did anything "wrong" -- so I hope that didn't come across at all in my last message -- I would do pretty much exactly what you did when bringing in new fish.  Which is why I was suggesting that the tests might be reading higher than your actual parameters are, especially if the fish are doing fine?  

It sounds like, as @RockMongler was saying, as long as it seems like everyone is not distressed and doing fine, the best thing to do is just continue to monitor.  It doesn't sound like an emergency situation at the moment. 

Good luck and keep us posted! 

Edited April 28, 2021 by SWilson

[RockMongler]

You can feed them, but you need to keep in mind, that will introduce extra ammonia and nitrites into your system.  As long as you keep an eye on it, and are judicious with water changes, you should be OK feeding them.

On the other side, fish can be fine for days without constant feeding, and it can help keep the tank more clean, and introduce less ammonia and other waste into the water.  

It comes down to what you are willing to do and deal with from day to day.  I know last time I had to put a fish in a hospital/quarantine tank (I had a loach with a fairly large wound on top of their head, so I wanted to keep a close eye on them), I put salt in the water, and didn't feed them for ~5 days, before reintroducing them to the main tank.  I was more worried about the nitrogenous waste in the tank, than I was about the fish not having food.  They have since recovered completely.

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@SWilson I didn't take it that way. I just should have known that even an empty tank can go bad. I should have checked the water the day of or day before they arrived, but got busy and forgot to. 

I am thinking of getting some plants and keeping them in the pots in there.. or I can add some Pothos too.. I have tons of those! 

The pleco is sucking on the drift wood, and walls as we speak, and I am sure there is some stuff left on the sponges for them to pick on.. LOL. I did go back and add a bit more Fritz zyme to the tank to be on the safe side. 

Thanks so much for your help! I will keep you posted. 

[Isaac M]

@Sandra the fish rookie I think pothos is a great addition to all tanks. Pothos helps by removing a lot of ammonia out of the water. Be sure however to only leave the roots in the water. Also, a cycle can crash if there is no ammonia source in the water as the bacteria will not have anything to feed on. You can either keep feeding the aquarium food as an ammonia source (or use a different ammonia source) or keep a filter going in a different established and active aquarium for it.

You can also get high ammonia readings if the tank was cycled but a lot of ammonia was introduced to it, more than it could handle at the time. This may have happened as well given how much waste the pleco and guppies produced overnight. 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

16 hours ago, SWilson said:

keep us posted! 

@SWilson & @RockMongler I re checked the chemistry last night at 6:45 pm. They are calmly swimming around, the pleco is active and POOPING again~ LOL.. I have not fed them. His best friend is the sponge filter, drift wood and he goes into the green spout of the sponge filter to clean in there. 

PH 7.4

Ammonia 0ppm

Nitrites 0 ppm

Nitrates 20ppm

Temp 79.2

I will recheck everything again in a few hours. fingers crossed it says this way!

[Mmiller2001]

Just want to add that Maracyn will cause a hit to your BB. If your BB count was low when you added it, could explain what you observed.

[SWilson]

4 hours ago, Sandra the fish rookie said:

PH 7.4

Ammonia 0ppm

Nitrites 0 ppm

Nitrates 20ppm

Temp 79.2

I will recheck everything again in a few hours. fingers crossed it says this way!

Sweet! fingers crossed!