So i finally got liquid tests for nitrites, nitrates and gh/kh. I though maybe my non-specific ammonia test came out high no matter what i do because my nitratea were high which while not as big a threat can be bad. But, no. My nitrites are 0. My nitrates are 5-which is way below the limit. And yet my ammonia test is coming out so high it goes from green to a deep blue. Does anyone have any idea whats going on? Should i just disregard it so long as no2 and no3 are where they should be?
high ammonia with No2 of 0ppm and No3 of 5ppm
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Cynic
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How old is your tank?
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
What you need to do is lots of water changes to bring it down. You might have to do this daily (maybe even two or three times). I read elsewhere you have high ammonia in your tap water, right? What products do you add to your tank? What filter media do you use? What's your filtration? What's your full stock list? Tank size?
Hey mumma. Ive been down that road already and didnt even put a dent in it. I have a external canister rated for 79gal on a 30gal tank. There is biomax in the filter. I have quite a few smaller unmature fish in the tank. There are three balloon mollies (which poop like crazy) two unmature platies, two young honey gourami, one dwarf gourami, a cory cat, a jaguar sim cat, a very small still clown pleco added only recently (because my phantom is a lazy cleaner), my phantom pleco, several young gbr and an african butterly. Some of these fish were added once i believed the tank had cycled after the bacteria bloom cleared up but the ammonia level has never changed.
It occured to me today to ask if the use of ammolock might be immeding my cycle. I thought maybe its causing a buildup of unprocessable ammonia. She recommended a product made by prime. Its a water conditioner that also neutralizes nitrites and nitrates and removes ammonia through a process of binding it. (Least thats the explaination i understood)
The general impression with everyone i ask is that it takes longer to cycle a tank with fish and that in addition to using the prime i should add some extra biomax because the tank is trying to cycle if there are nitrite and nitrate levels.
So until this stuff is able to remove the ammonia I'm planning to do lots of small water changes to get it to a more manageable level. Ill be home all day tomorrow ill try the suggestion i received in the past to take a day and do several 50% water changes over the course of a couple of hours to try to halve the levels several times. Maybe between that and the prime i can bring them down.
It occured to me today to ask if the use of ammolock might be immeding my cycle. I thought maybe its causing a buildup of unprocessable ammonia. She recommended a product made by prime. Its a water conditioner that also neutralizes nitrites and nitrates and removes ammonia through a process of binding it. (Least thats the explaination i understood)
The general impression with everyone i ask is that it takes longer to cycle a tank with fish and that in addition to using the prime i should add some extra biomax because the tank is trying to cycle if there are nitrite and nitrate levels.
So until this stuff is able to remove the ammonia I'm planning to do lots of small water changes to get it to a more manageable level. Ill be home all day tomorrow ill try the suggestion i received in the past to take a day and do several 50% water changes over the course of a couple of hours to try to halve the levels several times. Maybe between that and the prime i can bring them down.
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
pixelcatt said:
Well your probably aware of it but your tank is very overstocked. I know they are only young fish but they will grow a lot quicker than you expect.
Ammolock and prime (by seachem) do the same thing when it comes to ammonia. They don't bind the ammonia and lock it away like ammonia absorbing media but instead convert one form of toxic ammonia to a less toxic form. I have read this only works up to 2ppm of ammonia. Once converted it is still available for the bacteria to consume. These products don't hinder a cycle at all. Your test kit will read the total amount of ammonia (toxic and less toxic). What water conditioner do you currently use?
Large water changes daily. I can not stress this enough. 20-30% water changes are barely going to put a dint in it. Try 50-75% water changes until you can get the ammonia down to the amount your tap water is showing that day. Do this everyday.
Can you take your test kit and a sample of water to your LFS and get them to test it as you test with your kit? That way you can compare results and determine if your test kit is out.
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Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
pixelcatt said:
Remove them completely. They are competing with the bacteria for the ammonia. By using them you are starving any bacteria you might have.
You can use stress coat and Ammolock together or switch to prime to do the same thing.
pixelcatt said:
Yes, the liquid is more reliable but if you have something to compare it against it can give you an idea if your test kits is faulty or not. It does happen occasionally.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html#post1442989
This will help you figure out how high is too high for your ammonia level.
So you think even though theres too much ammonia for the ammochips theyre starving the bb? I can remove them and see what happens. What about my activated carbon? That should be fine, right?
Ive only cleaned the canister filter once. I rinsed it all including the biomax in water removed from the tank. Do i still run the risk of over cleaning the filter materials using this method?
Ive only cleaned the canister filter once. I rinsed it all including the biomax in water removed from the tank. Do i still run the risk of over cleaning the filter materials using this method?
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
I would remove them. If there's ammonia they aren't working anyway. Your wasting time recharging them and money buying them IMO. Carbon won't effect a cycle but it's not needed either.
Cleaning like that's fine as long as you don't scrub or squeeze it out too much. At this stage I wouldn't touch the filter unless aboulutely necessary.
What is the pH of your tank? Is it stable? Or does it fluctuate? What's the pH of your tap water after gassing off?
Cleaning like that's fine as long as you don't scrub or squeeze it out too much. At this stage I wouldn't touch the filter unless aboulutely necessary.
What is the pH of your tank? Is it stable? Or does it fluctuate? What's the pH of your tap water after gassing off?
How long do you let the tap water sit to gas off? Before gassing off i can tell you its around 8. My ph in the tank without such large pwc does not fluctuate. It has been a stable 6.8. My fish seemed to like the ph there. With all this added tap water the ph has increased but ive managed to stabilize it closer to 7 with api proper ph (i usually try to avoid using it cause its not good for my plants) If i were to only do 50% pwc each day after a few days my natural buffers would bring the ph back down. I actually had high ph problems till i added drift wood.
Lastnight i did a 75% pwc which brought my ammonia down to 4. The tap tested at a 1.
Today i did another 75% pwc. Tap today was only 0.50. After the pwc it tested as a 4. I later did a 50% which brought it down to a 1 with tap being .50.
Some of my fish seem to be more active. Last time i tried this it didnt come down this much. I guess ill base the size and number of pwc daily on the tested ammonia levels.
How will i know when the tank has finished cycling?
Lastnight i did a 75% pwc which brought my ammonia down to 4. The tap tested at a 1.
Today i did another 75% pwc. Tap today was only 0.50. After the pwc it tested as a 4. I later did a 50% which brought it down to a 1 with tap being .50.
Some of my fish seem to be more active. Last time i tried this it didnt come down this much. I guess ill base the size and number of pwc daily on the tested ammonia levels.
How will i know when the tank has finished cycling?
My phantom pleco just dies. Ive had him for months. Seems like he stopped eating even though he was offered blanched cucumber, wood and algea wafers. I know the large pwc stressed him out and the ph is back up from earlier.
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
pixelcatt said:
24 hours is usually enough. Stir the water occasionally or add an airstone to help.
Ok, stop messing which the pH. That could be part if the problem. Let the tank sit at whatever pH it naturally sits at. Adding chemicals is going to cause fluctuations. Fluctuations are bad for the bacteria and your fish. 6.8 is perfectly fine. Really high ammonia can also be an issue when trying to cycle.
Keep up the good work with the water changes! Sounds like your fish are feeling better already. Because of the amount of stock ammonia is going to rise pretty quickly so keep up the water changes and testing.
"I guess ill base the size and number of pwc daily on the tested ammonia levels."
Yes. ^^^ The best thing to do is test and let the results determine how much water to change.
A cycled tank will have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and rising nitrate. It will stay like this without water changes. The while process 'usually' takes 4-8 weeks.
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
pixelcatt said:
I'm very sorry to here that. He could have been weak from the high ammonia and pH fluctuations. The very best thing to do is keep up the large water changes to keep the ammonia down and the pH stable.
The typical ph HAD BEEN 6.8 but since the large pwc its up around 7.8. Thats where its wavering since lastnight. For my pleco to have starved it wouldve not eaten for days. He hadnt touched his cucumber in quite a few days. I'm very disappointed. He was one of my fish fish.
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
pixelcatt said:
7.8 is also fine. It should stay there with all the water your going to be changing. Once the tank is cycled the pH may drop again due to the wood. Ideally it should sit at the gassed off pH of your tap water. If your tap water straight from the tap and the gassed off tap water has huge differences, after the tank is cycled, 2-3 smaller water changes a week would be better than one to keep it stable. One large one will change the pH drastically. You can also invest in some large tubs and let the water gas off for 24 hours before a water change. Both those methods are good for weekly water changes after a cycle is completed.
For now you are changing too much water too often to be worrying about it gassing off and dropping pH IMO.
Again, I'm sorry about your fish. It sucks to loose a favorite.
Edit: I forgot to mention because your tap water has ammonia it's a good idea to add Ammolock or Prime each water change to detoxify it. Even after the tank is cycled. The biofilter will take care of it before the product wears off.
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So today i check my ammonia levels and they are lower than theyve been ever during a 24hr period with no pwc. It dropped from topping out at 2ppm to 1 ppm. So i went ahead and checked my nitrite and nitrate levels. Hadnt checked them in a few days.cause theyd been zero. Well theyre not zero anymore. My nitrite level is 5ppm and my nitrates are around 50ppm. So I'm going ahead with my regular pwc mainly cause i know those levels.are high. What do i need to do next?
Mumma.of.two
Aquarium Advice Obsessed
That's good! Your getting conversion. Try to keep ammonia AND nitrIte as low as possible. Nitrite is just as toxic as ammonia. Keep up the water changes.
Wonderful. I did my water change. It brought ammonia down to .25ppm and nitrites to .25ppm and nitrates to 20ppm. Ive been using prime's product since it helps detoxify high nitrites and nitrates in addition to ammonia. How long will these levels be all over the place? I'm guessing ill know the cycle is complete when it maintains low ammonia and nitrite levels with mid level nitrates?
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