High Ammoinia but fish are fine!?!

[tash2620]

Hi guys,

Im having a bit of a problem with my first tank. I recently started up a 30L freshwater tank. Its got an under gravel filter and about 3 weeks ago I put in one red tail black shark and a bristle nose catfish. Everything was going fine and then I put in a blue Ram. The blue ram died within a day this was my first fish death so I was terribly upset I raced to the pet store and brought ammonia tests so I could find out what the problem was. Turns out that it was ammonia that killed my blue Ram but the other fish were fine. The pet store sold me Ammo Lock and said to clean the tank do a 50% water change and add the Ammo lock. I have been doing this regularly. I clean the tank and do water changes regularly I only feed 2 pellets once a day and they get a 2 day break from feeding each week but my ammonia levels are still high! They are so high now that 8.0ppm maybe even higher! But it seems that my two fish are doing fine. The bristle nose catfish is breathing a little heavy but the shark seems fine and is still eating and swimming around! I don’t know is Ammo lock results in an inaccurate reading when testing for ammonia or if my fish are slowly dieing and are not showing any signs, I was told that they should be dead with readings like that! I don’t know what to do please help!

 

[TomK2]

Are you using a quality liquid reagent test kit? The strips are frequently inaccurate. Ammonia toxity varies with pH too. Since it often takes longer than 3 weeks to establish a biologic filter, you need to do water changes, daily if necessary, to keep the ammonia down. Less than 1 ppm, or 0.5 ppm if you can.

 

[Bioworldmaker]

8 ppm! That is crazy!

Do the algae wafers get eaten within say... Half hour? Do you remove it from the tank or do you just leave it in there until it is gone? Maybe the algae wafers are dissolving in the water before being completely eaten by the fish, thus increasing waste in the tank?

 

[tash2620]

I am using a test that involves taking water out of the tank and adding 2 solutions to it, I was told that it was one that was pretty accurate. My Ph is about 7.3 and my tank has been running for about 2 months now and only 3 weeks with fish in it. I have been doing water changes daily but the ammonia hasnt been changing much at all. Does ammo lock make ammonia test wrong? How big should the water changes be? I have been doing close to 50% trying to get it down daily!

 

[rich311k]

Ammo-lock does not remove the ammonia from your water it simply detoxifies it and leaves it available for your biological filter to develop. I dont now if makes your cycle longer or not. If your tank was running with no ammonia supply or fish it does not count towards your cycle so your cycle has been running for 3 weeks or so. I would stop using the ammo-lock and switch to Prime and then finish your cycle. Are you showing any nitrites yet? That kit you have is fine, sounds like the AP test.

Welcome to AA!!!!

 

[Zagz]

The only way to safely lower ammonia that is that high is to do large 75% water changes. I would do one asap, then test in a couple of hours and if the levels are still above 1ppm do another large pwc. Do not test right after a pwc, you will be testing the new water. Also a good dechlorinator like Rich suggested (prime), instead of the ammo lock. Good luck. Your fish are being slowly suffocated without you realizing it yet. The water changes are the way to save their lives.

 

[malkore]

if ammonia is 8ppm right now, do a 50% water change and test again. it should be down to 4ppm.

8ppm should be lethal to all fish, in short order.

if your liquid kit has 2 reagents and takes about 5 mins to develop the results, then its a nessler kit and is as accurate as you can get. It won't be skewed by ammo-lock or any dechlorinators that create ammonium (less toxic ammonia).

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I agree with the above statements. Do a 50%-75% PWC ASAP. Then wait a couple hours and test again. If still above 1ppm, do one more large PWC. Then do 1 large PWC daily until your levels get below .5ppm if possible, then just do PWC's often enough to keep the levels below .5ppm if possible, but no more than 1ppm.

 

[TomK2]

Malkore,-

You got it a little backwards. The two bottle ammonia test is probably a salicylate test, and does not give false high readings with the ammonia binding chemicals. A salicylate test might not register the ammonia with some of the ammonia binders (according to the ammolock company propaganda), thereby convincing the user that the binder "removed" the ammonia when in fact all it did was make the test negative. The ammolock manufacturers claim that Amquel causes a false negative on the salicylate test, but I have not verified this personally, and my emails have not been answered by the manufacturers.

The Nessler reagent test is an Iodine based test, and I believe it is more commonly found in the test strips or one bottle tests. There could be a two bottle Nessler test out there? but I don't know. The AP kit is not a nessler reagent test. Perhaps if the indicator is yellow and green, its salicylate, if the indicator is brown, it is iodine (nessler)?


What I have been able to find out about test kits and conditioners I have on the following web page:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomstank/tomstank_files/page0018.htm

 

[Jaybird]

You're lucky to still have fish with ammonia that high. My female GBR died one day behind some tank decorations. I noticed that my keyholes and bolivian rams were breathing a bit hard and did a water test. Ammonia was at .5ppm. After a quick burial and a 50% PWC, things calmed down, but ammonia swings kill!!!!