Am guard, does it harm biological filtration?

[Dizzydea]

Will am guard harm my beneficial bacteria in my filter? Have a small ammonia issue and I've cleaned my gravel and filter media and did a large water change and there is still a small amount of ammonia. Ammonia is .25ppm, ph is 7.5, nitrate is could be 5 but looks even paler, nitrite barley has any color but there is a very slight slight purple I'm not sure if it's .1 ( its quite a bit lighter than the first shade on my test) or just slightly colored from the drops being added only. So can I add am guard, I tried prime but it didn't do anything when normally it fixes the issue completely.

 

[Dizzydea]

Am I just being fussy or is this a real problem?

 

[Jconner3]

Is your tank cycled?
And have you tested your tap water for ammonia?
Prime should detoxify the ammonia but I still think it will show up when you test for it.

 

[Dizzydea]

Not recently but I have I the past and it was fine. I believe it's cycled I started my cycle in June and I was fairly certain it was done.

 

[Dizzydea]

So do you know if am guard affects my bio filter?

 

[shellieca]

Not recently but I have I the past and it was fine. I believe it's cycled I started my cycle in June and I was fairly certain it was done.

I have a 10g that's been running about 5 months & it'll show about .25 ammonia about 5 days after a water change. So long as it doesn't get above .5 I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[shellieca]

Also Prime won't remove the ammonia, nitrites & nitrates from what I understand it just detoxifies (even though the bottle says removes) them so they won't harm the fish.

 

[Dizzydea]

Also Prime won't remove the ammonia, nitrites & nitrates from what I understand it just detoxifies (even though the bottle says removes) them so they won't harm the fish.

Well that explains why the ammonia was still there, does anyone know if on the liquid nitrite test when you use it is the water completely clear when it's good or do the drops them selves add a slight color? I thought that if my nitrates were barely on the chart ( quite a few shades lighter that the first one on the test) then I definitely shouldn't have nitrites right?

 

[shellieca]

Well that explains why the ammonia was still there, does anyone know if on the liquid nitrite test when you use it is the water completely clear when it's good or do the drops them selves add a slight color? I thought that if my nitrates were barely on the chart ( quite a few shades lighter that the first one on the test) then I definitely shouldn't have nitrites right?

Are you using the API Master Kit? The nitrite drops are blue, if you have 0 nitrites it stays a true blue. If you have nitrites it'll have a purple tint to it, darker purple depending on the amount of nitrites. But you won't have clear that I've ever heard.