Ammonia Question

[Joeyb1731]

I have a 55 gallon tall tank. I cycled with Bio Spira (the refrigerated kind) and got 2 red tailed botia loaches and 1 parrot fish ( NOT DYED) I got the tank going on January 16 and had the 3 fish an Bio Spira in it on the 19. added 2 potted plants and a few fake plants to my tank the following few days, I also started using my master test kit. On the 22 I added a gold gourami. On the 23 I did my first 25% water change. Before this my tank had 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 5.0 Nitrates, pH of 7.4 which is high but its just about the same as my tap and it has always remained constant, and a temperature between 78-80. The water change went very well for my first one, aside from the new hose coming out of my bucket and spraying my entire carpeted room with water. Then on the 27 I added a blue gourami and another undyed parrot. I added some stress coat with some tank water after handling them. I checked the water in the morning on the 28th and the ammonia was the only thing that changed. it was at under .25 ppm I had to go to work so I figured I would check it again when I got home. I did and it was AT .25 ppm so I did about a 15 % water change. I tested the ammonia right after and it seemed to go down a little I figured id give it 24 hours. So this morning I woke up and it was back at .25 ppm, so again I went to work, when i got home i tested it again and it was definitly over .25 not quite .50 yet, I also noticed my usually playful fish were all hiding out. I got nervous and did a 25% water change right away I did a very good job to siphon all the gravel to the very bottom and cleaned as much as a could. The fish came back out right away after. I tested the water and its definitely below .25 for right now.

I do not over feed my fish, I underfeed actually



I was looking for some helpful advice (besides not using bio-spira which i know for my next tank). Is it tru that bio-spira causes a small ammonia spike before it clears totally out? Can certain things like stress coat cause false ammonia readings? any thing else i should know?

 

[MissFishy]

With bio spira your tank should be immediately cycled. One thing you might want to make sure is that you are treating your tap water when you add it to the tank. Typical tap water is treated with chlorine and/or chloramine so you need a water conditioner to remove that from the water you add to your fish tank, otherwise the tap water will kill off your good bacteria and make your tank cycle all over again.

Also start considering your stocking levels, you are fully stocked now. Parrots get very large and messy. Even with that size tank you may run into trouble with the parrots and gouramis and territory issues.

 

[Joeyb1731]

Thanx missfishy I am treating the water b4 I put it in with a dechlorinator and I'm done buying fish I plan on upgrading to a 150 gallon tank as soon as I can afford it and I'm gonna do a fishless cycle and hopefully switch these fish to it. I'm still a newbie and I wanna make sure I can do this or I'll bring the fish back but thanx 4 the feedback

 

[TMony]

Joeyb1731
You asked above if certain things can cause a false reading on your ammonia tests . . . you didn't mention AmmoLock, but if you are using it, it will cause a false positive reading.
I recommend using Prime to treat your water when you do your normal water changes. It won't give you the false readings and is just a great product.
Good luck and welcome to MFT!

 

[Joeyb1731]

i use a pH 7.0 and dechlorinator. I dont think it does give positive readings for ammonia but i did hear that stress coat does. Also i dont know if you know but I heard that at about the 10 day mark the bio-spira causes a small ammonia spike but under 1.0. I wanna pull my hair out, I tried so hard to do things right with this tank but i feel like im doing everything wrong and learning the hard way. I DO NOT want to loose my fish, I would feel like a failure.

 

[Avalon]

Bio-Spira is a bacterial seeding agent, not an ammonia cure. It will take time to naturally develop a strong biological filter. Having said that, it does help.

I would immediately stop using the pH adjuster. It causes more problems that it solves. Since it will never maintain a set pH, that means it only causes problems. It may be this product and not ammonia that's hurting your fish. It's not the pH swing that hurts fish, it's the ingredients that do. You don't need stress coat either.

To keep ammonia down, feed your fish only 2-3x a week. They'll live. They don't need to be fed every day, much less 2-3x a day. When your tank begins to establish, you can feed more often.

After all of that, keep your water changes up if you notice any ill-behavior. Laboring over test kits will only stress you out. Just watch the fish. If they aren't begging to be fed, beating each other up, or swimming happily, something's wrong.

 

[Joeyb1731]

thanks for the advice. Yea the fish seem pretty good, and the test kits are driving me nuts, i test my water 3 times a day. Thanks for the info about the bio spira too, i hope it clears up.

 

[LadyLail]

I read your post and skimmed the rest- hope I'm not repeating if it's already been suggested, but you might not want to vacuum the gravel right now while doing a WC. That's just getting rid of bacteria colonies that need to form to stabilize your tank long term. If you get rid of too much good bacteria, you may get a bacterial spore outbreak (New Tank Syndrome). NTS will look like your tank is hazy white and the side view will be more hazy and clouded than the front view- not that I'm recalling from experience or anything .


Also, I've never had a Botia, but if I'm not mistaken, loaches do better alone or in schools. Pairs and trios can lead to aggression. Loaches also do well with other single loaches. Botias might be the exception, IDK. Keep plenty of hiding places for them to cut down on the aggression or return one, because you don't really have the room for a school of those guys. They get purty big... like 10-12" or so...

 

[jo3olous]

Also, I've never had a Botia, but if I'm not mistaken, loaches do better alone or in schools. Pairs and trios can lead to aggression. Loaches also do well with other single loaches. Botias might be the exception, IDK. Keep plenty of hiding places for them to cut down on the aggression or return one, because you don't really have the room for a school of those guys. They get purty big... like 10-12" or so...

A botia is a loach,

Clowns, Rainbows, Khulis, YoYos <--- all loaches, all part of the botia family

 

[Lostlilkidd]

With the ammonia at those levels, they shouldnt be toxic.
correct?

 

[LadyLail]

Okay, I was refeering to the Red Tailed loach he had. I didn't know it was a family name. I've never been good with scientific names anyways. I'm a common name type of gal . Just too lazy to type the "red tailed" part. Sorry.

What I meant then, was IME loaches do best alone, with a school of the same exact kind of loaches, or with other different types of single loaches.

Thanks for the correction jo3olous. If you browse the other threads, I made that mistake in another post this morning too.

Hey! Now I can sound smarter when I talk about loaches, I'll be all, "yes, my Lepidocephalichthys guntea botia is doing quite nicely today *lights pipe and sips a spot of tea*." I'm a dork. Back to work I go!