Help!

[Laird-and-Dad]

I have been using Tetra EasyStrips for most of my time in the aquarium hobby (not very long lol), but when I decided to do a fishless cycle for my 1.5 gallon QT tank, I bought the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. I have used that to start cycling the QT. I have also been using it now to test my 23 gal. I have been getting the weirdest results from the QT tests. I put in 4ppm of ammonia, and the next day (yesterday) I had 6ppm of ammo, >5ppm NO2- (off the chart), 20-25ppm NO3-. Today, I tested again, and ammo was off the charts >8ppm, NO2- was still off the charts and even darker than it was yesterday, and NO3- was between 5-10ppm. I then tested the levels in the 23 for the first time with the liquid tests, and my ammo was at 4ppm, NO2 and NO3 were at 0. Now the ammonia being at 4 is impossible because I actually have living fish in the tank and 4ppm of ammonia would kill them nearly instantly, and more than that, their behavior is completely normal. None of the fish exhibit any signs of stress. I'm not sure how this could be. Is there something wrong with my test kit? What should I do? I added Prime just in case the ammonia was that elevated, but the fact that none of my fish have died seems to be direct evidence to the contrary. Thank you!

 

[jlk]

Welcome! It sounds like something is off here so let's see if we can figure out what is happening.

First, is your API kit within its expiration date? Next, have you tested your tap water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? What do these numbers read? Ph on both tanks?

How long has your main tank been running with fish? Have you removed/replaced any filter media on this tank?

Let's start with these questions so we can figure out the reasons behind your odd readings!

 

[icydeath]

Sometimes the test strips can be rather inaccurate. I would try liquid test kits. They last much longer and if you get the Master Kit, you can test everything and get back to us on the numbers.

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Jlk—

1. My test kit's expiration date is in 2019.

2. I have tested my tap water, and pH is at 8.2. Everything else is at 0. The pH on both tanks has always been 7.8-8.4. The people at my LFS say that they keep their tanks at the same pH, so it shouldn't affect the fish.

3. My main tank has been running for almost 2 months now and it has been fully cycled for about a month (test results for NH3 and NO2 are 0 and NO3 is consistently at 20 ppm) with no fish deaths (we accidentally did a fish in cycle / ) since June 26, with the exception of a few neon tetras which were not doing well from when we got them, a zebra danio that I think died of stress from being bullied by a bigger one, and a dwarf gourami from being bullied by my female sword. We have never had test results this high; even when we were cycling, the most NH3 got to was 1.5 ppm and that was even rare.

4. Yes. I took a very small piece of filter media and a small portion of the gravel substrate to seed the QT Tank.

IcyDeath—I believe that you have misread my post. I was saying that I was getting 4ppm of ammonia from the API master test kit.

Thank you guys!

 

[icydeath]

Oh.... Sorry! Perhaps you mistakenly put in too many drops, or your dropper is inaccurate. Sometimes I put larger drops in on accident.

Try fitting another dropper on it or purchasing an individual ammonia test.

Or your card could have faded.

Hope I helped! - Raymond

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Thank you icydeath! Yeah I thought about the issue of the number of drops, and I have tested it 2x with the same results. And although it is possible that the card is faded, I would be even more angry at my local petsmart because I bought it only three days ago lol! Thanks for the input and I'll keep you posted.

 

[jlk]

Jlk—

1. My test kit's expiration date is in 2019.

2. I have tested my tap water, and pH is at 8.2. Everything else is at 0. The pH on both tanks has always been 7.8-8.4. The people at my LFS say that they keep their tanks at the same pH, so it shouldn't affect the fish.

3. My main tank has been running for almost 2 months now and it has been fully cycled for about a month (test results for NH3 and NO2 are 0 and NO3 is consistently at 20 ppm) with no fish deaths (we accidentally did a fish in cycle / ) since June 26, with the exception of a few neon tetras which were not doing well from when we got them, a zebra danio that I think died of stress from being bullied by a bigger one, and a dwarf gourami from being bullied by my female sword. We have never had test results this high; even when we were cycling, the most NH3 got to was 1.5 ppm and that was even rare.

4. Yes. I took a very small piece of filter media and a small portion of the gravel substrate to seed the QT Tank.

IcyDeath—I believe that you have misread my post. I was saying that I was getting 4ppm of ammonia from the API master test kit.

Thank you guys!

Thank you very much!!

Ok, let's not worry about the qt for the moment as I would expect the results to be a bit wacky in there. I would though do as close to 100% water change on the qt as possible and do not add any ammonia-not even a drop! Let it run for 24hrs and let us know how the results look after 24hrs.

So, this leaves your main tank. Let's mull over some possibilities here. Out of curiosity, does your strip reading right now match your API reading? If not, what do they both read?

You mentioned removing some media/gravel- did you test with the API tests prior to removal or after? This would be my best guess as a reason for your tank being out of sorts. A ph drop, an undiscovered dead fish or rotting plants, an excess of food/debris hidden in the substrate are some other possible reasons for tank numbers to be amiss. There are also a few odd cases where a persons substrate or media are the source of ammonia. What type of substrate/media do you have?

So, start with a 50% water change on your main tank. Test it prior to the water change, one hour after the water change and then again in about 12-24hrs. Let's see how these numbers compare and we can proceed from there!

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Thank you very much!!

Ok, let's not worry about the qt for the moment as I would expect the results to be a bit wacky in there. I would though do as close to 100% water change on the qt as possible and do not add any ammonia-not even a drop! Let it run for 24hrs and let us know how the results look after 24hrs.

So, this leaves your main tank. Let's mull over some possibilities here. Out of curiosity, does your strip reading right now match your API reading? If not, what do they both read?

You mentioned removing some media/gravel- did you test with the API tests prior to removal or after? This would be my best guess as a reason for your tank being out of sorts. A ph drop, an undiscovered dead fish or rotting plants, an excess of food/debris hidden in the substrate are some other possible reasons for tank numbers to be amiss. There are also a few odd cases where a persons substrate or media are the source of ammonia. What type of substrate/media do you have?

So, start with a 50% water change on your main tank. Test it prior to the water change, one hour after the water change and then again in about 12-24hrs. Let's see how these numbers compare and we can proceed from there!

Thank you!

I will do a water change in the QT ASAP. The strip reading is the same as the API at 4.0ppm. The results I gave were from three days after removing gravel and filter piece. I had run out of strips, so I hadn't been able to do tests for a while before then. PH is normal at 8.2 (I mentioned this earlier this thread), although one of the neon tetras I had die on me the other day I couldn't find until two days later and another I couldn't find until one day later. Do you think this could be the cause of my odd results? Also, if the ammonia were really this high, why isn't it affecting my fish? Would 4ppm be lethal to fish? What should I do to reduce ammonia?

I have regular colored gravel that you can buy at petco/smart for like $1/lb.

I will do as close to a 50% pwc ASAP.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[icydeath]

You could use prime and to help mitigate potency, dose more.

Jlk, check me on this, but I am pretty sure you dose 5x normal dosing for this usage?

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

I used prime for the original water, but haven't been using it since bc it detoxifies ammo and I was trying to get ammo in the tank to grow bacteria.

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Wait are you talking about my main tank or the QT?

 

[icydeath]

I mean the main tank since you wanted to help with ammonia. You could not use it as long as you do 50% water changes frequently.

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Oh ok sorry. I do regularly use prime, but I will use more to get the ammonia down.

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

How often should I do 50% water changes? I do ~15-20% pwcs weekly, but haven't yet done a 50%.

 

[icydeath]

Instead of a 50% you could just do 25% twice as often.

So maybe do a 25% every other day until the ammonia resolves?

I would wait for jlk to respond as she will be more helpful in finding whether or not it is false reading and will be of more help to you in terms of finding the cause. I will help as much as I can however.

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

Thank you so much your help has been greatly appreciated!

 

[icydeath]

I'm glad I could help.

 

[jlk]

You could use prime and to help mitigate potency, dose more.

Jlk, check me on this, but I am pretty sure you dose 5x normal dosing for this usage?

You are correct! It's perfectly safe to dose up to 5x normal dose in an emergency but water changes are usually a safer and more effective route (as long as the tap water is not adding more ammonia).

 

[jlk]

I used prime for the original water, but haven't been using it since bc it detoxifies ammo and I was trying to get ammo in the tank to grow bacteria.

Prime only works to temporarily detox free ammonia- it does not physically remove ammonia from your tank but simply converts it into a less toxic form for your fish. Your good bacteria utilize both forms of ammonia so using Prime will not affect bacterial growth.

How are things looking today?

 

[Laird-and-Dad]

As icydeath suggested, I did a complete water change on the QT. I am changing water in main tank tomorrow. Haven't tested yet today, but also added ammolock, stress coat and stress zyme. For the QT/hospital tank, what I will be doing is making a sponge filter stack (see my other thread) in my main tank, so when I need to use the QT, I can put it in there and put fish in immediately. So I decided to just not cycle my QT, and just have a sponge available just in case. I will check ammo levels before and after pwc and let you guys know.