Ammonia still elevated after multiple water changes?

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fish4phil

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Nov 8, 2013
Messages
337
Location
Michigan
  • 36 Gallon Freshwater Tropical Community Tank been running for 6 weeks
  • 5 guppies, 5 zebra danios, 1 snail, 2 ghost shrimp, 4 corydoras, no live plants

Using API Test Kit, today:
Ammonia is at 0.12 (between yellow and green tint)
Nitrites is at 0
Nitrates is at 5
pH 7.8

Yesterday Ammonia was at 0.2 (closer to green tint, but not quite there, not yellow)
Nitrites were at 0
Nitrates were at 5
pH 7.8

I did a 70% Water Change yesterday and did not feed. 2 days before that I did a 50% water change because Ammonia was at 0.12 (halfway between yellow and the green tint of 0.25).

3 days ago I changed my feeding from twice a day consumed in 3 minutes, to twice a day consumed in 1 minute.

I use Prime and Nutrafin Cycle at every water change (following instructions to treat the whole tank). I read that as Prime dechlorinates your water, it produces ammonia, at the same time binds this ammonia into a non-toxic form.

I also tested my tap water for Ammonia a few times and it was bright yellow, clearly 0.0 Ammonia.

Why is my ammonia still high? Is this normal? How long does Prime's "non-toxic" ammonia stay non-toxic? How long does it take to convert chlorine into ammonia? Am I testing "too often"?
 
No such thing as testing too often! Ammonia {for me at least} takes a while to come down. Any level above 0 is something that needs to be dealt with. I suggest large water changes throughout the day and see if it comes down.
 
[*]36 Gallon Freshwater Tropical Community.

Why is my ammonia still high? Is this normal? How long does Prime's "non-toxic" ammonia stay non-toxic? How long does it take to convert chlorine into ammonia? Am I testing "too often"?

I dont use prime so i cant comment fully but i know enough to say that is doesnt convert chlorine into ammonia, it makes ammonia into a less harmfull, ammonium if my memory serves me correctly.

Like someone said you can never test to often where ammonia is concerned. If you get a reading for 0.25ppm or more you want to be changing water.

It sounds normal from what information you gave in your post, how long has your tank been up(edit* 6weeks) and what filter are you using?

It could take afew more weeks and will just do it itself over time, just keep your eye out for it.
 
I don't really see any problems here aside from the fact that more new fish keepers don't track their tank parameters like you do :)

Just for some peace of mind take a look at this link.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html


Getting ammonia below .25 is a pita when your tank isn't cycled. A 50% water change will only drop it to .125 which is an absolutely miniscule amount of ammonia in the tank and is simple for it to raise back up to .25.

First off I would suggest that you take a breath and worry about changing your water when the ammonia level is reading at .5 ppm. At that point a 50% water change will drop it back down to .25 which is a perfectly safe level for fish.

Also, Good Job (y)

Just keep on with those water changes and you will eventually have a happy easily maintained tank :)
 
I don't really see any problems here aside from the fact that more new fish keepers don't track their tank parameters like you do :)

Just for some peace of mind take a look at this link.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html

Getting ammonia below .25 is a pita when your tank isn't cycled. A 50% water change will only drop it to .125 which is an absolutely miniscule amount of ammonia in the tank and is simple for it to raise back up to .25.

First off I would suggest that you take a breath and worry about changing your water when the ammonia level is reading at .5 ppm. At that point a 50% water change will drop it back down to .25 which is a perfectly safe level for fish.

Also, Good Job (y)

Just keep on with those water changes and you will eventually have a happy easily maintained tank :)

^ I agree with except for one point about the ammonia lower than 0.5 is definitely needed if you have more alkaline water. I had an ammonia spike afew months back in one of my small tanks my fish had never been exposed to ammonia. I was lucky that i saw it when i did, which was actually at night while the lights were off. They're motionless at night and when i saw that they were moving around which was totally out of character i knew something was up. When i lifted the lid they were actually trying to jump out 'eeeeek!' did a test and got a 0.5ppm. I have a higher than neutral ph and ammonia is more toxic in alkaline water than acid, so depending on your tap you may possibly get away with 0.5 but i certainly wouldnt do it to my fish.

Some fish maybe be different than others, the lemon tetra in the tank seemed to be most effected but then i would consider then hardy tetra.
 
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^ I agree with except for one point about the ammonia lower than 0.5 is definitely needed if you have more alkaline water.

That's why I suggested that a water change is performed when a .5ppm ammonia level is detected in the aquarium.
 
I have found that a slight green tint to the API test is nothing to get alarmed about. Another long time fish keeper on this sight told me that a little ammonia is necessary to keep the BB fed. I test my water often because I keep making changes and have found that disturbing the substrate can make the nitrite and nitrate rise. If it gets to .25 I do a water change. If my nitrates get to 40, I do a water change. I have a 10 gallon that I was kinda neglecting and not testing but once a week even though I was constantly adding and removing plants. I let the ammonia get to 1ppm several times I am sorry to say. It only had snails and ghost shrimp in it. They have all survived and bred. I have started keeping a better eye on it though because I finally got around to scaping it. I have found that since I started using Prime my tank occupants survive shifts in tank conditions a lot better. I have had a few times when my ammonia read .25 or even .50 and I was not able to do an immediate water change. I threw in some Prime until I could get to it later and every body was fine. Although I do not recommend that. LOL
 
I agree with the posts above me. You'll drive yourself insane trying to eliminate ammonia with just water changes. Trying to keep ammonia below 0.50 ppm seems like a good goal for me, unless you're seeing signs in your fish that might indicate that they are being affected.
 
Could it be chloramine getting converted in the tap water to ammonium? I've always wondered how much this adds (assuming present in water).

Edit: converted by prime I mean.
 
^ I agree with except for one point about the ammonia lower than 0.5 is definitely needed if you have more alkaline water.

And temperature dependent too don't forget. Higher the temp and alkalinity, the more unionised ammonia
 
I found this on this AquariumAdvice thread, seems to match what everyone is saying here, too:

Originally Posted by absolutangel04
First of all, I need to say that .25 ammo isn't enough to hurt fish. I know that we all tell you that you need the ammo to be 0, but in actuality, .25 ammo isn't toxic. Like HeatherW said, you can even get ammo in your tap water. Plenty of people do. 0 ammo is a good thing to aim for, but I don't beat yourself up to much just yet. I suggest testing the tap water to see if there is am ammonia reading and you can go from there. You can also do a big pwc like was suggested and see if it makes a difference. What are your other parameter readings?
Secondly, I have to ask how many mollies do you have? They get large for a 10g tank. Unless you have a bigger tank in their future, I would stick with platies or guppies because they both stay much smaller than mollies do and would be fine in a 10g tank long-term.
This is very good advice!! People beat that 0 reading for ammonia into the ground.I consistently have a .25-.50 reading for ammonia after a WC, it will not hurt the fish. usually within 24 hrs it will drop to 0 as the bacteria use it up. My tap water(city water) has chloramine which when broken down releases ammonia, nothing I can do about it. So like advised by others don't worry yourself to death over a low reading like that(y)
 
IF I understand it, chloramine gets turned into nitrite which gets turned into nitrate. My tap water sometimes has a nitrate reading and it is full of lime and stuff. Our water treatment people are really pitiful. The Prime renders the chlorine and chloramine harmless. It says it will treat even high levels of these things. It still allows ammonia to show up on the test, it just neutralizes it. Two years is a long time to keep an opened bottle of testing chemicals. I go through a bottle of each test in about two months or so. Seems I am always ordering one or the other of them.
 
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