My ammonia won't go down.

[MageAssassin]

So i have a 55 gallon tank and cycled it for two weeks. After those two weeks tested the water and it showed i had 2ppm ammonia which i thought was weird. I went to my local pet store and they said it could be a false reading and to put fish into my tank to see if they survive. After doing that i noticed my water got cloudy and my ammonia went to 4ppm. I went back to the store and they said to test my tap water and when i did it had a high level of ammonia. I did a 25 percent water change and filled it back up with spring water and add prime seachem and stability for the fish. It's now been 2 days and my ammonia hasn't gotten any better. What should i do? I don't want to kill my fish.

 

[ColdKoi]

How did you cycle your tank? Do you understand the basics of the nitrogen cycle ?

Aiken drum should be chiming in here soon. There’s a whole phone book that’s put together about the nitrogen cycle that is a great read for beginners

Basically unless you used cycled filter media from an established tank, you didn’t cycle your tank in 2 weeks.

What were the ammonia levels in your tap water? How many fish in the tank?

Unfortunately if you’ve got more than a few fish in there you’re going to need to do quite a few water changes before the tank cycles which is going to be 4-8weeks from the time the ammonia source (fish food and waste) is added to the tank. Large regular water changes aren’t very practical if they can’t be done with tap water. But if you’re tap water only tests minimal positive for ammonia (under .25ppm) I would just go with that and do more frequent water changes.

There’s a few factors at play here. The higher the water ph and the higher the water temperature, the more toxic ammonia is to the fish. Generally your safe up to the 1ppm range and if you can keep it under that you should be able to get through till the tank cycles. If you were at 4ppm and only changed 25% water you’re still way above an acceptable level for any condition, at 4ppm you’d want to do at least 75% water change to get it down to 1ppm then another 50% water change shortly after to get it down to a more acceptable level.

As you can see, it’s going to take quite a bit of water to maintain water quality in the tank until it’s actually cycled. So, say you’ve got .25ppm ammonia in your tap water, it’s not ideal, but in this case with enough water changes you’ll be able to maintain ammonia under 1ppm without having to lug 5000gallons of water through the house in the next few weeks!

I don’t want to scare you, but you’re probably in for a bit of work till the tank is cycled. This is honestly a daily scenario we see here, fish shops either don’t know or don’t care about educating the customer. They just want to sell the tank and fish and send you on your way. If you’ve got a bit of time to devote to the tank for a few weeks it’s really no big deal, I fish-in cycle my tanks and even going full dummy mode and throwing almost 40 comets into a 36gal to cycle was still manageable with daily water changes

 

[MageAssassin]

I used quick starter to start the process and ghost fed. I also have four live plants and two bubblers. I recently just upgraded my filter to one with bio wheels and have a nitrate pack in the filter tank. I have four fish currently, 3 Cichlid and one pelco. Also my tap water is testing for over 4ppm ammonia so I won't be using tap water anymore. Gallons of spring water is only a dollar a gallon so that isn't an issue. I have added stress coat and stress enzyme for the fish as well, with all water changes and filter change I did.

 

[ColdKoi]

Oh boy. Yea if you’re testing over 4ppm from the tap, you’re looking at having to lug around a lot of water. That’s not a massive bio-load to start a fish-in cycle but it’s also not what I’d think is ideal given the fact that you’ll need to lug at minimum another couple hundred gallons of water in the next week or 2 to maintain water quality

Seachem prime is another great mystery juice to use for dechlorinating and detoxifying. In the worst case scenario you can use something like ammo-lock which works as intended but typically throws off future ammonia tests until it’s flushed out (making it hard to know where you’re actually at with water quality)

Unfortunately Quick start and many of the other magic cycling juices seem to be hit and miss. Definitely alot more failure stories than success stories. Especially in such a short timeframe. Have you seen any nitrites or nitrates to indicate the cycle has even started yet?

 

[MageAssassin]

I have been using prime seachem for the last few days. I added a bunch two days ago and it went from 4 to 2 but since I have been adding more it hasn't gone down. How much can I add in a day? Also when I went to get the fish the test strip said I had some nitrate in my water. According to my test strip I have none but with my api water test I have some so I have no idea. I will note my water was real cloudy after adding fish, then when I added prime it cleared up a little and when I did a water change and add spring water it cleared up completly.

 

[ColdKoi]

Cloudy water is a sign of some bacterial blooms which is good (but looks bad! Lol). Quite common on newer tanks.

Nothing you dump in the water is going to magically remove the ammonia it just converts it from ammonia to ammonium which is less toxic. It’s a bandaid solution but helps in these situations. Imo you’d want to dose heavy on the first dose and on following days dose for the tanks water capacity. You can’t overdose prime (or so they say), but it is wasteful to just keep dumping it in when it’s not doing any good

 

[MageAssassin]

I've had the cloudy water before but it went away after a few days. This stuff stayed for over 7 days. So what should I do to get rid of the ammonia? I feel like I have exhausted all my options and it won't get under 2ppm

 

[ColdKoi]

Water changes. That’s the only thing you can actively do at this time to reduce it.

If youre at ~2ppm I would do a 30g water change followed by a 25g water change shortly after. That should get you into an acceptable range. When you see ammonia 1ppm and over do another 25g water change.

If you can get some cycled filter media from another tank that will definitely help you out. It’s not an instant full cycle but it’s amazing what one sponge can do!

 

[MageAssassin]

Will doing that big of a water change stress out the fish alot? I just did a water change Sunday night, Should I wait awhile to do it or can I do it tomorrow? Also where can I go to get some filter media?

 

[ColdKoi]

Ideally smaller water changes are easier on the fish, but when you’re talking about 2-4ppm ammonia I don’t think that really matters any more.

Yes in the perfect world, a ~25% water change is ideal as water quality, temperature and everything else is not going to shock the fish. You also have to consider the reason you’re changing the water, it’s quality and what you want to achieve.

It’s really simple math when you break it down. If you are at 4ppm ammonia and did a 50% water change you’d have 2ppm ammonia in the tank (if you’re adding 0ppm in the fresh water). Then another subsequent 50% water change would bring you down to 1ppm

If you started with 4ppm and wanted to do ~25% water changes, you’d do a 12g water change which would net you 3ppm ammonia. Then shortly after another 12g water change to net you 2.25ppm. Then another 12g water change to net you 1.6ppm, then another 12g water change to net you 1.2ppm, then another 12 water change to net you .9ppm…. And so on…. It’s a pattern of diminishing returns

In a case like this where there’s a major water quality issue, a couple large water changes are much more practical than many many small ones. It’s going to take less water to achieve the same goal and definitely a lot less work

I do weekly 75% water changes on my 36g comet tank and had no issues. My 75g usually only gets 25% a week mostly to replenish minerals as the water quality in there is usually fine for at least 3 weeks if necessary

 

[MageAssassin]

Thanks for the tips. Should I stick to spring water?

 

[ColdKoi]

Yes. If your tap water is not suitable it’s your next best alternative. Yo do not want to use a distilled water as that would not provide the necessary minerals for the tank to sustain the cycle and basically life itself.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Aiken drum should be chiming in here soon.

At 2.00am?

Thanks for the tips. Should I stick to spring water?

Have you considered collecting rainwater?

 

[ColdKoi]

At 2.00am?

No idea what time it is there lol

Rainwater wouldn’t be a bad idea but depending where the OP lives, it may be illegal to collect rainwater. It sounds stupid but welcome to the land of the free, the USA where collecting rainwater is illegal in some places lol

 

[MageAssassin]

Yeah i fell asleep but i already did a 10 gallon water change. When i do the 30 gallon change how long should i wait before doing the 25 gallon one? Also over a course of like 8 hours it went from a 2 back up to 4ppm for ammonia

 

[ColdKoi]

When doing large water changes I would give it at least an hour for things in the tank to stabilize and the fish to acclimate. Then do the next

 

[ColdKoi]

I would check around for a local aquarist hobby club or just a local that sells fish and see if you can get a filter sponge from them out of a cycled tank. That would save a lot of the messing around!

Alternatively you could check with your local fish shop which may sell you some cycled media from their system. But, that comes with a much higher risk of introducing disease in your tank as we all know fish shops tend to have a lot of sick fish come in to them from the fish farms

 

[MageAssassin]

Yeah 55 gallons of spring water bought. Now to get it into the house and start. I don't think there are any clubs near me. Just stores.

 

[MageAssassin]

So I don't know how to measure the water in the tank I did 25 gallons first is that a problem?

 

[Aiken Drum]

You dont need to be that precise in measuring water in and out. Remove roughly half, and refill the tank. Thats a 50% water change. Remove roughly a third and refill. Thats 30%.