Ammonia levels in tank (yes, I'm a noob)

[fisharefriendstoo]

New fish owner here and yes I was THAT person who listened to my local pet shop "fish expert". Just last Friday(5/31) I bought and established a 10 gallon tank. 3 days (sunday 6/03) later I bought 3 Zebra Danio and a suggested freshwater ammonia test kit. Of course when looking into all this now I realize that was a terrible mistake on my part. Spare me the lecture I know it was careless. But I'm trying and learning now.

My ammonia water results are below
Sunday: .25
Monday: .25
Tuesday: .50 <--- did a 30% water change
Wednesday: 1.0 <----- 50% water change
Thursday: 1.0 <---- again 50%
Today: 2.0

My tank is kept at a 78-80 degree level. I have two live plants in the tank and a filter.

Are these readings normal? And if not what do you suggest I do to correct the current situation. Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[Deep Seven]

Are you treating your water with Prime water conditioner? It is very concentrated so it will be somewhat difficult to measure out a small enough amount for a 10g water change, but it can help prevent the ammonia from hurting the fish while you're trying to establish your cycle.

Don't be afraid to do two water changes back to back. Make sure the temperature is right and the water is treated and do one right after the other to get the numbers down to a safe level.

The cycle is Ammonia (harmful)=> Nitrite (harmful)=> Nitrate (only harmful in high concentrations) and right now you're trying to build up enough bacteria to eat the ammonia and nitrites being produced.

I'd also suggest at the very least you want a freshwater nitrite test kit as nitrites can be very harmful as well and you want to know when the bacteria start producing it. A nitrate test kit would also be useful to know when you've finished establishing a good cycle. Sometimes you get a stealth cycle and the bacteria that consume nitrites and produce nitrates eat the nitrite before you can get any readings.

I'm trying not to dumb it down, so if you have any questions ask away. There are some good articles in the link up top where you can read more about starting a new tank with fish. Here's one to get you started I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

 

[Iodizedfate]

Standard thought is that you want Ammonia and Nitrite to be below 0.25. You can do as many water changes as you need to get it down to that level, just make sure you treat it with a de-chlorinator (most people here use Seachem Prime) and that the water temp is the same that is in the tank.

As stated before, bacteria will take care of the Ammonia and Nitrite for you, but until then you're going to have to watch it closely.

Read the link that Deep Seven posted. It should explain everything a lot more.

 

[librarygirl]

Good advice above. Also FYI Zebra danios are too large and active for a 10 gal. Your ammonia is rising pretty quickly so it's already showing that the tank is overstocked. Try to keep up on water changes; with ammonia at 2, youll need to do 3-4 50-60% water changes back to back to keep it down. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/guide-to-starting-a-freshwater-aquarium/