while treating Ich i have amonia spike

Yes a refractometer needs to be calibrated and some hydrometers are very accurate. But for hyposalinity treatment it needs to be right on.

Do not do a massive water change, personally I would not do anythng greater than a 20 %, but rather several smaller ones over the course of the next 24 - 48 hours IMO. The fish are already shocked by the ammonia, pH and SG levels it is not going to take much to put them over the edge.

Do you make up your own salt water or do you buy from the LFS ?

 

thanks for the help, i already did a 20% water change, and planning another tonight. i must have done something wrong while testing pH the 1st time, i retested pH after water change and it was between 7.8 and 8.0 as it was before. and i did not add any thing to the water except some reef salt. the ammonia is down to 0.5 and nitrates are between 5 and 10 and i increased salinity to 1.010. no casualties so far.
i mix my own salt water.

 

oh i forgot to ask if there is any brand or specs you suggest for refractometer. there are tons of them on ebay and price range from $30 to 250.

 

I am so glad to hear it is all going ok for now. As far as refractors go I can not recommend one, mine is an older model but I would not pay more than 80 dollors for one.

You are probably going to see an increase in nitrates and the presense of ammonia for a couple of days, so I would continue to do small water changes.

Just go slow and make small changes and continue to check parameters.

;D

 

pH is difficult to maintain in hypo. I use Reef Crystals and put some in with the morning water change and some with the night (I used an uncycled tank, so I had to do water changes twice a day). You'll always be adding RO/DI. so that would be the place to add the buffer. I also use Ultimate one of the ammonia "removers" to keep the ammonia out of the tank. Right now, if I were you, that's what would be in my tank. The gills of your fish are taking a hit with that ammonia present, even if they come out of it ok.

 

ok, im continuing to do small water changes, and i passed by the lfs today and got some chemicals that i thought they may help my fishes survive the treatment.
i got the following:
1- API Ammo Lock, ammonia detoxifier
2- API stress Coat, fish and tap water conditioner
3- API stress zyme+, biological filtration booster.
anyone know if they help, if not anything that i can get to relief some stress off my fishes?

 

something weird happened today, the hippo-tang was eating the fins and tail of maroon clown. so i put a red nori (the kind that he likes) so he started devouring it immediately. could it be he is not seeing well with the water imbalance? (since nori and clown have almost same color)