ammonia in QT
 

I am doing TT in a 10 gallon tank with two wrasses, flame angel, blue spotted puffer. I have pvc and I added a pile of coral rubble from my sump very aged. I also added 7 day old filter pad...(likely not seeded long enough to help?). I have a powerhead and a air bubbler to help with flow and Oxygen levels with so many fish

Knowing that my tank is heavily stocked I added bacteria (microbacter) and dosed with an ammonia remover (Erase-CL).

ARGGHHH my ammonia alert badge showed ammonia 20 hours into the TT. I think it was at .25. I added more ammonia remover and now it shows 0.

MY QUESTIONS Please:
* What damage has been done by it going to .25 for a few hours all fish are alive for now?
* Can I keep dosing Ammonia remover (erase-CL) for the next 48 hours until I do my TT?
* Will using OLD tank water from my DT help? My DT is 2 floors lower then my QT and honestly carrying the buckets is very heavy for me.

Thanks
Neptune

**Power went out 2 weeks ago in DT. Fish had no heat or circulation for 2 days. Coral Beauty died BUT all other fish pulled through blue hippo tang included and not one spot of Ich. TT and QT does work!

Ammonia at .25 probably caused minor gill damage due to the ammonia (a lot like a burn). The ammonia remover should only be dosed if you see it register on the alert badge. Using water from a established system will do nothing to help since the bacteria lives on surfaces and not in the water itself

Is the damage caused by the ammonia permanent? Or will the gill recover now that the conditions have improved and ammonia is reading 0 again?

You can't re-use rocks and sponges when doing TT. Thats where the encysted Ich lives until hatching. All the PVC and other equip, i.e. power head,heater, needs to be cleaned and dried like tanks before re-using.

Edit; I'd use new airstones and tubing with each transfer also...

Agree with above statements here's what I would do. First the coral rubble and anything in the DT cannot be used during ttm the encysted ick can be attached to these items, DT water don't use in ttm. Dosing bacteria in a bare bottom tank won't do any good the bacteri needs a place to colonize like a Spong filter ect. So I would do daily water changes and dose prime this will control ammonia, feed lightly and when doing wc's make sure to suck up the uneaten food and detritus from the bottom of the tank. Your other option is a larger tank on the next transfer. Also as far as the ammonia doing any harm its possible if it did you should see red gills and ammonia burns on the fish if this is present a methylene blue bath will help or another option is dose seachems stressguard to the tank it has anticeptic in it and as a bonus it also binds ammonia