# Super emergency...need help!



## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

Ok. I went out of town yesterday. My maid came by and knew I was out of town. She decides to be nice and feed my fish. She fed them about 6 months worth of food in one sitting. It's a disaster....filters were all clogged, water was almost white, whole bottom of both tanks were covered with food, etc.

I checked the ammonia immediately and it was out of control. I started doing water changes and using a triple and quadruple dose of prime. I can't get the ammonia back down to 0 and I'm losing fish. I've lost close to 30 fish so far and there are still some that aren't looking real good.

What the heck do I do about the ammonia?? I don't want to lose all my fish. [/url]


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

ha!!! since you have a maid PAY someone to change youre water :lol:


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## Fogelhund (Dec 3, 2002)

jfly said:


> ha!!! since you have a maid PAY someone to change youre water :lol:


With smart aleck pointless comments like this...........

All you can do is water changes, more water change and more water changes... make sure everything is cleaned out, the filters etc...

Make sure there is plenty of oxygenation, the surface of the aquarium being disturbed.


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## cindylou (Oct 22, 2008)

OMG..That is terrible.. I hope you get everything back in order..I was planning on going on a small vacation and I was thinking about pre measuring the food using those daily pill containers...I hate leaving my babies... :fish: I also have a 27 yr. old bird and 3 cat's and I know other people don't care like I do...It's hard leaving them...


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

Keep doing the water changes, like twice a day at 25% each time.
Keep cleaning your mechanical filter media but not your biological media.
You may want to clean it in tank water.

Do what you can to remove all food from the substrate.
I wouldn't feed for at least 2 days maybe 3.
I am sorry for your losses and I hope things start to get better soon.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

I would not try 25% changes, I would be doing 80% changes. Go get a large rough neck trash can, fill it with water, treat it, heat it, and then use it to change out water. Keep doing this until the ammonia gets down. Also, make sure you get the filters unclogged, but don't clean them vigorously, and only use tank water. I would just shake them out in a bucket of tank water. It also wouldn't hurt to slap a cannister filter on this tank for mechanical filtration.

Next, make sure the hired help understands not to touch the tank unless it is leaking water or a pump is running dry. This part I am sure you are already on top of.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

omg lighten up , just making light of the situation and if we all had the money to do so wouldnt we pay someone to do it.. getting a little too p.c. heaven forbid a little humor


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

jfly said:


> omg lighten up , just making light of the situation and if we all had the money to do so wouldnt we pay someone to do it.. getting a little too p.c. heaven forbid a little humor


 When appropriate, humor is a good thing. As the first response for someone obviously in need of help, not the best timing. Let's drop this line and get back to helping our member.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

Just wanted to add that I, too, am afraid of leaving the Noah's arc in my house -- two Golden retrievers, one parrot and three tanks of fish. Of all of them, I think I worry about the fish the most. Good luck OP and hope it turns out OK.


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## Stickzula (Sep 14, 2007)

If you have some established bio media form another tank, throw it in there. A wc will remove some of it, but if you can get the bac to eat it, you should see stabilization sooner.


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

i would ammo rocks in a separate bag and place it in the filter


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

add ammo rocks i meant


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

this will help lower the ammonia because ti soaks it up and also keep an eye on the levels


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## LeeKai (May 1, 2009)

Hope things are improving! Sorry to hear about this


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

I finally got everything under control. Had to remove all the decorations and do lots of water changes for a couple of days. Finally got the ammonia back down to 0 after lots of hard work.

Between my african tank and my SA/CA tank the death toll was as follows:

6 silver dollars
2 tinfoil barbs
1 catfish
1 Aurora
17 demosani
1 tiger barb

For a few days had a few that didn't look like they were going to make it, but they seem to be pulling through now.


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## luvmyspoiledfish (May 9, 2009)

So glad to hear it's under control! But condolences on your losses. Terrible. I also have paniced leaving my tanks. While I was in the hospital having my son, can anyone but us fish geeks understand that I worried about my fish! :lol:


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

Yea, that was a horrible night...coming home and seeing all those that were already dead and then watching them die one after another and feeling completely helpless to be able to do nothing except water changes and hope that some would survive. In the end I saved about half the tank so it wasn't a total loss.

I ordered enough fishes to get my stock numbers back to what they were before. I ended up having to buy about $150 worth of fishes. Sucks!


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## LeeKai (May 1, 2009)

What did your Maid say about it? Just curious if she offered to buy you some new fish? l I can't believe an adult would not know not to overfeed fish??!!


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## earth intruder (Oct 14, 2008)

srook23 said:


> Yea, that was a horrible night...coming home and seeing all those that were already dead and then watching them die one after another and feeling completely helpless to be able to do nothing except water changes and hope that some would survive. In the end I saved about half the tank so it wasn't a total loss.
> 
> I ordered enough fishes to get my stock numbers back to what they were before. I ended up having to buy about $150 worth of fishes. Sucks!


Sounds just awful, especially being helpless to do anything! My condolences. 

I hope your new fish are beautiful!


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## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

So sorry about all your losses--must've been entirely devastating. Good to hear that everything is now under control.

Next time, you'll have to put a sign on the glass of each tank that says "DO NOT FEED THE FISH". Unless you go away for a long period, then you can put daily rations of food in pill containers. And then hide all the extra food containers so they can't feed extra!! otherwise, you'll get back and hear this: "but they looked soooo hungry...". You'd think that hiding the extra food is an extreme measure, but when I didn't do that, my friend DID feed the fish extra. What's the point of measuring out the food then....?

Anyway, great job managing the situation. You should feel great that you were able to save half of them.


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## Malapterus (Jun 12, 2009)

I'm no expert, but in that situation I'd have transfered the fishies to clean water, cleaned the gravel, rinsed out the filter, and done a 100% water change.

Would that have been a bad idea?


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