Struggling with ammonia new tank

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katw1986

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 30, 2024
Messages
25
Location
Barrie ontario
Hi everyone,

I have a mexican dwarf crayfish (got at end of December) and I have been struggling with new tank syndrome. Or at least thats what the pet store is calling it. Crayfish was trying to jump out about a week ago so the pet store tested my water for me, and said I had a bit of an ammonia spike. (I cant remember what the numbers were sorry)did a water change of 25% and added prime like they told me to. I have my own kit now and have been tested the water. I changed the water again yesterday because the ammonia seemed to be at .50, and I added prime again. I have also been adding stability.

I am new to this whole tank thing so unfortunately I did not cycle the tank first when I got it. I am learning the hard way. The pet store tested everything else and said the other levels were fine. again, I'm not sure what the numbers were.

I Tested the water again today since I did a water change yesterday, and it looks like .25 to me? It's kind of hard to tell with the colors.

I'm not sure how to move forward, how many water changes to do etc OR how often I'm allowed to add prime.

Would you guys like me to test everything else to see what its at? I'm still learning about all this cycle stuff 😵‍💫 the lady at the pet store has crayfish and she said they are more tolerant of slight ammonia levels🤷‍♀️

I have a 5 gallon tank with a hang on the back filter with charcoal cartridge.

Thanks!!
 

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I'm not sure how tolerant to poor water quality crayfish are compared to fish, but with fish you test your water every day for ammonia and nitrite. Add them together. If the combined total is 0.5ppm or higher you change enough water to bring that combined total below 0.5ppm.

So in your case you have 0.25ppm ammonia, and zero nitrite. Combined 0.25ppm. No need to do a water change. Tomorrow your ammonia may have risen to 0.5ppm and your nitrate is still zero. Combined, that's 0.5ppm. Still no need to do a water change. The next day your ammonia has risen again to 0.75ppm and your nitrite is still zero. Combined, that's 0.75ppm. Change 50% of the water to get it below 0.5ppm combined.

It may be a couple of weeks before nitrite starts showing up, so sometime in the future you might see ammonia at 0.25ppm and nitrite at 0.5ppm. Combined, that's 0.75ppm. Change 50% of the water to get it below 0.5ppm combined.

This is called a fish in cycle. It typically takes a couple of months to complete, at which point you will consistently see zero ammonia and nitrite and you should see nitrate rising day by day. You are then cycled enough for your crayfish and can just get into a regular water change routine which will control your nitrate levels.

If you want to be more cautious you can do and water change whenever you detect any ammonia or nitrite, but it might take longer to cycle the tank if you don't allow any waste to build up.

Do you understand what the nitrogen cycle is and what's going on in your aquarium?

FWIW your ammonia looks more like 0.5ppm, but your eyes looking at the test tube and card will be more accurate than me looking at a photo.
 
Last edited:
Very informative, thank you that helps a lot!!

Yes I am starting to understand the basics of the nitrogen cycle

So I should continue testing the water daily to keep an eye on the ammonia and the Nitrites?

Should i only add in prime when doing water changes?
 
What you are experiencing is the nitrogen cycle so it's totally normal. Here is what is going to happen in graph form: 1736702006280.jpeg
As you can see, your ammonia is going to go up then down, the nitrites will start to go up as the ammonia starts to peak and go down and the nitrates will go be going up as the nitrites begin to peak and go down. Here's the problem, most invertebrates do not handle this cycling process well. They need clean water. I would not depend on chemicals like PRIME to just detoxify the ammonia and nitrites. You need to get rid of them so that means either more frequent water changes or adding the nitrifying microbes that consume and convert the ammonia and nitrites. Many of the " bacteria in a bottle" products do not have a good history of working or working quickly so your best bet is to use filter material from an established healthy freshwater aquarium. Once these microbes are present, they will multiply quickly and get your tank cycled faster. If you cannot get any of this material, water changes are going to be your crayfish's best friend. It's going to take longer for your tank to cycle this way but at least your tank will be safer for it's inhabitants. If you were to try one of the Bacteria in a bottle products, the only one I've had success using has been Fritzyme #7. I would even use this over the Fritz Turbo because that product needs to be refrigerated so if the store did not keep this refrigerated the entire time or during shipping, the product most likely is dead and a waste of money. Regular #7 does not need to be refrigerated so as long as it's not over heated or frozen, it should be alive.
Hope this helps. (y)
 
Test at least every day. If water parameters are getting very bad one day to the next, you might want to test more frequently.

Once you are cycled and comfortable that your water parameters aren't doing anything unexpected you can cut back on testing. Eventually you will probably testing altogether unless you see some unusual behaviour and do a test to see if its a water quality issue. I don't remember the last time I tested water on an established aquarium. At least 12 months ago.

You need to dose a water conditioner whenever you add tap water to your aquarium. Prime has an added benefit that it detoxifies some ammonia for a period of time, but if you are doing your water changes to keep water safe, then the water is safe and Prime is a safety net. Only use Prime as the safety net, dont rely on it.

There is a lot of debate about whether Prime and prime like products actually do what they claim. Seachem has a bit of a reputation for making claims they can't back up. And everyone else then has to make similar claims to compete. Discussions with actual chemists suggest that it probably does detoxify ammonia, but that it probably doesn't detoxify nitrite and nitrate, which they also put on the bottle, but if you read their own technical info it gets a bit wooly.
 
In addition the the above information, i would do a 25% water change if it looks like there is any color in nitrite, which can be dangerous at any level. Sometimes not immediately but can damage internal workings and creature can perish weeks later from less that good working internal organs.

If it's more than .25 I would do 2 - 25% one after the other, or one larger percent up to 50%. Crayfish can at times live in less than ideal conditions. The higher selected breeding of the animals, the higher chance they can be more delicate. Once they start having issues with poor water quality it can affect their ability to fight off additional instances of poor water quality/ sneaky spikes.

Also just make sure to feed tiny amounts, and the amount they can consume in 15 minutes to half an hour. And if at all possible remove uneaten food. Better to feed smaller amounts that won't go uneaten.

I love Dwarf Crayfish.
 
I was definitely overfeeding when I first got him but now after talking to the pet store I know better. I feed him every other day, 1/2 of a sinking wafer. Whatever he doesn't eat i take out after half an hour.

He doesn't seem to eat very much. He finished molting about a week ago. He is roaming around and exploring and active so everything seems okay. Yesterday he nibbled on the wafer a tiny bit and that was it.

Do they not eat very much?
 
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