# Help! Ammonia rise!



## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Hey guys I got home after neglecting my tank for only 24 hrs to find a dead Otto fish in my CRS tank!

I removed the fish, looked like it ha been there a full 24hrs! I quickly wanted to see what killed it so I checked ammonia is 0.25 maybe a little higher?, nitrite 0, nitrates under 10.

I think my ammonia rose once it died though.....

And now I find a dead CRS B grade!! Will I wake up to a complete dead CRS tank? 

To make things worse I don't even have any RO water todo a small water change!! How long should my biological filtration kick in to break down the ammonia?

Should I use some tap water???! Leave it alone or 5% tap water change. Cant sleeeeeep

25g 6 month established
170ppm, 5gh 2kh 6.4 ph,


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Do a water change. If you usually use a water conditioner like Prime, remember that it can also be used to neutralize ammonia, so you can treat your tank with it too.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

I don't have any prime just Nutrafin water conditioner :s


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Small WC, then go to sleep.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Took your advise and did a small water change approx like 1% add added approx 6ml of Nutrafin aqua safe as I read it removes ammonia


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Wow, how did your otto die?


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

I don't know! It was fine at 9pm last night...Maybe the ph got too low like 6.2?? I hope ammonia is relate to after the otto died and not reason it died!

Ugh can't wait to check on em and retest tomorrow


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

That's too bad to see a dead fish. 

Do you use API ammonia test kit? If so, I wouldn't worry too much about 0.25ppm of ammonia because your PH is so low, that 0.25 ppm for sure is in the form of ammonium and not very toxic to your shrimp. Don't raise your PH too quickly otherwise you'll get more ammonia in the water.

However, I think there's other reason you have dead fish and shrimp. Did you overfeed? Any new addition to the tank?


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I'm surprised that a single dead oto would raise ammonia levels in an established 25g tank. Are you sure you're reading the color correctly? It can be pretty difficult to differentiate between 0.25ppm and 0ppm. I would take a sample from another established tank which you know has no ammonia and compare the two results side by side.

Was the oto half eaten? How many shrimps do you have there? If it wasn't touched, then it probably died recently.


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Checked the tank this morning no new deaths. Going to retest ammonia after work.

The ammonia was for sure green and not yellow as normal from the API test kit. The Otto was not eaten so maybe not too long. 

I wonder what killed it and the dead CRS B? Ugh I saw my CRS snap the dead CRS in half lol nightmares 

I did not overfeed or any new additions. I did find 2 more CRS shrimplets... So I doubt my water params are what killed the Otto.... Maybe the 24 temp? Or low Ph??


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

I have lost 1 CRS when temp went from 20 to 24, not sure that was the direct cause though. I would assume it has to be weak to start with since other shrimps were okay. Doesn't matter what we do, sometimes, they just die for no apparent reason, our job is to find out if there are things that are apparent and fix those. Hope your tank is okay now.


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Sorry, I've asked this a lot but I ask everyone this. How often do you feed? lol...


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## Symplicity (Oct 14, 2011)

Ok ammonia is down to 0, no new deaths, and shrimp look happy....
I feed a bit of fluval shrimp food every 3 days. Every shrimp pretty much occupies 1 crumb each. And is cleared within an hr.

Pretty sure spike was from Otto death.... My sss grade and newly born shrimplets are still fine


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

Good to hear, you must be really tired now... finally you can get some sweet dreams.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

How old was the oto, or how long have you had it? They don't live super long, so it could just be natural causes


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

Ah, now I know why you were freaking out. SSS grades lol, cause I was considering putting some of my A grades into a empty cycled tap-water tank to see if they can last through the water parameters lol, as an indication for how much I care about them.


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## getochkn (Jul 10, 2011)

That's why you should always run Purigen in your filters. Neutralizes any ammonia spikes right away.


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