Quarantine: ammonia problems
 

I am getting increasing ammonia in 5g quarantine tank holding a clownfish and several snails. Current ammonia is about 0.035ppm.

- 5% water change (almost) daily
- 75% water change today
- large sponge filter seeded for 3 weeks in sump
- daily removal of uneaten food
- nearly daily addition of Aquavitro Alpha ammonia binder

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6...27ce0dea_b.jpg

Clownfish appears health, active and eating. Has good coloration and no sign of frayed fins.

Any suggestions?

Is it possible that the product that you use to neutralize ammonia is still giving your a false reading?

You can put some pieces of liverock in there if you are not treating with copper. It will be better for filtration than a sponge filter. Not sure that was long enough to be properly seeded.

prodibio "start"..... been hearing really good things about it.....you "supposed" to be able to put fish directly in a new setup (no cycle) when using this stuff.....I cant see why it couldnt be used to help maintain ammonia and nitrates in a QT

In my hospital tank (tank with no filtration, just some PVC pipe for hidey holes) I assume that I will have to do 50% water changes daily, that's why it's better to have a smaller tank (I use a 20g)

Good idea. It is a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge that detects free ammonia. It is not affected by Seachem Prime or AmmoLock so I suspect it isn't affected by other ammonia binders like Aquavitro Aqua. I'll ask SeaChem.

Thanks! The Stop Ammo chemical in Prodibio StartUp is likely an ammonia binder like Prime/Alpha/AmmoLock. Though none of the products list their ingredients so it is hard to tell.

Yikes, I can see why so few people run quarantine tanks. I just did another 50% water change and added some Alpha so I'll see how it looks in the morning. Thanks marie.

I have a "liverock" tank and a hospital tank. The liverock tank is where corals and new fish go so I can keep an eye on them, if there is problems they go into the hospital tank for treatment.
I'm constantly telling my family that the liverock tank is not not a tank, it's a storage/quarantine place and therefore doesn't count.....................they do not yet believe me :lol:

How often do you do water changes in your live rock tank?

Ha, I agree!

If there are fish/corals in it I do a 25% weekly water change otherwise it could go 2 or 3 months between water changes

That is strange. I never ever had any ammonia problem in quarantine. I use a 20 gallons with a few good pieces of liverock and never a trace of ammonia in this. I use good porous Totoka liverock that I take from either my main tank or my nano (fishless) that is completely cured and no ammonia. I don't even do water change that much, only once a month when I have fish in quarantine or once every 2 weeks if there are some nitrates.

Perhaps my sponge filter is not sufficient. I'll get some additional rock and seed it in my sump.

Problem is you need to have some good liverock already cured and seeded before starting the quarantine. Can you get some cured liverock from your main tank temporary in there?

When I used to quarantine, I kept a mesh bag of filter media in a high flow area of my sump at all times. Before I'd go to the fish store I'd have water change water ready just in case I needed to set up a quarantine. I did this for both fish and corals.

I don't have much rock at the moment but will add some to my sump for the future. In the meantime, perhaps more water movement through the sponge with a mini-filter?

What type of filter media and how much?

Changed out the sponge filter for 2-3 lbs live rock. Much better. Can go a 5 days between water changes.

I just finished a cycle in my QT (fish is now in the display) running a 30gal tank, I did a 50% waterchange every 5 days (from the main tank) and dosed Amquel daily. I have about 5lb of live rock in the tank and I'm also using one of those seachem ammonia thingies and it never even registered ammonia. Perhaps your tank is a bit small? Maybe increase the volume of your waterchange, 5% doesn't seem like all that much?

I would not trust those disc detectors.

Do an actual test.

If there is ammonia, use seachem's stability, or kordons AmQuel to control the ammonia.

I am confiused though, is the live rock tank also a QT? if it is, it should not have rock in it.

a QT tank should have just a basic sponge filter, or aquaclear for water flow, and no sand or rock.

I use the SeaChem Ammonia Alerts in my quarantine tanks. They are cheap and last a year. However, I find the numbers listed on the Alert to be pretty much completely useless. An actual test often shows ammonia to be 10x what the Alert says it is. I use the Alert as an alert, not as a test kit. If there is any color change on the Alert I take steps to detoxify the ammonia.

I like to use ChlorAm-X, but this is not available to most people. My second choice is AmQuel as it is twice as concentrated as Prime and half the price. I do not use any biological filtration means in my quarantine tanks. I choose to use PVC piping and a plastic plant (not fabric) to help the fish feel safe. Instead of relying on biological filtration which I find unreliable in a quarantine situation, I dose ammonia detoxifier/binder everyday (just enough to keep the color yellow on the Alert), and do 50% waterchanges twice a week to remove the bound ammonia. Running a quarantine tank this way is much simpler and easier.

If you use live rock in the tank and the fish in quarantine breaks out with a disease that needs treatment you must either sacrifice the rock or remove it. Live rock is incompatible with many medications because it will absorb the medication and reduce the concentration in the water column rendering the treatment useless. Other medications with kill the biological bacteria in the rock and thus produce ammonia in the tank. So, if the fish needs treatment now you have to disturb an already stressed fish by altering his environment to remove the rock. So why not start with no rock to begin with? Running a quarantine as I described above requires no altering of the environment when medications need to be added.