Many of you have been helping me with Nemo, our 11" Oscar (the harsh twitching of his tail, acting as though he is drunk, not eating, etc.). All signs of high ammonia levels and I wasn't aware of this because strips showed normal readings. The strips I was using were showing ammonia levels were great. The pet specialist had me drop pimafix and metafix to heal the Nemo believing the crickets did some damage inside of him and things started to look good.

Then I noticed the second oscar was started to act like Nemo, I got really concerned and bout a new type of kit(tube with 2 bottles) to check for ammonia levels and it is as high as 4.0. I kept changing 25% of the water, poured some Ammo-lock in there, no change so today I changed 50% of the water. There has been no carbon filter in cartridge as per instructions. PLEASE HELP!!! Can't loose these two boys. I did notice a little red spot on Nemo, the size of a Sharpee marker spot and a little red thin line on my 13" plecos. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

Like I said, as of today, I changed 50% water and did pour in the Nitraban to new water added. Still no carbon in filter. Immediately, the other oscar started to act normal, Nemo is no longer breathing heavy and is much calmer.

Thank you so much for your help!
God bless!

I need to ask, what are your readings for nitrite and nitrate? this will tell us a lot more.

nitrite is 0
nitrate is 0

Your tank is not cycled... Please read the section on cycling... you will need daily water changes... and no filter cleaning!

in an established tank a nitrate reading of zero is virtually impossible to have. could you retest and repost the reading for us.

also a reading for ammonia and ph would also be appreciated......

okay, i had just cleaned the filter but did not put the carbon part in it. should i put the carbon packet in there? is it not cycled because of all the water changes?

READ the section on the site about cycling... You have lost any cycle you had, if you had any. You will need to cycle again.

www.oscarfishlover.com/how-to-cycle-a-tank

Let me link you so you don't even have to look for it!

i've had it for 3 years. but since i had this problem (probably 2-3 weeks ago), i have been making water changes. today i changed 50%. is this the reason why the nitrate is at 0? Okay, the readings are as follows:

nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ph 7.0
ammonia 2.0 (a little while ago it was 4.0)

thanks so much for the help. truly appreciate it.

it looks like the others are right, but not that your tank isn't cycled but has lost it cycle. its the same thing in the end. to fix the problem the only thing you can do is change water, add prime to condition the water and add ammonia lock. I prefer water changes and prime to ammonia lock. i would personally change 50% and add prime as much as I needed to keep ammonia at the lowest levels poss. i would also add "cycle" to each water change to speed up getting your filter working again. I have got a damaged filter recycled in a wk using "cycle".

hey, there!
How often did you change the water before the trouble started?
And how much?

as Noddy asked also filter maintenance?

thanks. but should i place the carbon part of the filter back in it's cartridge or not? and is "cycle" something i will find at the petstore as well? I do have the prime.