:confused: I'm new at this and just got my 36 gallon aquarium may 1st this year
Everything was fine until last week a fish got ick so I treated the tank... opps forgot to remove filters... so now my ammonia is high. My small test kit it says orange but I put in stresszime ( by their request) its sold at pets Smart. This puts in good bacteria?? I guess? 2 tsp into glass container from water that was in the tank.
Well anyway today I tested it and it is now in light yellow.---> better but still high
My best reading is in the mint green area 7.0 or 7.2 usually... Now what am I doing wrong?
And they tell me to add some tank water to a clean container and add 1/4 tsp backing soda to mix it and add it to tank?? This sound weird?? well any help would be great
Thanks Mermaidliz

Oh, dang. I've kept fresh-water tanks for years. Are you remembering to do a partial water change every couple of weeks or so? Helps keep the water sweet. Usually 10% or 3 or 4 gallons in your case.
I'd skip the baking soda deal as you can get to chasing your tail trying to get the alkalinity/ammonia balance correct - deal is that those levels are always changing depending on the time of day (night/day) how long the lights have been going, the temp, time of last feeding and so on.
You can do the chemical routes or just change do a water change - if you draw the water the night before and let it sit in open buckets to let the chlorine escape, then you can skip the chemicals to take care of the chlorine and save yourself money and hassle.

That's what we do on salt water tanks - dilution is the solution to pollution.

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Originally Posted by lisaoceanmermaid

:confused: I'm new at this and just got my 36 gallon aquarium may 1st this year
everything was fine until last week a fish got ick so I treated the tank...opps forgot to remove filters...so now my ammonia is high. my small test kit it says orange but I put in stresszime ( by thier request) its sold at pets Smart. This puts in good bacteria??? I guess? 2 tsp into glass container from water that was in the tank.
well anyway today I tested it and it is now in light yellow.---> better but still high
my best reading is in the mint green area 7.0 or 7.2 usually....Now what am i doing wrong?
and they tell me to add some tank water to a clean container and add 1/4 tsp backing soda to mix it and add it to tank??? this sound weird ?????well any help would be great
thanks Mermaidliz

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What medication did you use?
Removing the filters during medication treatments will not cause a spike in ammonia unless you do not have bio wheels or sponges.
Do you have bio wheels or sponges inside your filter?
Most of the time filters come with carbon inside them.
The carbon will absorb the medication before it has a chance to treat the fish for the disease.
This is why it's recommended to take out the carbon,
Which sometimes also means the filter cartridge.
If you bought a medication that kills the beneficial bacteria, that will cause a spike in ammonia.
When treating for diseases, try to buy products that do not kill all the beneficial bacteria inside the tank and filters.
It will say it on the bottle or package somewhere.




The StressZime does offer beneficial bacteria,
I don't recommend it because is contains live active bacteria and enzymes that can over dose a tank and cause more harm than good.
I suggest Nutrafin Cycle instead, it contains live nonactive bacteria and will not overdose a tank.
It's OK that you used the StressZime, but since the ammonia level is coming down, I wouldn't add anymore to the tank.

The baking soda deal doesn't need to be done to your tank.
Someone was giving you bad advise there.
It is used in certain circumstances with fish keeping to raise Ph levels, but I wouldn't even worry about that.
If the 7.0 - 7.2 reading you listed is for Ph, then it's perfect.
Adding the baking soda will raise the PH and a higher PH while ammonia is present in the water makes it harder on the fish.

Your ammonia will go down by itself once the nitrogen cycle (beneficial bacteria) has stabilized.
If you'd like to test your water and give me the readings for:
Ammonia ppm
Nitrite ppm
Nitrate ppm
And the Ph
I'd be happy to tell you what's going on inside the tank.

As far as what you wrote though, everything seems to behaving normally after a medication treatment that killed off some of the beneficial bacteria in the process of treating the fish.
Things will stabilize on their own.
When they do, you can go back to your normal routine.