New 10 gallon high amonia

[sanjosalien]

I recently set up a 10 gallon tank my wife was given for our pea puffers. The tank has been up and running for 5 days now and from the start amonia has been reading at about 1ppm I did a water change yesterday and decided to dose with seachem prime this time and today when I test the water for amonia it's even higher.

Should I do another pwc to help reduce the amonia or should I wait the 48 hours prime says it is effective?

 

[King Fisher]

Prime will convert ammonia into ammonium for 48 hours....the safer version but it still reads as ammonia on test kits. Doesn't differentiate.

1ppm ammonia is to high. You should do back to back 50% water changes asap. This should bring your actual ammonia down to .25 ppm. You don't want to let your ammonia get above .25 ppm.

What I've found works best in small tanks such as you have is doing 50% water changes every 2-3 days. This is the schedule I've found to be most effective. I'd lean more towards every two days until your tank is cycled.