What do i do with this really high ammonia 8+ ?????

Question

The ammonia in my girlfriends fish tank in which i am looking after for a month has gone to around 8.0. What do i do??? I have taken arounf a buckets amount of water out and put new water (using aquasafe) into the tank and also put Liquisil General Tonic in today, Can anyone else think of anything else i can do? I have done all this an hour ago, i know i should wait to see if things change but i want to do everything i can ASAP. Cheers.

Yes it was almost completley empitied into water containers when moved. The fish look okay, but one in particular is always at the top gasping for breathe. The water is freshwater aswell. I will cut down on feeding.

Answer 1

Change anywhere fro 30%- 50% water per day until you at least reach an ammonia level of 2 ppm or less (0 is what you want eventually).
*Use Prime or any other Ammonia de toxifier. This product does note remove ammonia, changes the ammonia from highly toxic NH4 to less toxic NH3 (note, that ammonia will still test after using this product.).

*Consider zeolite in the filters to aborb some of the ammonia

*Add "seasoned" by bio media such as sponge or filter fiber form another healthy tank to kick start your bio filtration.

*Cut back on feeding and do not use fish foods high in non aquatic proteins, which are mostly un-digestible and add to your ammonia.

For more about the aquarium nitrogen cycle:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Nitrogen_Cycle.html

Answer 2

I'd do a 50% water change every 12 hours until those levels are at least down to 3ish. Then a 20% water change per day until all the peremeters are normal.Depending on the type of fish, I might add salt... I'd also re-test and try testing clean water (ie.tap), make sure you are using that test kit right. That is a level of ammonia that is hard to acquire! Do you have an air pump/airstone... I would pump some air into the water. Leave the water level down low enough to cause extra surface agitation for oxygen if you have a hang-on the back type filter

Answer 3

Is the tank new? If so it's part of the normal cycle. Was the tank emptied out to move it? Then it could have removed a lot of the good bacteria's and going through a mini-cycle. Have you checked for dead fish and plants? It's also possible that you have been overfeeding the fish and the filter can't cope with the excess waste.

Do small water changes on a daily basis until it sorts itself out. If it keeps increasing or the fish start looking bad there are products that will lock up the ammonia.

More for you here

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ammoniapoison.htm

Answer 4

Change enough of the water to reduce ammonia levels to 1-2 ppm for freshwater or below 1 ppm for saltwater. If that means changing more than a third of the water, be sure the water you add is the same temperature, salinity, hardness and pH of the tank water. It is also okay to do multiple smaller water changes for a few days. Aerate, and make sure pH is at or below 7.0 for freshwater tanks. In addition to or instead of changing water, you can also add a dose of AmQuel to give fish immediate relief.