Question about ammonia testing

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Convict2161

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Hey family, hope all is well with everyone and hope you had a great holiday.

My question is this, those who know me,know I have bad OCD and I've been trying to cut back on the testing like I was 3x's a week. I'm doing good sometimes just once a day and one day I even skipped!! :)

Anyway I tested today and. I ammonia? Water change, last Sunday. How can I have 0 ammonia? Everything else is fine. pH 8.2,nitrite 0, nitrates 20.

Where did my ammonia go? Overstocked and now I have probably about 15-17 Anubias and 4 java fern. I do flourish 2x a week and have root tabs in place.

75 gallon tank, temp is steady at 78-79.

Could the plants be helping along? Just find it odd, not use to seeing no trace of ammonia and wc done on Sunday.

Also I always dose with Prime during water change and I know it's been discussed ALOT here on the forum but I do use Seachem's Cichlid salt (not all the time) so far it turns out to once a month but I dose accordingly.

Well that's it.

Happy New Year!!
 
jetajockey said:
Your tank is cycled isn't it? If so it shouldn't have an ammonia reading, overstocked or not.

Yes jeta it is. I didn't know that, so I shouldn't have ammonia in my tank when cycled over stocked or not. Interesting. If I may ask and I hope this isn't a stupid question but... Where does it go? I see them pooing and I see it floating around then settling into the gravel. So a cycled tank will give no ammonia unless something is wrong I guess right?
 
Ammonia is primarily released by fish through respiration, so it's not something you will see. But it's basically the nitrogen cycle, as they produce ammonia, bacteria eat it and convert it to nitrite, and then another group of bacteria eat that and convert it to nitrate.

If you add a bunch of fish (more ammonia) then you may see a spike for a little while, which is called a minicycle, but eventually the bacteria colony will compensate.

New tanks do not have large bacteria colonies yet, so it takes time for the cycling process to get going.

You are right, a cycled tank will not give an ammonia reading.
 
Your BB is crushing that AMMO!!!! Also your not really overstocked concidering your filtration. Your prime is detoxing your ammo also. The API kits are very sensitive and also cant tell the difference between free ammo and the inert bound ammo. In all realatity we (me and convict are ocd) change our water more than we need to.
 
Jmedic25 said:
Your BB is crushing that AMMO!!!! Also your not really overstocked concidering your filtration. Your prime is detoxing your ammo also. The API kits are very sensitive and also cant tell the difference between free ammo and the inert bound ammo. In all realatity we (me and convict are ocd) change our water more than we need to.

You got that right! Water changes anyone?! Haha just saying it makes me wanna go do a pwc!! :)
 
Well a frequent water change schedule is a good thing for sure. I wouldn't count on Prime to do anything beyond a 24-48 hour time period though, it dissipates, however it doesn't really matter since your tank is processing nitrogenous waste efficiently.
 
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