Are we sick of Ammonia threads yet?

[SkwidsLair]

I've been doing 20% water changes for a week, and my ammonia levels are still 3.0 (sometimes higher). The tank's a bit cloudy. My nitrites/nitrates are both in the safe zone and my pH is sitting (where it always has) at 7.5.

I am running two Eheim 2215 cannisters, and have three 'bubblers' for additional water movement.

I have a small powerhead that I got strictly for current, but I haven't hooked it up yet.

I can't figure out why my ammonia is so high. All fish are accounted for.

What I'm thinking, is that the for Amazon swords I added could be causing the spike. I know that live plants will help with ammonia levels. Healthy plants. Would unhealthy plants do the opposite? They have a couple brownish leaves on them...even a couple of holes.

 

[Lotus]

If your ammonia levels are at 3, then your water changes aren't large enough. It sounds like you have too many fish in a small tank, if the ammonia is getting that high.

And yes, rotting plant matter will add to your problems. You should always remove any dead leaves as soon as you see them.

 

[homebunnyj]

OMG, are you serious about the ammonia levels?! If so, you gotta do more than 20% wc's.
A 50% would bring it down to 1.5 or thereabouts, which is still too high. Just be careful with the temp and ph. Adding the water very slowly would be good with large water changes.
Pruning the brown leaves is a good idea. You don't want any rotting leaves in there, it can't be helping a bit.
Also, with really high ammonia, you want to make sure your gravel is well vacuumed. I know, you don't ordinarily disturb your gravel bed while cycling, but there is quite possibly some rotting debris somewhere in your tank. Also, you want to lift up all ornaments and rocks and such, checking under them as well as up inside the ornaments for hidden organic matter.
What exactly are your nitrite/nitrate numbers? Have your nitrites peaked and come back down, or have you not ever had a nitrite reading?
You're not cleaning your filter media in chlorinated water, are you? You're not replacing your media, right? I know you've been here a little while and probably already know this stuff, but I just wanna make sure of these things.
Hang in there.

 

[SkwidsLair]

My tank has been up and running for a while now. It's a 75 gallon. The list is as follows:

4 Rosey Barbs
4 Glass Cats
4 Shrimp (2 ghost, 2 zebra AEs)
4 Khuuli Loaches
1 ID Shark
1 Black Shark
1 Albino Rainbow Shark
1 Silver Lyretail Molly
1 YoYo Loach (currently suffering from fin rot)
1 Golden Apple Snail
2 Oto Cats
1 Flying Fox
1 Clown Pl*co
1 Royal Pl*co
4 Amazon Swords

All my fish are still in their small stages, and I have a 60 gallon on the way to alleviate the bioload.

Nitrites and Nitrates both read 0 (in the lowest 'colour' range).

When pruning the amazons, do I take the leaf off by taking the stem of that leaf from the stem of the plant?

EDIT: Oh, and I have been cleaning the gravel every other water change. Once a week I take everything out and do a really good vaccuum. I have yet to change or clean any of my filter media...but I know I need to rinse them in tank water.

I was told by my LFS that a 50% water change could be VERY harmful to my fish.

 

[wayne]

Well a 50% water change with pH and temperature matched or at least reasonably close is not going to kill anything. Plenty discus farms do 100% daily rather than bother filtering.

Frankly if you have ammonia at 3, are your fish looking healthy - they should be looking terrible. I thnik your test kit is kaput OR you have used at some point something lie ammolock that renders the ammonia harmless, but still picked up by testkits.

In ammonia levels of 3 fish will be looking terrible, if not dying. And it will take more than a few rotting leaves to do it

 

[SkwidsLair]

My fish (other than my yoyo loach) look fine. They aren't gasping for air at the surface, and they're as active as they ever were.

I have used Ammo Lock recently...so I guess that's it. How long does this stuff stay in the system?

I'm using a Tetra Test Laborette. All the chems come in bottles, and I've had it for about a month and a half to two months. It shouldn't be expired already, should it?

Still wondering about the plants...where do I prune them? At the bottom of the leaf, or at the bottom of the leaf's stem?

 

[homebunnyj]

I prune mine at the base of the stem.
Have you ever had a nitrite spike? or nitrates? If not, the ammo-lock may possibly be interfering with the cycling of your tank.... since the bacteria have to have a food source to multiply and survive. If this isn't true, somebody please chime in. I've never used ammo-lock myself.
Water changes, as opposed to tank additives, are your best bet to bring down the ammonia with minimal impact on your cycle.

 

[SkwidsLair]

Yes, my tank has cycled...I had my Nitrites/ates spike before I added fish.

I've heard it's possible to put a tank BACK into the cycling process again, and it's possible that's what I've done (hence the cloudiness).

All fish seem to be well, though...active, hungry, usual behaviour. Even my Pl*cos and Glass Cats come out to play more frequently.

I've even got my Khuulis playing in the day time.

meh...it's prolly just the ammolock. I'll wait it out, keep doing water changes til that stuff dissipitates.

Thanks all...I'll keep ya posted if there's any breaking news updates.

 

[Avalon]

Your worrying worries me. Be sure not to overcorrect here. Do not overfeed your fish, and only feed them once per day (for now). Keep regular 30% water changes up every week. Keep the temperature on the low side (74-76F if you can), and oxygenate the water regularly. I wouldn't do anything drastic at this point. You probably have a faulty test kit, and even if you "don't," test kits are not to be relied upon. Nothing is dieing, so apparently, nothing is that wrong. Slow and steady will win the race here.

 

[SkwidsLair]

Your worrying worries me. Be sure not to overcorrect here. Do not overfeed your fish, and only feed them once per day (for now). Keep regular 30% water changes up every week. Keep the temperature on the low side (74-76F if you can), and oxygenate the water regularly. I wouldn't do anything drastic at this point. You probably have a faulty test kit, and even if you "don't," test kits are not to be relied upon. Nothing is dieing, so apparently, nothing is that wrong. Slow and steady will win the race here.

That's basically what I've been doing...as I really didn't know what else to do. lol

 

[wayne]

I would blame the ammolock myself. I have no idea if it stays in solution or binds to the substrate or whatever, but as long as the fish look ok who cares.

After a few months the test kits should certainly be good. I'll give you a tip tho' - some tests rely on easy, simple chemical reactions and are pretty repeatable, reliable - pH, kH, gH come to mind. Some are not so easy, and typically when tested against stock solutions the tests have proven a bit hit or miss - ammonia and nitrate fall into this school. So don't rely on these as 'gospel' - when people say tis week my nitrate was 30, last week 25, what's going on,', frankly the test kit is not that accurate, be it tetra, hagen , salifert or whatever. Unless you want to spend a lot of cash , 70, 80 dollars per single kit.

 

[SkwidsLair]

Is it possible for the ammonia to be high without a trace of nitrites?

I'm thinking that if I can't solely rely on these 'kits', I'd like some other way of cross-referencing things. My fish looking 'ok' isn't really enough for me. My angels looked 'ok' and they died.

 

[FroggyFox]

Well you can always go back to testing a 'control' ie like your tap water or bottled water so you know what 0 ppm looks like. Yes it would be possible to have lots of ammonia with no nitrites...but usually I'd think that'd be followed by a nitrite spike because you're re-cycling the tank.

I'd think the ammolock would stay in the tank until you successfully wc 100% of the tank (over the course of time...when you do a 30% change then 30% of the remaining water with ammolock will be taken out...so its never really 100% gone). BUT I'd think after not using it for awhile you'd start seeing the ammonia level go down.

If your tank is still sort of cloudy (white cloudy, not green) I'd say leave it alone for a few days, keep a close eye on your fish. That bacteria could be trying to re-establish itself and every time you do a water change its making it start over.

 

[SkwidsLair]

Okay...I'll try that.

Everyone seems to be doing well..including my loach.