Ammonia, what a pain

[WendiDell]

Ah, so many of us started right here. Doing what you're doing now.

Think of it as a rite of passage You're doing great.

Prime is some of the best stuff out there and it would take me some convincing to make me change. Fill your bucket, dose with Prime and give the water a good swish and let it stand for a minute. That's all you need to rid yourself yourself of chlorine. So many ppl here have a hose going from tap to tank and add Prime as they go. So, there's probably no need to worry yourself with chlorine tests if you're using Prime as directed on the bottle. And the test strips are (generally) so bad, you're probably getting false readings anyway.

I was using a dechlorinator that reduces fish stress. But, I changed to Prime when I stared this 2x a day PWC to get the cycling going.
Silly me, I thought at 52 I'd be done with those pesky " Rite of Passages". Guess not.
Oh well time for another PWC. I'll visit again when I'm done. Bless you all for sharing your wisdom and experience

 

[WendiDell]

Ammonia what a pain-update

I have an ammonia problem in both of my 55 gallon tanks. Since it is in both it must be something I'm doing, but I don't know what.
There aren't any nitrates or nitrites from over feeding. I only have 5 fish in one of the tanks, so I don't think it's overcrowding.
I have 2 filters on both tanks 1 is the Magnum Canister and the other is the Emperor 400, so there is adequate filtering.
Does anyone have a suggestions?
I'm really getting tired of doing water changes every other day, it's exhausting. But if I don't change the water at least every other day, by the 3rd day the ammonia level is 2.0ppm or higher.
I'll take any advice at all, I don't care how out there it may sound. This has been going on for 2 months and I'm at a loss as to what else I can do.
HELP

Hello All,
Good news, finally. My Cichlid tank now has 30ppm Nitrates after a PWC.
I found out that the stuff in my filters was a de-nitrate. It was suppose to be an Ammonia/denitrifying. So without rinsing anything or changing the water inside the filters, I removed the denitrafying stuff and put, Marineland's Premium Carbon-Ammonia Neutralizing Blend. And the next day The Ammonia was below .25ppm the, Nitrites were also below .25 and the nitrates were at 30ppm and the pH was 8.4.
So today I changed out the all the other filters the same way.
I"ll see if I start getting Nitrates in my other tanks. Other than my Cichlid tank I haven't been able to get my other tanks to cycle. But I'm not giving up.
Even though doing daily and some days twice daily PWC on 4 tanks is a lot of work. All my fish are healthy, no one has ammonia or nitrite toxicity. They are all active and eating well. So it's just a matter of time until they all cycle though and the maintenance will go down.
After that I can sit back and enjoy them like the rest of my family does.
I'll let let you know when that happens.
Many Blessings to all on AA.

 

[dkpate]

Glad to hear they are all doing well! Good work.

 

[WendiDell]

Glad to hear they are all doing well! Good work.

Thanks, it has been a lot of work. But to see them all happy and healthy makes the work not so bad

 

[ejaramillo01]

great news
keep an eye on the readings still. You must be sure that your tank is cycled and working good

 

[WendiDell]

great news
keep an eye on the readings still. You must be sure that your tank is cycled and working good

Not to worry, I'll be testing the water every am, until I get the same readings for a week.
Thank you for the message.
Sincerely,
Wendi