I am having trouble with ammonia levels. They went up to 2 & I used ammolock as suggested by lfs. Now I keep getting readings of 8 after 2 40% water changes and a 50% change. Can this be the ammolock causing this? Fish are all fine & lost none of them.
Ammonia elevated
- Thread starter Jmd
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librarygirl
Look It Up
What test kit are you using? If ammo is at 8 the fish would likely be showing signs of distress if not already dead. Products like ammolock are temporary and usually only detoxify ammonia up to a point: (found online, presumably taken from the botle) "Each dose of Ammo Lock will detoxify 3.0 ppm of ammonia"
Does your tap water have ammonia in it?
I'd suggest more water changes to get that ammonia level down. A 50% water change will only reduce it to 4, so you'll need to do quite a few back-to-back changes to get that ammonia down to under .5.
What size tank, what fish and how long has it been set up?
Edited: AFTER your water changes
you might want to read these links:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/guide-to-starting-a-freshwater-aquarium/
Does your tap water have ammonia in it?
I'd suggest more water changes to get that ammonia level down. A 50% water change will only reduce it to 4, so you'll need to do quite a few back-to-back changes to get that ammonia down to under .5.
What size tank, what fish and how long has it been set up?
Edited: AFTER your water changes
you might want to read these links:http://www.aquariumadvice.com/artic...g-but-I-already-have-fish-What-now/Page2.html
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/guide-to-starting-a-freshwater-aquarium/
I use the API master test kit. Fish are all fine which is why I wondered about false readings. Makes no sense to me. It's a 75 gallon freshwater. I have 7 mollies 2 small angels, 3 platys, 3 phantom tetras, 4 neons, 2 serpae tetras, 1 pleco. It's been set up about 7 weeks. I went to lfs yesterday & got prime & a filter media that's supposed to reduce ammonia & some plants. I added that last night. The media went in only one filter that had only carbon filter in it so did NOT remove the old filters. I plan to do another water change today if tests high again when I get home.
librarygirl
Look It Up
You have a large tank which is good. I suspect a faulty test kit or testing error. How old are the bottles? On the front they might have a date stamped on the front or bottom of the bottles or a series of numbers; if it's a series of numbers the last four are the date of manufacture (e.g. 0910 would be Sept 2010). I belive the ammo test are good for 2-3 years so you might want to double-check. Could also be a faulty batch of liquid, I've heard of that happening. Shake both ammonia bottles for 10 seconds or so before using them, sometimes that helps.
Ugh. Tested & shows ammonia at 4. Lost 1 fish. His tail fin was eaten looking. No new fish in 2 weeks but will watch to see if one is aggressive all of a sudden. Did 50% change. Will test agin this evening & see if need to do another. I have a question though. When I did change I added prime for the water amount I replaced. Is that right or should I add enough for whole tank size?
librarygirl
Look It Up
You can do it either way. If youre using buckets you can add the amount of Prime for each bucket and then refill each bucket. Or you can add the Prime to the tank but add enough for the whole tank and then just refill. I use a water changer that attaches to my faucet so after I drain I just add enough Prime to the tank for the whole volume of the tank then refill from the faucet. Using buckets would be similar.
Well 4 ppms is better than 8 but far from ideal. If it's 4 and you did a 50% water change ammonia should still be around 2. I'd wait a bit but I'd do another water change tonight and then another tomorrow, particularly since fish seem to be showing symptoms of poisoning.
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Prime is good but what actually does it "locks" the NH3.It's good but it's temporary patch. What you need is to enlarge the number of bacterias that eat NH3 and this can be done with a bottle of Tetra Safe Start. I know people are pro/agains BB but i saw it working in my new aquarium.Also i discovered something REALLY interesting about bacterias feeding.Please read this thread where i've posted more details : http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/high-ammonia-223108.html
librarygirl
Look It Up
Looks good, just keep testing. Have you had nitrites yet? Also don't touch the filter media (e.g. don't change it out even though the manufacturers say you should).
boadams87
Aquarium Advice Addict
What size filter do you have?
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