silverspec04 Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) So, long story short, I had a bacterial infection in a fish, treated with maracyn product from the co-op. About a week after treatment I noticed the fish looking poor. Checked levels and my ammoina had been through the roof ever since. It'll top 8ppm and I'll do 50% water changes, daily with little to no change. The tank is planted and was thriving before this happened. At this point I'm not sure what could be causing it. There's no dead fish, no real rotting plants.. some have been doing poorly because of the water conditions I think, as well as the water changes. I have a lexan cover I made for my light, it has metal hinges in the middle to open.. this was for my light to be able to shine through for my plants, and idk if maybe it's a coincidence and the lexan or hinge rust could be all of a sudden tainting my water? There's tiny amounts of rust I see around the hinges that I suppose could be dropping into the water. However I gain about 2-4ppm over night. Thoughts on this theory? At this point should I unplant the tank, gravel vac big time, and re-plant? I'll attach some photos of my setup for visuals of what I'm talking about. These were all pictures before hand.. all the plants are looking pretty terrible now, browning, the stem plant in middle has holes throughout the leaves, losing leaves.. and very small leaves growing out top. Any help would be appreciated. Edited November 19, 2020 by silverspec04 Solved problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
varanidguy Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 Have you tested your tap to see if it has ammonia in it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 Yes. Tap water perfect. 0ppm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 What are other parameters? Are they different than usual? Plants consume ammonia, so I don't think it would be harming them. Rust getting into water wouldn't create ammonia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 My other parameters are good. I have no nitrite or nitrates rn, except the easy green in adding to try and keep plants alive. Ph's are normal. Is like the tank is cycling all over again after maracyn treatment. But I've never had Ammonia get this high ever. I've lost two fish and all but one of my amano shrimp now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 Did you use Maracyn or Maracyn 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 3 minutes ago, JaredL said: Did you use Maracyn or Maracyn 2? Maracyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
varanidguy Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 (edited) At this point, I'd be willing to try 90% or larger water changes. At least once, then retest the tank water, to see what effect it has on the ammonia levels. Edit: Also I'd be adding Prime/Safe/Fritz/other dechlorinator that also detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for the sake of the fish. Edited November 5, 2020 by varanidguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 I'm not so sure about the all out water change. If you're doing daily 50% water changes with no success, the ammonia is coming from somewhere. I notice your tank is very clean. How long has it been set up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 5, 2020 Author Share Posted November 5, 2020 1 hour ago, JaredL said: I'm not so sure about the all out water change. If you're doing daily 50% water changes with no success, the ammonia is coming from somewhere. I notice your tank is very clean. How long has it been set up? Well, I've had it maybe 7 months now. Like I said, it was thriving until I decided to try the meds for a bacterial infection. My cycle was great, no ammonia, no nitrites, and nitrates at a good solid level feeding the plants basically, with weekly, to bi weekly 25% water changes to lower the nitrate if it got to high. I just don't know where the ammonia could be coming from now. I didn't change anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredL Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 Well this is tricky. Can you elaborate more on the process of using the maracyn(before, during, and after?? Since this seems to be when your problem began, try to recall as many details as possible. What filtration do you have in your hang on back? Did you do any cleaning before or after? If so, what was involved in that process? Is it possible to make sure all your fish are accounted for(couldn't see if you listed the inhabitants)? Sorry if it seems I'm asking stupid questions. Trying to uncover some clue that might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefConfit Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 It sounds like you most likely killed of your beneficial bacteria while treating the bacterial infection. Do a 75-90% water change and run charcoal for a while to remove any traces of medication then get a bottle of beneficial bacteria to help jumpstart a new cycle. You'll probably have to do large water changes and/or use ammonia controlling products until the tank is fully cycled again. Next time I'd remove the affected fish and treat in a quarantine tank to avoid crashing the tank. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrostiesFishes Posted November 5, 2020 Share Posted November 5, 2020 Notice any fish missing ? I had a dead fish in a cave once and I couldn’t figure it out for weeks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 2 hours ago, FrostiesFishes said: Notice any fish missing ? I had a dead fish in a cave once and I couldn’t figure it out for weeks No fish, but I did have a shrimp disappear. I removed the bigger ornaments and found lots of gross debris under them in gravel. I gravel vac'd the whole floor, moved plants around, for every inch of the bottom, all while doing about a 50% change tonight. I trimmed away obvious dead plants and only kept the strong ones. I put the ornaments back in and we'll see what happens tomorrow. Seems good with ammonia at only maybe .5-1 ppm right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandy Pearl Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 Your cycle is staring over. Maracyn is an antibacterial. You nuked your tank. I wouldn't uproot your plants, just keep feeding them fertilizer and monitoring nitrates until your cycle gets re-established. If you have another tank to move fish to, do that, it will help reduce the fish load until you get the cycle back. The next time you treat with this med, move the sick fish to your quarantine tank to avoid this problem in your main tank. This IS recoverable, it's just gonna take some time and attention. Don't get discouraged! We're with you! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 12 hours ago, Dandy Pearl said: Your cycle is staring over. Maracyn is an antibacterial. You nuked your tank. I wouldn't uproot your plants, just keep feeding them fertilizer and monitoring nitrates until your cycle gets re-established. If you have another tank to move fish to, do that, it will help reduce the fish load until you get the cycle back. The next time you treat with this med, move the sick fish to your quarantine tank to avoid this problem in your main tank. This IS recoverable, it's just gonna take some time and attention. Don't get discouraged! We're with you! That's what I've been figuring. It's just not making sense to me that over night I go from .5-1ppm to 8ppm the next morning. Seems every water change I do only helps for a very short time and Ammonia is setting right back in and taking over. I don't see anything in the tank that could be causing my ammonia. I gravel vac'd every bit of the floor. I've got algae growth now on things. But no change in Ammonia. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted November 7, 2020 Share Posted November 7, 2020 If I had ammonia counts that high I would count all of my cats to make sure one of them had not gone missing. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 18 minutes ago, Daniel said: If I had ammonia counts that high I would count all of my cats to make sure one of them had not gone missing. 🙂 For real. I just don't understand. It's a small tank, there's nothing in there any different than it's been for months. I have my hang on back filter with a sponge intake..on the inside I have course sponge, filter floss, and a bag of bio media. About two weeks ago now I just rung that stuff out because I thought maybe there was a lot of food or something in it causing the ammonia spikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandy Pearl Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 If you have done all that and have not found any other problems, then the only other conclusion is the ammonia is coming from you fish. What is the size of the tank and what do you have in it? I would slow down or stop your excessive cleaning. Every time you disturbe the filter or gravel you run the chance of killing the bacteria you are trying to get back. When doing your water changes siphon only, don't gravel vac. Don't mess with the filter, now that you have it clean, for a month. Yes that's 4 weeks. Same with the gravel vac'ing. You can try adding bacteria in a bottle from your LFS, but folks have had mixed results. Other than that and lightening the fish load of possible, those are your choices. This takes time and work. I know it's stressful and frustrating. Hang in there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverspec04 Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 On 11/7/2020 at 9:32 PM, Dandy Pearl said: If you have done all that and have not found any other problems, then the only other conclusion is the ammonia is coming from you fish. What is the size of the tank and what do you have in it? I would slow down or stop your excessive cleaning. Every time you disturbe the filter or gravel you run the chance of killing the bacteria you are trying to get back. When doing your water changes siphon only, don't gravel vac. Don't mess with the filter, now that you have it clean, for a month. Yes that's 4 weeks. Same with the gravel vac'ing. You can try adding bacteria in a bottle from your LFS, but folks have had mixed results. Other than that and lightening the fish load of possible, those are your choices. This takes time and work. I know it's stressful and frustrating. Hang in there! Welp, I finally have success. I decided to use prime, and I also changed bacterias I was using to a bottle of tetra plus I found at the local shop. I ended up picking up a ornament I hadn't moved yet on the final water change when I did these two new products..I found a large amount of something rotted there, whether it was food, a shrimp maybe I lost track of, I'm not sure. I gravel vac'd that last area, did the water change and left it for two days. The first day, I was already down to only 1ppm. The 3rd day, I did another water change, about 30% I'd say. Added those products again, let it sit two days. The 3rd day I had no ammonia. No nitrites and my nitrates going back up to my normal 20-40ppm after about 6 days. My plants are all coming back huge and healthy, and the fish are doing well. All but an otto, he's been hiding in a cholla cave. I moved it and he comes out and swims and looks fine, but then finds his way back there. Hoping he recovers. I also have 1 shrimp left that actually molted the other day. So it must be feeling comfortable with the way the water is also. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandy Pearl Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 That's great! I would suggest removing that ornament permanently from your tank so the problem doesn't happen again. Or you could add an air stone under it to keep the water from stagnating. Glad you found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefConfit Posted November 19, 2020 Share Posted November 19, 2020 Glad you found the cause! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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