ammonia problem

fred1985

fred1985

Medium Fish
#1
Sep 24, 2010
71
0
0
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
#1
im having a problem with ammonia in my tank. being new to the pet fish hobby I have realized I have jumped in to this way to fast I currently have a 30 gallon and a 20 gallon tank the 30 gallon is where I am having a problem. I have had this tank set up now for 3 weeks and being stupid I never bother to read up on anything or cycle the tank with out fish and I jest started to set it up I ran it for 3 days before I pot in a live plant and 3cherry and 3 gold barb fish I had them in the tank a week and had to separate them the gold was to nippy so I kept the cherry and added 2 neon and 2 penguin 1 head and tail tetra to the tank with the cherry barbs they have lived in harmony for a week and I pout in 4 more neon and 3 more penguin tetra 2 cory cats and 2 zebra snails now its going on week 4 and I was checking the ph level and it was 7.0 and I decided to check the ammonia levels and when I matched up the tested water to the chart it showed 1.0 mg/l so I got on the net and read that this was not a good reading and that I need to lower the level so I did a 50% water change yesterday and another 50% today and after about 2 hours after today’s water change the ammonia level is 0.25 and the ph dropped to 6.0 I also added nutrafin cycle and for those that ask yes I conditioned the water with nutrafin aquaplus and aquarium salt and I only feed them once a day arround 5:00 pm I feed them tropical flakes one day and frozen blood worms the next. so what I am wondering is how many more water changes should I do and was it a good idea adding nutrafin cycle ???
 

prsturm

prsturm

Large Fish
#2
Aug 13, 2010
100
0
0
#2
Holy punctuation, Batman!

To help control your ammonia while your tank establishes it cycle, you can buy SeaChem Prime, which will neutralize harmful ammonia by converting into ammonium. However, it will only do this for about 48 hours before de-binding and changing back into ammonia. So keep up with your daily water changes. Add SeaChem Prime every other day to neutralize the ammonia and change the water out every day.

Also, be careful about your pH. Having dropped to 6.0 is a drastic change and will stress out your fish even more. If you're having problems with pH, you can buy pH buffers like Kent Marine's pH Stable or something like that. It adds carbonates to your water so that it can maintain a steady pH.

Also use a dechlorinator (SeaChem Prime acts as a dechlorinator as well) for all water. Get SeaChem Prime. That is your number one task.
 

fred1985

fred1985

Medium Fish
#3
Sep 24, 2010
71
0
0
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
#3
thanks for your reply i will defently try what u mentioned and keep up with the water changes do i still do 50% change everyday and for how long? and about how long does it take the tank to cycle and for the ammonia to drop to 0 or .25? will the ammonia ever go away ?
 

brian1973

brian1973

Superstar Fish
#4
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#4
I think prstrurm did a good job of covering everything but IMO I wouldn't mess with the PH...it is common for the pH to fluctuate doing a cycle, once the cycle has ended the PH will stabilize.. but he/she is correct that that does seem to be a big change within 24hrs and will stress the fish out but if your doing daily water changes your pH really shouldn't fluctuate that much IMO. If you do decide to try to stabilize it using a chemical (which I would never recommend) ensure you have matched the tanks pH reading before adding the water to the tank, a sudden pH swing can kill your fish. I am providing a couple good links on pH that I hope you read thoroughly before deciding to do mess with your pH. My tanks are well established so I have not checked my pH in over a year on any of my tanks.
Aquarium pH - The First Tank Guide - What About Adjusting the pH in My Aquarium?
Troubleshooting pH Changes in Your Fish Tank - The First Tank Guide - How Can I Figure Out Why My Aquarium pH Is Changing?
Heres another one from the beginner stickies in this forum http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/fre...questions/12326-guide-beginners-part-1-a.html

Also as prsturm mentioned I only use prime in my tanks, this is the only chemical that goes near my tanks period.

Also check the readings of your tap water as a reference point for your tanks,for example if you have 1ppm of ammonia coming out of your tap you are going to show that in your tanks, once they are cycled any ammonia coming out of the tap water will quickly disappear.

Welcome to the tank
 

Last edited:
prsturm

prsturm

Large Fish
#5
Aug 13, 2010
100
0
0
#5
fred1985 said:
thanks for your reply i will defently try what u mentioned and keep up with the water changes do i still do 50% change everyday and for how long? and about how long does it take the tank to cycle and for the ammonia to drop to 0 or .25? will the ammonia ever go away ?
Click to expand...
At the risk of inundating you with too much information, the amount of ammonia in your water is split between "free" ammonia (the dangerous kind), and bound ammonia. This usually doesn't matter in established tanks as 0 ammonia is the goal and the norm. However, during cycling, you can keep track of free ammonia using this calculator.

The ammonia will go away once your tank establishes nitrifying bacteria and can process the ammonia into nitrites and nitrates. This will take 3-6 weeks. A long time I know, but that's just the plain reality of the Universe!

Some people advocate daily 50 percent water changes during a cycle with fish. You can do that. If you're not comfortable with that, you can do 1/3 water changes, since, in actuality, the amount of free ammonia in your system is way less that what the tests give you.

Of course, once your tank is established, you want zero ammonia to keep things absolutely safe and non-toxic.
 

brian1973

brian1973

Superstar Fish
#6
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#6
Thats a interesting tool, very good info prompted me to do a google search on them .. here is another one that may be a bit simpler just because all you have to do is enter your readings but temp readings must be entered in Celsius , I did compare it to the chart on the site provided and the results did match, personally if I cant verify it with my own readings I am cautious.
ammonia calculator

A fish in cycle is going to take considerably longer than a fishless cycle. The shortest fishless cycle I have seen without any assistance from an established tank is probably around 5 weeks, since being on this and other forums I have seen fish in cycles take months,yes, literally months.
 

Last edited:
fred1985

fred1985

Medium Fish
#10
Sep 24, 2010
71
0
0
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
#10
thanks for the info. i notice that my fish gills are realy red and there actink kinda funnny not swimming properly and lingering arround the top and bottom of the tank so i preformed another water change today 50% and i tested water stright out of the tap and the levels where 6.5 ph and 0ppm ammonia i was shocked so then i tested with conditionar and salt in the water before i added it to the tank and it was the same so i added it wated 3 hours and tested it agen ph never changed it is still 6.5 and the ammonia is now 0.25 befor i did the change it was .50ppm so not to bad today but my fish still seem a bit strange i got a fealing that i might have to take out some dead fish tomorrow but i shure hope not . i am using liquid tests ammonia is api and ph is hagen nutrafin test. im surching arround here localy for that prime stuff but no luck so far :(
 

fred1985

fred1985

Medium Fish
#13
Sep 24, 2010
71
0
0
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
#13
Yea sorry for the bad spelling lol ok so next water change I won’t add salt. Yes I have 2 hang on back filters aqua clear 50 and a 20 and I will have to get a kit today for testing nitrites I have a kit for testing nitrates I will only use liquid tests. So this morning when I got up I still had all my fish but still red gills they seem to be moving about ok now but still red gills I am going to do another water change tonight or mabe this afternoon im still wondering about the plant I got to fish another leaf out of the water now lol but it is still growing has lots of young shouts. Im also wondering if I should get some established gravel from another tank or should I jest keep mine the way it is ? I have a question I also have a 20 gal tank in cycling process the ph in that tank is 6.5 and ammonia is 0 wondering when should I clean it is set up now for a week and a half when would be a good time to clean it?
Thanks
 

Dylandrewsdad

Dylandrewsdad

Large Fish
#15
Aug 13, 2010
870
0
0
Sicklerville, NJ
#15
How many and what fish? What type of filter? Have you read the sticky on cycling the tank? In Short your fish produce Ammonia which is toxic to fish, ammonia can also come from over feeding, beneficial bacteria turn eat the ammonia and produce nitrItes, also harmful to fish, different beneficial bacteria eat the nitrItes and produce nitrAtes. Is lower amount nitrAtes are not harmful to fish. Most of us keep the nitrAtes below 20. As far as PH, while it is important, a stable PH is most important, don't mess with it for now. You have lots going on with two fish in cycles. It is very important to do 50% water changes on both tanks daily.
 

fred1985

fred1985

Medium Fish
#16
Sep 24, 2010
71
0
0
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
#16
The 20 gallon has a HOB aqua clear 50 and there is 14 fish and 1 snail like I posted before I jumped into this way to fast with out reading anything. (5 gold barbs 5 tiger barbs 3 molly and one cory cat and a snail) so I know I got too meany fish in the tank but that’s all I can do about it now lol so I should do 50% water changes Daly on that as well guess I should start today
 

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