Hello! My husband and I are new to aquariums but we have done a lot of research. Our tank is about 2months old and was doing well until the penguin filter died on us. It is a 29 gallon freshwater, tropical tank with a tetra whisper, fish: 3 tetra, 3 cory cats and a sucker fish (unsure of his name at the moment), with 8 bioballs. Our guppies (6) died last night. Our nitrites are normal and nitrates are normal but the ammonia level is sky high 8. We have been dealing with the high ammonia for a while and can't seem to find the right answer from any fish store. In the beginning when all was going well I was doing a 10% water change weekly and I was told that was bad. The penguin filter died at 4 weeks and that was when I was told to leave the water alone period! I couldn't do that knowing there was high ammonia so I would do 25% water changes every other day and then was told by Petsmart just leave it alone and let it cycle. Last night we lost all of the guppies we had so this morning we emptied the tank and have our remaining fish in a bucket with a bit of old and new water. We cleaned the tank, washed the filter off in the water we took out, put tap water with conditioner back in the tank and the ammonia level is .5-1. Is it safe to put our fish back in? Will I need to do a 10%, 50%, or 75% water change again tomorrow? Should I do water changes until the ammonia is 0? Help
What do I do for a high ammonia level that won't come down?
- Thread starter Grizzly76
- Start date
I agree, if the ammonia gets above 1, do a water change to get the levels down. You'll need to keep doing that to keep the fish alive. An ammonia level over 2ppm will start killing your fish. While it may take longer to cycle, you will have fewer deaths, hopefully.
Unfortunately, cleaning out the tank and the filter was probably the worst thing you could have done, as that has probably destroyed a lot of your "good" bacteria.
Another thing you can do is to use a product called Seachem Stability to help with the cycle. Other, similar products aren't as good.
Unfortunately, cleaning out the tank and the filter was probably the worst thing you could have done, as that has probably destroyed a lot of your "good" bacteria.
Another thing you can do is to use a product called Seachem Stability to help with the cycle. Other, similar products aren't as good.
I didn't clean the filter I shook it off in the water we took out of the tank. The shocking thing is that our ammonia level has been high for weeks now and the fish were surviving in it. We cleaned the tank last week (35-40%) water change, had we known we needed to do it every day-partial we would have been doing that. Instead we have been listening to the pet store people-big mistake. What is even harder to understand is we only feed them once a night? None of it makes sense.
I am having a similar problem and I ended up doing 50% water changes two times a day until the level came down. My level was up to 8 and the fish seemed fine also. Kind of weird. I was worried about the water changes harming the fish since I was changing out so much a day but the fish are doing great and my ammonia level is finally 0 this morning. Took a lot of work though. I am no expert so listen to others before me but that seems to be working for me. Good luck.
Use PRIME to condition your change water.
It will de-toxify any ammonia in your tap water (if your water provider uses Chloramines for disinfection) or ammonia that may be present in your tank.
Also, if your water is properly treated you can change it as often as you like. When my 20 gallon tank was cycling I did 50% changes every day for 2 weeks.
It will de-toxify any ammonia in your tap water (if your water provider uses Chloramines for disinfection) or ammonia that may be present in your tank.
Also, if your water is properly treated you can change it as often as you like. When my 20 gallon tank was cycling I did 50% changes every day for 2 weeks.
Who sells PRIME? All we have around us is Petland, Jack's Aquarium, and Petsmart, not much of a selection. We tested it last night before bed and it was 1 this morning it was around 4 so we did a 30% water change and we haven't fed the fish for 36 hours. How long can we go without feeding them? Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, it really helps!
Using chemicals to help "detoxify" ammonia can really mess with your water testing, so IMO I wouldn't mess with it. A good water conditioner will work just fine. Test the water daily to keep it below 1.0 ppm. You can get by with feeding your fish every other day to every 3 days, believe me, they'll be fine (I feed mine like this), and this will cut back on the waste they produce.
Word to the wise, don't ask pet store employees for advice. To be an "expert" at some of those stores, they hand the new employees a brochure to read and then send them out on the floor.
Word to the wise, don't ask pet store employees for advice.
To be an "expert" at some of those stores, they hand the new employees a brochure to read and then send them out on the floor.
Who sells PRIME? All we have around us is Petland, Jack's Aquarium, and Petsmart, not much of a selection. We tested it last night before bed and it was 1 this morning it was around 4 so we did a 30% water change and we haven't fed the fish for 36 hours. How long can we go without feeding them? Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, it really helps!
It is a great product. A quote from their website : "Prime™ also contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic."
So even if you have high ammonia now, you can keep its toxic affects on your fish at a minimum by using it. It will still show the same level on your testing (does not interfer with the test results of the API test kit) until the aquarium cycles, but it does not interfer with the cycling process.
Ultimately, you want 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and a nitrate level under 40.
Seachem. Prime FAQ
"Prime works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime will not halt your cycling process."
Not that I work for them or anything (otherwise, I should get free PRIME to use instead of buying it online lol). I've used it for years in both marine and freshwater aquariums. I started using it in the marine tanks since it didn't affect the skimmers.
If you use a test kit for ammonia that can test for both free ammonia (toxic to fish) and total ammonia (includes both the toxic form and inert form), you can see that the ammonia is still THERE, but not in the form that makes it toxic to fish. The biofilter (nitrifying bacteria) can consume BOTH the toxic and inert forms of ammonia.
If you are having a nitrite spike, you need to overdose PRIME by 5x to detoxify the nitrite.
"Prime works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime will not halt your cycling process."
Not that I work for them or anything (otherwise, I should get free PRIME to use instead of buying it online lol). I've used it for years in both marine and freshwater aquariums. I started using it in the marine tanks since it didn't affect the skimmers.
If you use a test kit for ammonia that can test for both free ammonia (toxic to fish) and total ammonia (includes both the toxic form and inert form), you can see that the ammonia is still THERE, but not in the form that makes it toxic to fish. The biofilter (nitrifying bacteria) can consume BOTH the toxic and inert forms of ammonia.
If you are having a nitrite spike, you need to overdose PRIME by 5x to detoxify the nitrite.
Using chemicals to help "detoxify" ammonia can really mess with your water testing, so IMO I wouldn't mess with it. A good water conditioner will work just fine. Test the water daily to keep it below 1.0 ppm. You can get by with feeding your fish every other day to every 3 days, believe me, they'll be fine (I feed mine like this), and this will cut back on the waste they produce.
Word to the wise, don't ask pet store employees for advice. To be an "expert" at some of those stores, they hand the new employees a brochure to read and then send them out on the floor.
Word to the wise, don't ask pet store employees for advice.
To be an "expert" at some of those stores, they hand the new employees a brochure to read and then send them out on the floor.
i would do water changes until things were under control ( while testing with my API Master Kit ! lol )
Just my 2 cents, but I'd also caution against using chemicals to balance. When I was first starting out several years ago I had the prerequisite neglect-to-cycle-the-tank fiasco that it seems almost everyone must go through at least once when starting this hobby, and instead of letting things take their course through water changes I used a chemical ammonia binder. Needless to say, the tank never got a chance to cycle properly and maintaining it ended up being a balancing act I ended up losing along with most of the fish. Natural cycling is more time consuming, but ultimately is more fruitful, and if you can successfully rebalance an uncycled tank you can handle anything in this business.
I agree with OrangeCones. PRIME is good stuff. And a little goes a long, long way.
I've seen it in at least two fish stores near where I live. Any decent fish store should have it. Call around.
If you have an ammonia problem treat your change water with PRIME, but don't over treat. I was preparing some 5 gallon buckets for small tank maintenance and put 20 drops from an eyedropper in each bucket. I could have used 15 drops. Tested for chlorine using a HACH kit. Zero.
I've seen it in at least two fish stores near where I live. Any decent fish store should have it. Call around.
If you have an ammonia problem treat your change water with PRIME, but don't over treat. I was preparing some 5 gallon buckets for small tank maintenance and put 20 drops from an eyedropper in each bucket. I could have used 15 drops. Tested for chlorine using a HACH kit. Zero.
R
I had this problem when we first set up our 30 gallon tank. We ended up using just a little bit of freshwater salt and used ammo chips that we put in the media baskets of our Penguin 330 filter. Also did about 30% water changes every other day and it cleared up in about a week. We also used stress-zyme for the benefit of the fish during the water changes. Our tank takes care of itself now. If only I could stop evaporation!!
Thanks for all the advice. I am definitely not listening to the pet stores anymore! I will listen to the aquarium people! We have been testing the water daily for ammonia and on Monday it was 3-4 so my husband did a partial water change. Tuesday and this morning it was 1 so we did nothing. Is that what we should be doing? Just keep checking it and as long as it stays below 1 do nothing, just let it keep cycling? Our nitrites are normal and the nitrates are below 20.