Ammonia in quarantine tank

[WillMcK]

I just recently started a 10 gal QT with 7 black phantom tetras. I added an extra sponge filter I had running in my main tank along with another sponge off the intake (main tank is cycled with only plants right now). I dosed the med trio Sunday night. Monday read 0 ammonia and zero nitrites. Water started to look a little cloudy at that point. Just tested the water today (Tuesday) and got .25-.5 ammonia and 0 nitrites. 
 

What should I do? Water change and proportional med trio dosage? Should I add prime or stability? Is that safe? Do nothing and keep and eye on them?

[FrozenFins]

Do a waterchange.

[WillMcK]

Ok sounds good. Should I do a proportional redosing of the med trio? 

[Ken]

When I put my first batch of fish in my newly set up quarantine tank it couldn't keep up with the ammonia either. I hit it with some Fritz complete to bind up the ammonia but allow the bacterial colony to grow enough to process it. Tested every 24 hours and hit it again but with progressively smaller amounts. By the end of 3-4 days the ammonia didn't come back and the tank has been good since. It's now on its fifth group of occupants.

[WillMcK]

I dosed 1mL of prime and that seemed to hold off the ammonia for about 24hrs but had to do it again the following evening. Decided to do a 50% water change today and redosed the meds proportionally. Fish seem to be doing just fine. 
 

I think my beneficial bacteria may have taken a hit initially so I dosed stability to help bring the colony back. 
 

Going to be patient with the process but vigilant on keeping parameters in check for these guys. Really will be relieved when I can feed them and finally get them into my main tank!

[subramn]

I am also running into this problem, day 2 i see a ammonia spike. so 50% water change , 50% of med-trios - how to measure it.

its a 10 gallon tank. any recommendations on quantity of med trios.?

 

[AquaticJ]

7 Tetras at once in a 10 gallon is good little spike in the bioload, I think you just need more bacteria to handle it. 
 

If it were me, I would clean some media from an existing tank in the new tank, and just toss it after. This will add a bunch of new bacteria. 
 

Doing a water change during treatment will mess the treatment up, even if you add the appropriate amount back because the medications half-life will partially start over. 

[WillMcK]

I've been doing 50% water changes every other day and ammonia is staying between 0-.25 on api test kit. No meds in the tank after the first week. Going to give them one more week then do a 2nd paracleanse treatment. 

 

I also have been dosing seachem stability with the water changes and I think my bb colony is going strong. I suspect the antibacterial meds in the first week hurt my bb colony. Fish are doing well.

 

I'm curious about the re-dosing of meds. If I'm not mistaken the aquarium coop shop re-doses meds in all their quarantine tanks with 50% daily water changes. Not really following the half-life of the meds comment...from my minimal chemistry background, I thought that related to radioactive isotopes...