Ammonia Level Issues?

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foofoodar

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 29, 2014
Messages
25
My tank is crystal clear, I am starting to get some brown & green algae build up on the fake rock centerpiece I have in my tank, but nothing that is really overthrowing my tank.
I am confused by all the readings I have been getting, I know when the tank is cycled Ammonia & Nitrite should be at zero, but I have never had very high Nitrite levels, and my Nitrates were only high once so far, but I can't seem to get ammonia down to zero, here are my readings that I have taken since about a week after I started the tank with the API freshwater Master Test Kit:

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

Here is a picture of the tank:

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life
 
Nothing looks abnormal to me. Just give it some more time. It'll cycle. Nitrites never get extremely high in my experience, especially if you keep up with water changes, and you are doing a fish in cycle.
 
With the readings you see in the picture, how often and how much water should I be changing?

I thought about changing the filter sponge that is a combination of sponge, polyfoam, and buying accurel ammonia reducing sponge and put a 50 micron floss pad in front of it...

But i am new to this so I really have no idea what im doing...
 
Don't worry about ammonia removal products. Just water change any time your ammonia or nitrite go above 1ppm. In a couple of weeks it'll drop to 0 and you can go to doing water changes every couple of weeks.
 
Sounds good I'll keep watching and doing water changes...

Thanks!
 
Don't worry about ammonia removal products. Just water change any time your ammonia or nitrite go above 1ppm. In a couple of weeks it'll drop to 0 and you can go to doing water changes every couple of weeks.

So I did a water change last night, about 4 gallons out of the 16, and this evening my levels are still:

PH 7.5
A 0.5-0.75
NI 0
NA 3-5

I was wondering why the ammonia level wasn't lower bc of the water change, so I tested my tap water, I don't know if the fact that I didn't de-clorinate it will give bad test results, but I had some interesting results from the tap

PH 8.5 ??????
A 0.5
NI 0
NA 3-5

Is prime suppose to lower PH? And apparently I am adding ammonia to my tank when I do water changes...anything I can do about this?
 
Your water is probably treated with chloramines which is what the ammonia test is seeing.

This is totally normal. As long as your tank is cycled this is nothing to worry about. It should go away pretty quickly.
 
Your water is probably treated with chloramines which is what the ammonia test is seeing.

This is totally normal. As long as your tank is cycled this is nothing to worry about. It should go away pretty quickly.

Should I be waiting 48 hours to test or with the ammonia as high as it is should I be changing the water everyday until ammonia is 0?
 
I would do a 50% water change whenever your ammonia reaches 1ppm.

What are you keeping the temperature at right now?
 
Looks like I'm getting some more brown algae, at least that's what I think it is, the ghost shrimp like it:

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

Here is my API ammonia test I just did, I am having a hard time telling if it is .5 or 1, I'm leaning towards .5 at one angle, and 1 at a different angle

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

Here is all of my tests, my PH is concerning me, all of this time I thought it was a 7.4 but now I am wondering if it is 7.4 or 8.0, it is hard to tell, but I tested my tap water last night with no treatment and the PH was 8.4 or higher...

Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

Any thoughts are appreciated, I am a newbie to this...
 
I have decided that the biological filtration of the Fluval C2 doesn't seem like it is adequate to handle this tank for some reason, not sure if there is just not enough media...the ammonia doesn't seem to ever turn into nitrite, and right now my nitrate levels are sitting at like 5ppm, so I'm not sure what is going on or if that is the right decision, but I am upgrading it to the fluval C4, on the low flow setting it isn't pulling much more than the c3, and I will have the largest space for media, so I am going to move all my media into this filter plus add quite a bit more and see
 
I had some success tonight! I just tested my water, PH 7.5, Ammonia 0, NItrites 0, Nitrates, maybe 3...maybe...

I switched from the Fluval C4 from the C2, is it major overkill for my 15.8 gallon tank...YES, but on the low flow setting it only cycles a few gallons per hour more than my old filter, and it has ALOT more room for all of the filter media, I dumped all my old media in it, filled the bio chamber with seachem denitrate instead of what came with it and I swear before this evening I don't think I ever had an ammonia level below .5
 
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