amonia spike in QT

[holley123]

my brother has his Achilles tang in his 20 gal QT and he just tested the water and his ammonia was 1 ppm. he did a 40% wc. the QT is about 2 weeks old. suggestions? explanations?

Edit: QT is 1 week old not 2

 

[winkkle]

Does he have live rock or sand in the qt?

 

[aholley19]

No, it's bare bottom with a few plastic rocks for hiding places and 2 hang on filters with filter floss only (carbon removed). It's actually more of a hospital tank. Cupramine is being used in it to treat the achilles for ich

Edit: This is Holley123s brother. It's my tank

 

[winkkle]

What type of test kit?? Maybe do another water change and make sure to syphon the detritus out. Or maybe the test kit is off?

Edit: Change the filter floss too.

 

[grouper therapy]

Holley123;745570 wrote: my brother has his Achilles tang in his 20 gal QT and he just tested the water and his ammonia was 1 ppm. he did a 40% wc. the QT is about 2 weeks old. suggestions? explanations?

Edit: QT is 1 week old not 2

If it is two weeks old it hasn't cycled.

 

[winkkle]

That too.

Edit: But I thought water cycled from bacteria from
Live Rock and live sand die off more or less??!!

 

[aholley19]

Changed filter floss when I did water change. I didnt think HTs could really cycle since there is no live rock or sand to hold bacteria? Wouldn't cupramine kill any bacteria also? Idk, just wondering. This is my first HT/QT attempt

 

[grouper therapy]

Aholley19;745587 wrote: Changed filter floss when I did water change. I didnt think HTs could really cycle since there is no live rock or sand to hold bacteria? Wouldn't cupramine kill any bacteria also? Idk, just wondering. This is my first HT/QT attempt

The filter floss would be the best candidate for the bacteria.

 

[jbdreefs]

There's nothing to die in your qt tank, but there's also nothing there to consume the ammonia from the fish urine/crap. Your fish is most likely the source, and there is no bacteria to consume its waste.

Edit: I suggest tanking some rubble from your DT and putting it in your filter.

 

[aholley19]

Will the rubble from the DT remove or absorb/negate the cupramine? And would bio balls from the DT be equivalent to rubble?

 

[jbdreefs]

I may be wrong on my suggestion, if the meds kill bacteria. It may make matters worse if the bacteria dies. I would hold off from doing anything until some others chime in. I do, however think that the problem I noted above holds true.

 

[rdnelson]

In the future, I would keep a bag of matrix in your sump at all times. Then when you set up the QT you can move it into the HOB filter and it will contain the needed bacteria. But, since you haven't done that, can you take some live rock out of you tank and put in the QT? If you have treated the QT the live rock will need to be thrown out when done but......... That is the advantage of using Matrix. If you have to throw it our no big deal.

 

[cr500_af]

IMO, get some live rock rubble in there (and since it will be "coppered", do NOT put it back into the display tank).

 

[aholley19]

Will bio balls work? I have a ton of bio balls in my DT sump but kind of limited on my matrix and live rock rubble

 

[rdnelson]

I would say bio-balls would be better than nothing. It is all about surface area for the bacteria to live on. The rock, rubble or matrix has tons of pours which means tons of surface area. The bio-balls have a lot of surface area but just not as much. But, if they have been in the sump for at least a month, there is bacteria growing on them so it will help and may just be enough.

 

[aholley19]

The cupramine won't kill the bacteria though? I put bio balls and a little bit of matrix in one of the hang ons. gonna see what happens i guess. I was just wondering if the cupramine will kill the bacteria resulting in an even bigger ammonia spike?