Constant .25 PPM Ammonia

[Mrduna01]

So my tank has been running for a few months now and has cycled fine. Initially for a couple months I got a constant .25 reading of ammonia even though I had 0 nitrites and an acceptable amount of nitrates. I eventually tested my tap water I use for water changes. I did this after wondering why water changes only increased the ammonia. I have 1 ppm in my tap water come to find out. So, I held off on water changes for a few weeks and it dropped to 0 ammonia. That would be good I guess but is this safe for the fish with 25 % pwc? I would prefer to maintain 0 at all times but purchasing water every time would be costly. How do people normally handle this? I do use Prime in all added water.

Secondly, right now I have ugly blue gravel and would like to change to a PFS. The tank is currently stocked with 3 clown loaches and 5 tiger barbs. It's a 30 gallon tank. What challenges would the ammonia in the tap water present due to removing a large amount of water during the addition of sand and replacing with the tap water?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

So my tank has been running for a few months now and has cycled fine. Initially for a couple months I got a constant .25 reading of ammonia even though I had 0 nitrites and an acceptable amount of nitrates. I eventually tested my tap water I use for water changes. I did this after wondering why water changes only increased the ammonia. I have 1 ppm in my tap water come to find out. So, I held off on water changes for a few weeks and it dropped to 0 ammonia. That would be good I guess but is this safe for the fish with 25 % pwc? I would prefer to maintain 0 at all times but purchasing water every time would be costly. How do people normally handle this? I do use Prime in all added water.

Secondly, right now I have ugly blue gravel and would like to change to a PFS. The tank is currently stocked with 3 clown loaches and 5 tiger barbs. It's a 30 gallon tank. What challenges would the ammonia in the tap water present due to removing a large amount of water during the addition of sand and replacing with the tap water?

Thanks for the input!

If you have chlorimine in your tap water prime converts/binds it into a less toxic form of ammo that the bacteria can still use, so it's not uncommon to see it up to 48hrs after a PWC using Prime.

On the PFS, I'd suggest putting you fish in a 5g bucket, pull the gravel and put in the PFS. An air stone should be used for the fish while doing this, unless you can fit your filter on it.

 

[Mrduna01]

Ok sounds good. I may give the sand a go but it makes me nervous to make a change that big when one of my clown loaches just now got comfortable and came out of hiding after 3 weeks.

 

[Hubert90]

Ok sounds good. I may give the sand a go but it makes me nervous to make a change that big when one of my clown loaches just now got comfortable and came out of hiding after 3 weeks.

But remember after all these changes. Best to acclimate ur 3 loaches again. So they dont get stressed. They will be stressed from being removed from their tank! And wash the sand before adding! Haha good luck!

 

[Cartosbartos]

just wondering how the loaches behave around the tiger barbs do they show them whos boss ?

 

[Mrduna01]

I will make sure the little dudes are as comfortable as possible.

The barbs and loaches do fine together. One of the loaches I have seen actually school with the barbs. The other two loaches keep to themselves. The only time they show any hostility is during feeding and even that is just a little wrestling here and there.

 

[Mrduna01]

All turned out well with the pool filter sand. The loaches seem to dig it (literally)

 

[Mr. Limpet]

All turned out well with the pool filter sand. The loaches seem to dig it (literally)

Sweet!

3 of my 4 tanks have PFS and I love it.

 

[Mrduna01]

Sweet!

3 of my 4 tanks have PFS and I love it.

Yeah I think I love it already. I have read horror stories about the process of making this change but the whole thing took me an hour and a half including cleaning the sand.