steady 2ppm ammo?

[JakeVS]

hey!

In my 20g tank running an aquaclear 30 filter my ammonia has been steady at about 2ppm for a little over a week now. i had been doing 25% PWC's daily to try to bring it down. today i decided to test my tap water for Ammonia, read about 2ppm as well. I am using nutrafin aqua plus conditioner. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jake

 

[Josh]

Has the tank been cycled?

 

[JakeVS]

for quite a while yes. been up and running for about 3 months.

 

[Rosenweiss]

The best way to neutralize ammonia in your tap water is to use AquaSafe conditioner, or another that neutralizes chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia. If you use it, the ammonia in your water will be neutralized, but you're still going to have the reading.

The reason is that it turns ammonia into ammonium, and the test tests for both. But it won't be harmful to your fish.

 

[carey]

hey!

In my 20g tank running an aquaclear 30 filter my ammonia has been steady at about 2ppm for a little over a week now. i had been doing 25% PWC's daily to try to bring it down. today i decided to test my tap water for Ammonia, read about 2ppm as well. I am using nutrafin aqua plus conditioner. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jake

What do you have as far as bio load in the tank? If youre using a dechlorinator when you do pwc's then you should be ok. But still, that 2ppm is quite high. I'm curious as to what you keep in there.

 

[JakeVS]

I have a 5" gold gourami, 4 2.5" rosy barbs and 2 neon tetras (which will be moved and restocked up to 6 when my brother's tank finishes cycling)

 

[carey]

Hm. I'm not sure that's not a whole lot fish LOL

When was the last time you did a pwc and how much do you usually do? Have you tried testing your tap water after you put in the aquasafe but before it goes in the tank?

 

[JakeVS]

last PWC was about 20-25% yesterday, have not tested after using the aquasafe. usually do a 20-40% PWC depending on water conditions. and will test my tap water with the dechlorinater tomorrow when i do another PWC.

on a side note... thank you for the quick replies.

 

[carey]

hey, no problem, just wish i had a simple answer for you. But all the information is here so the real genius' can chime in.

 

[Rosenweiss]

Just remember, even if your tap water's ammonia is being neutralized, you'll still get a false reading. Are you using liquid or test strips?

 

[carey]

I'm curious to see if the test will confirm 2ppm. I've used prime and others on tap water with ammonia and still tested 0 in the tank.

 

[Rokuzachi]

I use prime on my tap which has .25-.5ppm in it and it still shows up on API's ammonia test. Something you can do to try to bring it down in your tank is use fast growing stem plants (anacharis, moneywort) if you aren't already. A good amount of those is capable of consuming quite a bit of ammonia. Perhaps try increasing your biological filtration by adding another Aquaclear filter with a couple bags of bio-max or whatever it's called in it if you don't mind spending the money on a second filter.

 

[carey]

I've used salifert test kits, maybe they only detect actual ammonia. never tried it with an APi test kit

 

[Rosenweiss]

Like I said, if you're treating with a dechlor like aquasafe, the test will still come up positive, but the ammonia is neutralized.

 

[JakeVS]

hey folks,

sorry i did not get a chance to get on for a few days, was busy with work, the ammonia test with freshwater and the dechlorinater did confirm 2ppm. although, my dechlorinater does neutralize ammonia, so i should be okay. everyone seems to be healthy and active. thanks for all the help!

 

[Rosenweiss]

No problem!