Finally kept my fry alive, but the ammonia levels are super high

[Amy Ana]

Hi, I posted a few weeks ago on how to catch and keep my fry alive. I've started breeding Clown fish. I managed to catch and keep alive for more than 24hours 4 or 5 (possibly more that I just can't see). I've been using prime to keep the ammonia from killing them. What can I do to reduce the ammonia levels naturally?

 

[Redfoxtang]

I would do daily water changes to help drop levels. When I asked my buddy about clownfish breeding which he has been very successful, he said daily water changes is a must to help keep the water stable.

 

[vetteguy53081]

If you have a sump, do your siphoning from sump as not to disturb tank
Add carbon if not using carbon already and an ammonia sponge/pad wouldn’t hurt

 

[Labora]

You could do a water change

 

[andrewkw]

I am very new to raising clownfish but I have yet to run into any ammonia problems. Are you using live phyto or dead to tint the water? I *think* the live phyto does help filter the water. Also are you continuing to tint the water? If you're adding too many rotifers or not feeding them it's possible they are polluting the water. Even the dead fry should not put a huge strain on the water unless they are all going in one shot.

Additionally for the first few water changes I simply add water. I know some people have crazy drip systems and dosing pumps but for now I just put a 1 gallon jug over the 10g tank and use airline to fast drip the water in. So if I start with say 3 gallons of water, I get it up to 6 or 7 before I start doing water changes. I've actually switched from desk lamps to an led strip but when I was using the desk lamp I was able to grow algae on the bottom of the tanks and the sides. I tried not to remove all of this when performing water changes. The algae and even some of the bacteria growing on the glass will help filter the water to some extent.

Finally I've also used marinepure gems in some, but not all of the fry tanks. Now the ones that don't have them are also doing fine so I'm not sure if they really help but I put them in the parents sump for a month then added them to the fry tanks for additional bio filtration.

 

[ThRoewer]

With just 4 or 5 larvae ammonia is nothing to worry about.

 

[ichthyogeek]

You could add a bit of bottled bacteria as well! And agreed on using live phytoplankton, it does help with combatting ammonia issues.

If they're post-metamorphosis, you can also stick in a small sponge filter as well.

 

[californiarob]

water changes with parent tank water and add few drops of ammonia stabilizer/neutralizer.. try that and give us update plZ

 

[ThRoewer]

Hi, I posted a few weeks ago on how to catch and keep my fry alive. I've started breeding Clown fish. I managed to catch and keep alive for more than 24hours 4 or 5 (possibly more that I just can't see). I've been using prime to keep the ammonia from killing them. What can I do to reduce the ammonia levels naturally?

BTW, how did you test for ammonia?

The badges are notoriously off and sometimes indicate too high values. More often though they report too low values and the ammonia may actually be in the danger zone while the badge still gives you the clear.

If you use a liquid test without removing all food organisms and phytoplankton from the test sample you will get a false high due to all those lifeforms being dissolved in the test solution.

Test strips may be affected by phytoplankton but I would consider them the safest option for larvae tanks with green water.

 

[Amy Ana]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. All my fry died from. That clutch. I'm starting over again. But I'm going to try adding a filter to help, and get some rest strips. Maybe ammonia isn't my problem and they just don't want to grow past a day.

 

[DoctaReef]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. All my fry died from. That clutch. I'm starting over again. But I'm going to try adding a filter to help, and get some rest strips. Maybe ammonia isn't my problem and they just don't want to grow past a day.

Did you ever have any success?

 

[Amy Ana]

Did you ever have any success?

Unfortunately not yet. I moved in November and haven't been able to set up my Fry tanks yet. My clowns are laying eggs regularly again. So I think they like their new home

 

[DoctaReef]

I’m just getting into the game. My clowns started spawning a month ago and I was able to catch the fry last week, but I think they only lasted 4 days in my fry tank. Not sure why just yet...

 

[ca1ore]

Mass murder here too. Started trying to raise the fry. Used the vossen trap and caught 200 plus or minus. Four days later .... zero. Ooops!

 

[DoctaReef]

Mass murder here too. Started trying to raise the fry. Used the vossen trap and caught 200 plus or minus. Four days later .... zero. Ooops!

I’m not sure why I lost mine- checked everything: rotifers still alive under microscope. Temp 78, salinity 35. Ammonia tested 0, though my reagents are expired (going to get a new one and retest)
My only thought is my lights were too low?
At a loss, but it’s nice to be in good company with you guys.

 

[thomaskc]

What’s the updates?

So far I have been successful getting my first clutch to 60 days but definitely trial and error.

 

[davidb]

So in summary, the options to reduce ammonia or keeping ammonia low in the fry tank are as follows:
1. Add new filtered water by dripping less than 1 drop per sec to account for evaporation
2. Water change by adding less than one drop per sec for first few days
3. Add a ammonia lock product to the water
4. Add a very fine biologically active material to the water. (Not sure i know of one fine enough.)
5. Cleaning the tank bottom daily

 

[Jmcg89]

So in summary, the options to reduce ammonia or keeping ammonia low in the fry tank are as follows:
1. Add new filtered water by dripping less than 1 drop per sec to account for evaporation
2. Water change by adding less than one drop per sec for first few days
3. Add a ammonia lock product to the water
4. Add a very fine biologically active material to the water. (Not sure i know of one fine enough.)
5. Cleaning the tank bottom daily

I recently had my first hatch and only got about 35 baby's but all but about 2 or 3 seem to have survived thus far, currently 10 days old. From the start I had 3 marine pure bio balls that had been in the sump of my display sitting on top of the heater above the air stone in the fry tank to try and help with amonia. I was still doing water changes but I think this helped with ammonia.