First Amonia Test Results Scary...

[deli_conker]

How much are you feeding your fish? When you do water changes are you vacuuming the gravel?

I would suggest not feeding for a day or two (it won't kill your fish) and make sure you vac that gravel. If you see lots of debris coming out then that's probably where the problem is. Anything you put in the tank, stays in the tank. Excess food will rot into ammonia.

Will that make my tank all dependant on Ammo and not able to remove the amonia on it's own?

without a source of ammonia, the bacteria that convert it will die off. The ammo lock will indeed bring the ammonia down, I don't know how fast it works, so you could try to put it in there for an hour or so and see if that makes any difference. My gut feeling is to stay away from anything that I have to perpetually add to the tank (aside from new water and food).

I use the "aquarium pharm master freshwater test kit". It has a dual reagent ammonia test, nitrIte, ph, high end ph and, general hardness tests. The only thing it doesn't have is a nitrAte test...

good luck...

 

[cginflorida]

Ammo Lock doesn't get rid of ammonia, it changes it to a non-toxic form (or so the company claims). You'll still get the same ammonia readings on tests. The advantage is that it keeps the cycle going, the disadvantage is you can't tell if it's truly non-toxic, or when you should add more, etc.

I suggested it earlier in this topic as a last resort kind of thing. If you can get by without the Ammo Lock that would be best.

Good luck!

 

[Mayonnaise]

Menagerie:

Latest Readings:

Nitrates = 0
Nitrites = 0
Amonia = 4.0-5.0
pH = 7.6+ (off the chart toward the Alkaline)

There's a bunch of crud down there and I haven't a clue what it is, cause it's certainly not hikari betta bites, or bettamin (I alternate.) Looks like dust. I used to change 20% a week, and since this amonia reading i've been changing 30% a day, but it doesnt' ever seem to get any cleaner. It's like there's an infinite supply of that crap.

deli_conker:

I used to feed 3 Betta Bites OR a pinch of Bettamin. Since the Amonia Problem Started I've gone to two Betta Bites and scrapped the Bettamin entierly, cause sometimes he would spit that out.

Uh... the question about Amonia remover Vs Ammo Lock was answered at some point, and I got the other tests... so I'll just asume you somehow missed page 2.

cginflorida:

I'm moving more and more toward wanting to use that stuff too... especialy after my shrimp died.

8^(

 

[deli_conker]

it's certainly not hikari betta bites, or bettamin (I alternate.) Looks like dust.

My guess is that it is the betta bites or bettamin. Every fishfood I have ever used (aside from frozen) turns into dust. I bet your ammonia spike is from it decomposing. Regardless, I would recommend getting rid of the dust. A small gravel vac runs less than $8 where I'm from...

good luck

 

[Mayonnaise]

Well I cobbled together my father's old air bubbly gravel vac, took out all the plants and went after the gravel until I thought my back was gonna give out from the awkward way I had to hold it...

Does anyone know of a safe adhsive one can use to glue a gravel vack back together? Cause the ones they cary in the stores are all to big for my tank, and my father's is a pain in the butt to use, since, it's broken, (my kid brother stepped on the shaft that the air hose is attatched to and snapped it off after the funnle and bag, and before the clipy holding the airhose, making it a two handed operation... and two hands dont' fot so well in a two gallon hex tank...)

We'll see if the amonia comes down now... though I'm still woried about my lack of Nitrates... cause shouldn't there be at least some if I've got bacteria?

8^S