Max Ammonia

[NinjaBill]

Hi there all

I have a new tank, which has only been running a week, and today I bought an ammonia test kit, after reading a few posts on this board. I dont know about the cycling of tanks when I bought my fish, and I currently have 2 small (1 1/2 inch) goldfish in the 10 gal tank

My current ammonia level is 0.9 and I am doing a 25% water change every 2 days.

Is this ammonia level too high, and should I increase the frequency of the water changes to every day, or will everything be OK at a level of 0.9

Thanks

Geoff

 

[SerLunchbox]

If your tank has only ben running for a week then chances are it probably hasn't cycled properly yet. Your ammonia WILL go down. Goldfish are a huge wham to the bioload of a new tank. The water changes, while great, actually hinder the cycling process since it is a new aquarium (this is just my personal experience). Again, your ammonia WILL go down once the tank has properly cycled.

 

[jsoong]

Toxic levels of NH3 depends on your pH. However, 0.9 should be OK for goldies. I wouldn't let it go much higher than that, tho. If you current water change regeime is maintaining that level, you can stay with that.

It is true that constant water changes will slow down the cycling, but it is much better for your fish. A typical cycle with goldies in small tank will have NH3 going up as high as 8 or 10 (mine did, before I knew better), and even hardy goldies may not make it!

I would suggest you read the cycling article in the cycling section, keep checking the NH3 ... and start checking NO2 soon ..... maintain lowish levels of both with water changes <however much is needed - I eventually had to do 50% daily changes for a while >, and you should have a cycled tank AND healthy fish in due time.

OH - And welcome to AA!!

 

[NinjaBill]

The level climbed to around 1.2 today, so I carried out another 25% water change, and its back down to a little under 1 again. I'm going to see if i can pick up an NO2 test kit tomorrow, once the shops reopen, as hopefully I should be starting to see signs of that soon.

I'm also thinking of increasing the temperature a little. Although I dont have a thermometer for the tank, I'm guessing the temp will be a little lower than that of the room, which is around 20C (65F). A few sites that I have seen say that the goldies will be ok up to temperatures of 75F, although would seem very warm, so I might increase the temp to about 70. Having a heater would also allow the temp to stay stable when I go away for a few days later on this week, and turn the central heating right down when no one is about.

NB

 

[jsoong]

Higher temp will speed up the cycling process.

Depending on what kind of Goldies you have ... The fancy double tailed varieties like to be kept in the mid 70's, and some breeder would go as high as 80 to speed up their growth. Single tails prob should be kept below low 70's, however.

 

[malkore]

also, the typical 'rule' is 1 goldfish per 10gallons of water, due to the size of most species, and because they are messy fish (they weigh twice as much as a tropical fish, thus produce almost twice as much waste)

 

[NinjaBill]

Hi there,

I've purchaced a heater for the tank, in order to take the temp of the tank up a few degrees to around 72, this will have the advantage of hopefully speeding up the cycling a little bit, and also making sure the temp of the tank doesnt fluctuate too much when im away from the house for a few days, and turn the house heating right down.

thanks for your help so far

With regard to the 1 goldfish per 10 gal rule, I was initially told that 2 small goldfish would be ok in a 10 gallon tank, but have since read that this is not true. A friend has said he will put them in his pond if i want, but that it probably isnt a good time of year to do this, as it will start to freeze over at the top this time of year overnight, and that I am best waiting until the weather warms up again before putting them in the pond.

Hopefully theyll be ok in this tank, How much are they likely to grow over the next 6 months?

NB

 

[malkore]

they should be ok for 6 months, but don't add any additional fish to the tank.

 

[SeriousDude5]

I like my ammonia low because I had an inncodent with Ammo-Lock and it spiked my ammonia. I this everything is fine the tank is still cycling as for water changes everyother day for the rest of your fish tank career that will get old real fast when everything settles down you can do 5g a week. Good Luck

 

[NinjaBill]

The ammonia level has now dropped to zero, so I guess phase 1 of the cycle is over, only the nitrites to contend with now. I still havent got a nitrites test kit, so Ill have to continue with the water changes to keep them low. My LFS kindly donated a small bag of gravel from the tank the two fish came from origionally, which is now in the tank, to knock down the time for the niterites to go down.

Unfortunately, while I was there, I was measuring up a new 40 gal tank, so I fear I may have come down with a bad case of MTS all ready.

 

[jsoong]

You are half way there! With the lfs gravel, the second phase might go quickly & you won't have much of a NO2 spike. However, I would start checking the NO2 to see what is up.

BTW - MTS is a good thing!