Atm colony / dead fish

[Emjay2]

Hi guys

I've not long set up a tank and used atm colony . Added fish as directed , 2 clowns 1 royal gramma and a hammerhead . The fish have been in the tank around 10 hrs and are now dead /dying . Amonia is reading high ... why ? :/

[pfan151]

Adding fish before the tank is cycled is a bad idea. Do some very large waterchanges (90%) and they may survive.

[Emjay2]

Atm colony was added to cycle the tank and it suggests not to do water change for 2 wks after using ?

[Sk8r]

Whoa. There IS no instant cycle. There's a big sticky up top with a red arrow. This will explain how cycle works and how to do it.

[windlasher]

I have used colony to start a tank and it was fine. I set up the tank and added the whole bottle. The next day I went and got a clown pair and dropped them in. That was more than a year ago and I still have them.

Did you use R/O water? New Clean rock? If your ammonia is high after 10 hours, something in there is/was dead already.

[Emjay2]

I used dry rock and salt water ready made from the shop , one of the clown is still holding out , the royal gramma hid just about as soon as we put it in and haven't seen it since and can't find it ... any suggestions on what I van do for the very stressed remaining clown ?

[Emjay2]

Ok royal gramma found ... alive but struggling

[pfan151]

If you have ammoninia you need to do waterchanges. You should probably also add prime. The best option would be to take the fish back to the store until your tank is cycled though.

[joshbrookkate]

It's so important to do things slowly and the right way in this hobby. I suggest you get those fish out and cycle your tank as directed in the stickies at the top of the "New to Hobby" section of this forum.
Good luck! Go slow! Keep reading and asking questions.

[Emjay2]

Atm colony suggests not to do a water change ,( all thoigh its all ive wanted to do )it is highly rated and used widely so it wasn't something I used on a whim , I wonder if others have had difficulties with using it ? I will look up prime ,thank you ! ... I do have some salt water pre made which I've had stored in a barrel will it be ok to use if necessary? It is pre made from the shop .

[pfan151]

Atm colony suggests not to do a water change ,( all thoigh its all ive wanted to do )it is highly rated and used widely so it wasn't something I used on a whim , I wonder if others have had difficulties with using it ? I will look up prime ,thank you ! ... I do have some salt water pre made which I've had stored in a barrel will it be ok to use if necessary? It is pre made from the shop .

Well if you have ammonia in the water then the tank is not ready for livestock regardless of what was put in to try to speed up the cycle. If you are not going to take the fish back I would at least get a few decent sized pieces of well cured live rock. They will help break down the ammonia. Still, waterchanges are needed. If the ATM crap was working you wouldn't have ammonia. Since you do I'd ignore the advice on the bottle and do waterchanges.

[Emjay2]

I get that pfan, however it's 5:42 am no shops are open to take back so I'm doing what I can here at the moment , will the stored salt water be ok to use please ? I'm removing the remaining fish from tank .

[WWIII]

If you have some ready made saltwater stored test it for ammonia and if it doesn't have any do a waterchange of around 20%. Try to match temp and salinity. Prime will knock down the ammonia, but doesn't magically create the bio filter you need to process future ammonia. Do what you can with waterchange, try to take the fish back, if you can't use prime.

[Emjay2]

Thank you, I've removed them from the tank they are still going so fingers crossed they will be ok now until the shop opens .

Thanks everyone for all your help and knowledge :)