LM wrote:
ugh!

I've been running a 5G quarantine tank.. and been doing lots of water
changes both due to medication and persistant ammonia level (and zero
nitrite/nitrate, so the tank is no where near being cycled).

I did add a used filter from one of my cycled tanks when I set up the
Q-tank, but no help.. and kept changing water after water, hoping to
reduce the darned ammonia level.

and I happened to read the stupid label of my water conditioner that
I've been using for the past 4 years.. it only breaks the chloramine
bond but not neutralize ammonia!!!

argh!!! so by changing more water, I was just adding more ammonia. It
was never an issue with the main tank because of a large biofilter
colony, heavily planted, etc.. so whatever ammonia I dumped using a
"chloramine bond braking water conditioner" just got sucked up, and
never registered on my ammonia test kit. argh!!!

luckily I had a bottle of Amquel handy, so i just dumped that in, but
I'm afraid the damage has already been done...

my poor gouramis that's been stressed through medication is further
stressed with ammonia. the original problem that they were being
treated seem to be finally abating using Furan-2, but I think the
ammonia is doing them in :-(

is there no hope once the ammonia has done the damage to their gills?

waaahhh

I feel like a total idiot. I think I'm going to throw out my water
conditioners now (my city turned chloramine in the past year or so.. so
this is more of a recent thing), and go stock up on Seachem Prime (seem
to be the best on the market for price/performance?)

my poor gouramis!!! I feel awful :-(

linda

What a bummer. :-(

There is hope. Ammonia burns can heal. If they make it for the next
few days, they will recover from the burns. I don't know what the
original problem was...

Your fish need oxygen if there's gill damage, so add an airstone and
lower the temperature a few degrees. The methylene blue in the Furan-2
will help a bit too, and they're gouramis so they'll get some oxygen
from the air.

Finish the Furan-2 treatment. IIRC, the package suggests a five-day
treatment, but you need to use most antibiotics for at least seven days
to avoid leaving resistant bacteria. This is as much for your safety as
for the fish. Furan-2 kills biofiltration (I learned the hard way)
which is probably the main cause of your ammonia problems and lack of a
cycle. You'll need to use either zeolites or ammonia detoxifier until
you're done using it.

Don't add anything else to the water. Just keep it nice and clean so
the burns can heal. Once the Furan-2 is gone, squeeze a filter sponge
or cartridge into the tank to reseed the filter.

Good luck.

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