possible ammonia poisining?

[durbkat]

I have a long 20g tank and last week i had the water tested and the ammonia was .1 . And that tank has only 1 fish a opaline gourami and when the light is on he swims around the bottom then he would sit behind a plant on the bottom. Does he have ammonia poisining? And would you all recommed doing a 25% water change, using ammo lock, and using stress zyme to lower the ammonia if the water test is bad when i go to get it tested?

[amanichen]

durbkat said:

I have a long 20g tank and last week i had the water tested and the ammonia was .1 . And that tank has only 1 fish a opaline gourami and when the light is on he swims around the bottom then he would sit behind a plant on the bottom. Does he have ammonia poisining? And would you all recommed doing a 25% water change, using ammo lock, and using stress zyme to lower the ammonia if the water test is bad when i go to get it tested?

Do a 25% water change, add some ammo lock. Tomorrow, and the day after do two more 25% water changes.

[durbkat]

Never mind I got the water tested and the ammonia is normal but the nitrites are "sky high" they say. So they said feed him only one flake every other day and not to change the water for a month or two or it would undo what i've done.

[Rachel]

durbkat said:

Never mind I got the water tested and the ammonia is normal but the nitrites are "sky high" they say. So they said feed him only one flake every other day and not to change the water for a month or two or it would undo what i've done.

Ammonia isn't the only harmful part of the cycle. A high level of nitrite could kill your fish or cause a lot of stress for it. Doing partial water changes isn't going to completely undo the nitrogen cycle, it's just going to slow it down a bit and make it safer for your fish.

It's helpful to understand how the cycle is taking place in your tank. I'd suggest reading up on it a bit if you haven't already. You can find some great articles about it from a Google search.

[amanichen]

durbkat said:

Never mind I got the water tested and the ammonia is normal but the nitrites are "sky high" they say. So they said feed him only one flake every other day and not to change the water for a month or two or it would undo what i've done.

Don't listen to whoever told you that.

Ideally, you'd want to avoid water changes because it would prolong the time it takes for your tank to be established.

However, in this case you'll want to do regular water changes to keep the fish safe until the bacteria catch up to the amount of waste that the fish are producing.