Next steps re ammonia

[Marvensmom6]

Hi, I’m Karen and it’s good to meet you! I have a few questions and hope someone can advise me. I have a 10 gallon aquarium with 3 ottos and a betta. I made the mistake of buying freshwater test strips on Amazon and my water tests were perfect, or so I thought! Almost killed all of my fish as the ammonia was off the charts when properly tested. I’m sure it was from over feeding algae wafers to my ottos.

Local fish place said to clean gravel and do water changes daily. This was nearly 3 weeks ago and ammonia is .25. For the first week fish were not fed, now feeding bettas 3 pellets once a day. Ammonia still .25! Have not fed ottos in nearly 3 weeks.

Can my tank cycle if I’m changing water daily? Can I feed ottos algae wafer yet? Should I keep doing nearly 60% water changes daily? Is .25 ammonia safe? SOS please! Thanks ? Karen

 

[Aiken Drum]

A couple of points to start.

- 0.25ppm ammonia is perfectly safe. Ammonia isnt as toxic as you might have been led to believe. Your ammonia test isnt even testing for ammonia, it tests for total nitrogen ammonia (TAN) which is free ammonia + ammonium. Its only the free ammonia that is toxic. The ammounts of free ammonia and ammonium in the TAN you are detecting will vary depending on your water temperature and pH. The higher these are the more of your TAN is free ammonia and therefore more toxic. At typical aquarium tempertures and pH your TAN can get quite high before it becomes toxic, like into whole numbers. What is your pH?

- You might actually be seeing zero ammonia. Its common for ammonia free water to test as 0.25ppm. Test some bottled water which will be zero ammonia and compare with your aquarium test.

- I would also test your tap water for ammonia. If your water is treated with chloramine rather than the more common chlorine this will be a source of ammonia into your tank.

Let us know how you get on with testing some bottled water and your tap water, and we can advise further based on these outcomes.