voltageknight
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 10
Two weeks ago I decided to start up a quarantine tank for a future fish purchase. It is a brand new 10 gallon tank with a brand new filter and heater. I used bottled water (to flush out carbon, residues, etc.) that was free and clear for every test with naturally the exception of PH. Even though I know it shouldn't have nitrates or nitrites, I figured its better to test anyway. Chlorine shows a false positive for ammonia anyways.
I used tap water to fill the tank before placing any media or the heater. It tested positive for ammonia so I know there had to be one heck of an amount of Chloramines in it since it sat in buckets for 2 days prior. I treated the tank after adding water to it with Stress Coat+. No change happened. I grabbed my bottle of Ammo Lock and gave it a 20 gallon dose of that, still no change. I even bought a new master test kit thinking it went bad. The same. I even tried treating every two days with a 20 gallon treatment.
Yesterday I took the plunge and put as much Ammo Lock as I could till it hit 0ppm of ammonia. It held for 12 hrs. yesterday. I just finished testing first thing a few minutes ago and I am right back to where I was. With half a bottle gone (about 160 gallons worth) on a single 10 gallon tank and reading 1ppm. I am stuck and stumped.
No fish. No media. No gravel or substrate. Nothing. I allowed the water to circulate till the following morning before testing.
At fill up: PH 7.4, AM well above 8++ppm, NI 0ppm, NA 0ppm.
Now: PH 7.2, AM 1ppm, NI 0ppm, NA 0ppm.
Please help. I can't and don't feel at all comfortable with trying to start a cycle when I have this issue still going on after two weeks of fighting it.
Thanks!
I used tap water to fill the tank before placing any media or the heater. It tested positive for ammonia so I know there had to be one heck of an amount of Chloramines in it since it sat in buckets for 2 days prior. I treated the tank after adding water to it with Stress Coat+. No change happened. I grabbed my bottle of Ammo Lock and gave it a 20 gallon dose of that, still no change. I even bought a new master test kit thinking it went bad. The same. I even tried treating every two days with a 20 gallon treatment.
Yesterday I took the plunge and put as much Ammo Lock as I could till it hit 0ppm of ammonia. It held for 12 hrs. yesterday. I just finished testing first thing a few minutes ago and I am right back to where I was. With half a bottle gone (about 160 gallons worth) on a single 10 gallon tank and reading 1ppm. I am stuck and stumped.
No fish. No media. No gravel or substrate. Nothing. I allowed the water to circulate till the following morning before testing.
At fill up: PH 7.4, AM well above 8++ppm, NI 0ppm, NA 0ppm.
Now: PH 7.2, AM 1ppm, NI 0ppm, NA 0ppm.
Please help. I can't and don't feel at all comfortable with trying to start a cycle when I have this issue still going on after two weeks of fighting it.
Thanks!