Med Trio & Ammonia

[jeffswife710]

Hi!  I just started a small (5 gallon) quarantine tank and did the med trio with 3 fish pretty much right away (no cycling - my main tank needs tank mates and that was more important at the moment than cycling). Anyway, it's day 4 (dosed on Sunday night, today is Thursday), and my ammonia is starting to rise.  Do I dose with prime?  I know no water changes and I want to make sure the fish are healthy. 

 

Thanks! 

[Brandy]

You have to, basically. That or change the water and re-dose. The med trio is not going to keep your fish healthy in an uncycled tank. This is not going to end well if you do not take action.

You would probably have done better to add them to the main tank and just dose it, depending on the size of that tank. The med trio can't cure bad water quality, and you may make perfectly healthy fish sick this way. 

 

[jeffswife710]

I have no problem dosing with prime! Just wanted to make sure that was my best course of action. 🙂

I just ran the trio in my main tank - I've been having off and on issues and didn't want to just add them to a clean tank. I'm still pretty new at this so just trying to figure it all out and not have sick fish.  

I plan on cycling the tank after they're out so it's ready for new inhabitants and can be a hospital tank when needed.

[Kirsten]

It'll probably be okay if you get some prime in there right away, then if you have any cycled aquarium sponge filters, plants, decors, pop em in there to help boost the biofilter. If you can, run out and buy some live aquarium culture like API QuickStart or something and dose it at the max. You'll know better for next time: use cycled aquarium water and filter media and whatnot when setting up a QT tank.

[KaitieG]

I used a well-cycled sponge and Fritzime in the QT I recently set up and made it through the med trio okay, but now that I'm feeding before doing round 2 with the paracleanse, I'm having issues with nitrites--no ammonia, but I'm having to dose with prime and do water changes.  So, I think it's just doing the best you can. Good luck!