Ammonia

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

snowdude

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Apr 2, 2004
Messages
107
Location
STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK
My ammonia spiked to .25 in my display tank, and in my QT tank it spiked to .50. What do i do? I did a water change in my display tank on sunday. my lfs told me to put a peice of lr in my QT to help the ammonia.
 
Water changes are in order in the QT. If you add LR to the QT, it may bring the ammonia down, if the LR is cured, but that LR is there to stay ;)
 
DISPLAY TANK: i have lr and a wet dry filter
i am not feeding as of right now, and nothing dies in the display tank

QT TANK: i have lr and biowheel filtration
no food, and a had a tang that died in there, it is possible that when he dies he let everything out.
 
reefrunner69 said:
Water changes are in order in the QT. If you add LR to the QT, it may bring the ammonia down, if the LR is cured, but that LR is there to stay ;)

SO YOU ARE saying to leave the lr in and also do a water change in the qt? 10% change? And i should let the display take its course? If i change the water in the qt wont it have less bacteria, or stuff it needs in it, since there are no fish currently in it? (i filled it with water from my main tank) I plan on gitting some on thurs if the water condition in the QT is correct.
 
you need to bring the ammonia down, I suspect the LR wasn't cured. If you do not have any fish in it, you can do some small water changes while the LR cures and wait to add any fish until the tank cycles.
 
snowdude said:
reefrunner69 said:
Water changes are in order in the QT. If you add LR to the QT, it may bring the ammonia down, if the LR is cured, but that LR is there to stay ;)

SO YOU ARE saying to leave the lr in and also do a water change in the qt? 10% change? And i should let the display take its course? If i change the water in the qt wont it have less bacteria, or stuff it needs in it, since there are no fish currently in it? (i filled it with water from my main tank)
What RR means is once the rock is used in the QT it must stay there permanently. You cannot use it for anything else in the future. Personally I would not suggest it. If you ever need to use copper or other meds, the rock will either absorb the meds making them less effective or it will need to be removed during treatment inwhich the needed bacteria goes with it. Water in itself does not hold the bacteria so there is no worry there. The water changes actually help reduce the nitrogenous waste materials that feed the bacteria. What you need is more surface area's for the bacteria to colonize. Any inert plastic will work well. PVC pipe is usually prefered. It provides the necessary surface area's while at the same time giving the fish someplace to hide a feel secure.

With the display tank, if you used uncured LR (or there are any animals at all) I would continue with the water changes to keep the ammonia at a minimum. If it's just precured or base rock with no added life, I would let it run it's course. Once the QT is ready and the first fish goes through the process (4 weeks) the main tank should be more than ready.

Cheers
Steve
 
snowdude said:
how long would a 12 GAL take to cycle? I just put the LR in the tank last night. I was already cured from the holding tank in the lfs.
Depends on how long the LFS had it curing for. Fresh rock will typically take 4-6 weeks to properly cure. Although the rock you purchased may be fully or partially cured, the tank will still take a few weeks to cycle. Keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite daily to monitor the progress.

Cheers
Steve
 
Fresh rock will typically take 4-6 weeks to properly cure. Although the rock you purchased may be fully or partially cured, the tank will still take a few weeks to cycle. Keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite daily to monitor the progress.

this stands true, even though I used water from my established tank to fill the 12 gal qt?
 
Keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite daily to monitor the progress.

Cheers
Steve

I do testing, and its the same everyday. I test my QT and display everyday. I am using a buffer in both to raise the PH. Could this be a reason for the spike? So what do i do if the ammonia does not go down? PLEASE help, i have had my tank for 4 months now. its a 65 gal
 
snowdude said:
Fresh rock will typically take 4-6 weeks to properly cure. Although the rock you purchased may be fully or partially cured, the tank will still take a few weeks to cycle. Keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite daily to monitor the progress.

this stands true, even though I used water from my established tank to fill the 12 gal qt?
The water from the main tank does not hold any beneficial bacteria that will help reduce the chances of a cycle when transfered to the QT. Only hard surface materials will transfer bacteria. Since the main tank has ammonia present, there is a possibility it does not have enough surface area or the LR (if?) you added is contributing to it.

What's in the 65 gal right now?

Cheers
Steve
 
snowdude said:
Keep tabs on ammonia and nitrite daily to monitor the progress.

Cheers
Steve

I do testing, and its the same everyday. I test my QT and display everyday. I am using a buffer in both to raise the PH. Could this be a reason for the spike? So what do i do if the ammonia does not go down? PLEASE help, i have had my tank for 4 months now. its a 65 gal
If there are no live animals in either tank, just let them run until they cycle properly and no longer show traces of NH3 or NO2. If either tank has any animals, you need to keep up with the water changes (sometimes daily) to keep the ammonia in check.

A buffer will not contribute to ammonia unless you are either spiking the pH/alk severly causing fauna die off. Be sure that prior to each addition of buffer you test both to see where they are and determine the proper dosage if any. I would suggest that you rely more on the water changes at this point to correct the chem. Low pH is typically from low GPH and/or covered tanks. Depending on how much LR was added, it will also play havock with the pH.

Cheers
Steve
 
Back
Top Bottom