Allowable ammonia spike for new fish

[bjtaylor]

Is it ok allowable to let the ammonia spike a bit just after adding new fishes or should I do a pwc to get it down? It's a 90g tank and the reading is between .25 and .50. I added 4 2.5 inch clown loaches. Tank is cycled. Please advise me

 

[OasisKeeper]

0.50 seems to me to be pushing it and probably calls for a pwc. This levels should drop quick (<24hours) if things are right. What was a the tank load like before you added the new loaches?

 

[bjtaylor]

Well before hand all my reading where 0 except for nitrAtes which where <25ppm and I have 7 neons, one 2" red tailed shark and 2 1.5" peppermint plecos.

 

[bjtaylor]

If I haven't given the filter a good clean in a while could that have caused the inability to convert ammo to nitrates quick enough?

 

[OasisKeeper]

From what you are telling me, the filter was not the problem.

Your bio filtering capacity adjusts to the load you have, which in your case was pretty light. These fish are a pretty big jump. It looks like you doubled the biomass or more.

This problem should correct itself before too long as the filter systems comes up to the new demands. You should do good size water changes as often as required until this occurs. In addition to that you may want to use a product that temporarily detoxifies the ammonia. There are many.

I would wait to have a go at your filter until this problem settles out. And then be careful to avoid too much disturbance to the filter media when you do clean it.

Edited to add: This all assumes that your filter was properly sized for 90 gal to begin with.

 

[bjtaylor]

I would hope it was sized to 90g as its a all in one aquarium. I'll do a water change now as well. One question about the ammonia detoxifies is a water conditioner by API enough or should I go get one specific for ammonia

Edit: never mind, just re read the bottle. Guess I'll be heaping to get some ammo lock in the morning

 

[bjtaylor]

Thanks for the advice, iv done a pwc and will see about getting some ammo-lock tomorrow, the fish seem happy and active but only time will tell

 

[librarygirl]

I wouldn't bother with the ammo-lock. If you can get Prime as your dechlorinator it will not only make the tap water safe but will detoxify the ammonia between water changes until your bacteria can handle it (not to be used in place of water changes). Until the bacteria grows to handle the new load just do water changes any time ammonia goes above .25. Good luck.

 

[jetajockey]

Ammo-lock dechlorinates and detoxifies ammonia just like Prime does, I don't think it is as concentrated though.

As to what your maximum allowable ammonia level is, it'd depend on your pH/temp and stock.