Ammonia levels

[Codester]

Hi. I am having troubles with my ammonia levels rising quickly each week. I've been doing around 25percent water changes weekly and it keeps rising by the end if the week. I have a monitor that sits in the tank and is reading a ph of 6.4 and ammonia of around 0.10. The chart says this is danger and ranges from 0.00 to 0.40. I also did a test with another kit and it came up green around 2.0 because I didn't understand the range staying in the 0.something.

It is a 10 gallon tank with a 20 gallon filter with 3 platies 2 panda corys and 1 julii Cory. It's been up running for aprox 3 months now. After the first month I transferred the platies and after around 3 weeks after that I added 2 pandas and 2 Julliis unfortunately one only lasted a week.

I am following the inch per gallon rule. Using a conditioner for the new water that goes in. I don't understand why my ammonia goes so high in less than a week

Please help. I'm open to any suggestions

 

[bruinsbro1997]

I think that you've got too many fish in there, but at .1 I'd say the levels of ammonia are safe. At .5 it's starts to get deadly. I believe that at a lower pH ammonia is more toxic. I also think that using the inch per gallon rule as your stocking guideline isn't really going to do you any good, but that's just me.

1.http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/your-guide-to-ammonia-toxicity-159994.html
2.http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...inch-per-gallon-rule-and-stocking-165674.html

 

[BBradbury]

Ammonia Levels

Hello Code...

With such a small tank, it's not surprising your ammonia levels are high. You should be checking the level daily. When the ammonia level rises, you need to do a partial water change to bring the level back into the safe zone.

B

 

[jcolon]

In a 3 month old tank ... your bacterial colonies should be established.

Did you use any bacteria in a bottle or have you done any filter replacement recently?

Your saving grace is your pH. When it's below 7 ammo takes the form of ammonium ... NH4+ less toxic to fish ... above 7 it's ammonia ... NH3 much more toxic. PWC's and use seachem prime if you don't have it already.

 

[Codester]

I haunt changed the filter in awhile and last time I did I only replaced 2 out of the 4 little filters. I did use top fin bacteria supplement when I added the corys because they told me that it would help my tank when adding new fish. Guess not. I'll keep doing water changes. Is doing gem more than once a week good or should I stick with my every Friday.?

 

[jcolon]

I did use top fin bacteria supplement when I added the corys because they told me that it would help my tank when adding new fish. Guess not. I'll keep doing water changes?

IMO ... that's were the problem is ... in fact there's a thread going on where there is a big debate on the benefits of bacteria in a bottle. I'll just say that the bacteria in those BB in a bottle tend to be unstable overtime and crash on you.

It's happened to members ... and usually after the tank's been up and running a couple of months. The bacteria die leaving you with a tank of fish with no bio-filtration.

For now ... your doing a fish in cycle ... keep testing the water (API test master's the best), basically your trying to keep ammo below 0.25ppm (0 is preferred). Seachem Prime will be your BFF as it locks up ammo and nitrites into less toxic forms. Hang in there and let the BB form naturally ... they don't crash unexpectedly.

 

[Codester]

Ok. Thank you. It totally makes sense in a way. I will keep up what I'm doing and throw away the bacteria stuff.

 

[librarygirl]

I haunt changed the filter in awhile and last time I did I only replaced 2 out of the 4 little filters. I did use top fin bacteria supplement when I added the corys because they told me that it would help my tank when adding new fish. Guess not. I'll keep doing water changes. Is doing gem more than once a week good or should I stick with my every Friday.?

I think the Julii is what's getting you; it should be in a 30 gal tank and its bioload may be too high for a 10 (I could be wrong, but even so it should be in a larger tank). Can you return it or rehome it (or put an ad for it on here in the Classifieds section and maybe someone can take it from you). With the Julii gone the levels should slow down some.

Test the water every day; any time ammonia or/and nitrite are over .25 or nitrate is over 20 do a water change to get them down to as close to 0 as possible (this may mean a large water change in the range of 50%+). Let your test dictate when to do a pwc; if the test reads higher than what's noted above, do a pwc. If it's high again the next day, do another one, etc. And try to rehome the Julii.