Ammonia help

[Wardcarrie5]

Have a 75g w/ fish that has been running for a month now. I have been changing water every day through cycling but can never get ammonia down even though I've cycle through nitrities. My tap water has the same amount of ammonia as what is in my tank now (reading 1.0) there is no free ammonia in the tank so this reading is total. At this point should I even change the water since I'm putting right back in?

 

[jetajockey]

If its the same level as the water you are putting in then no, it wouldn't make much difference in regard to the ammonia level.

 

[HN1]

How do you treat the new water and how are you testing?

 

[librarygirl]

If the tank is fully cycled the bacteria should eat through the ammonia in your tap water. Using something like Prime as a dechlorinator will help detoxify it so that it isn't harmful to your fish until the bacteria can consume it. Try testing the water 24 hours after you did the water change to ensure the ammonia has fallen to 0 and there's nothing weird going on with the cycle. You should still do your weekly maintenance water change but as I said if the tank is fully cycled and you use Prime it should keep the ammonia safe for the fish until the biofilter can handle it. Are you using a liquid test kit? What dechlorinator are you using now? Perhaps two smaller water changes per week would be better than one large one to reduce the amount of ammonia you're adding at once.

 

[Wardcarrie5]

I do treat with Prime with water changes and daily. I did a water change yesterday and today it's the same level as yesterday before the water change (that's what made me test the tap water).

 

[Wardcarrie5]

I also have two test. API and a test that can tell then difference b/n free an total ammonia.