I Hate Ammonia! Help Me!!

D

dattack

Large Fish
#22
Oct 22, 2002
982
0
0
#22
[quote author=aspguru link=board=freshwatergeneral&num=1021430961&start=15#20 date=06/07/02 at 21:57:25]
What do you do if there is?
[/quote]

Well did you check your tap water you used?  If there is you have to find another source such as from your LFS or those vending machines at your local supermarket for 25 cents/gallon.
 

equinom

equinom

Large Fish
#25
Oct 22, 2002
386
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0
The Blue Planet
#25
Do you have access to an established healthy tank?  If so, get a couple of handfuls of gravel from it and add to your 55 gal tank.  That's what finally did the trick for my Bio-Wheel.
After adding the gravel - the ammonia and nitrites went to 0 within 1 week.
How about the nitrite and nitrate levels?  What do you have going on there?  
 

A

aspguru

Large Fish
#26
Oct 22, 2002
213
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0
www.aspalliance.com
#26
Well, to be honest with you, I haven't tested nitrate and nitrite. See my LFS are a bunch of bozos so they never told me I needed to check for that. They are also the ones that said that I could go ahead and put all my fish in there after 2 weeks. Which screwed up my cycle. :-X
 

equinom

equinom

Large Fish
#27
Oct 22, 2002
386
0
0
The Blue Planet
#27
By testing nitrite and nitrate you'll be able to see where in the cycle you are.  
Ammonia spike
ammonia starts to drop, nitrite spikes
ammonia to zero, nitrites drop, nitrates appear
ammonia zero, nitrites to zero, nitrates go up
ammonia zero, nitrites zero, nitrates up and maintaining - cycle complete
And the regular water changes after that eliminate the nitrate
or at least keep it in control.  

I have seen some great graphs of this cycle on line - but I can't remember where.  If I run into them I'll let you know.
 

A

aspguru

Large Fish
#28
Oct 22, 2002
213
0
0
www.aspalliance.com
#28
Ok guys, I finally bought the master test kit and here are the results:
Nitrite: 0.75
Carbonate Hardness: kH 4 drops
Ammonia: 7.0
pH: 6.0

I just did a water change to bring the ammonia down and pH up. Where am I in my cycle?
 

R

ronrca

Guest
#29
#29

Looks like in the beginning. It seems that the ammonia is starting to be used up. What about nitrate? and gH?

It also seems that you dont have too much buffering in your water. Might also be an option to look at to stablize pH.
 

luvfishies

luvfishies

Large Fish
#32
Oct 22, 2002
615
0
0
60
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
www.skwij.ca
#32
Hang in there, the cycle is progressing as it should. Personally I would do a waterchange to get the ammonia down, can't be good for the fishies that high! And nitrites shouldn't go above 1.....Just IMO, of course....I fishless cycle, so have never really worried about high levels.

You KH is fine at 4......don't worry about it at this stage. You will probably never have to worry about it.

Just keep up witht the water changes to help the fish. The cycle WILL happen. You just have to wait it out is all.
 

R

ronrca

Guest
#33
#33

Just hang in there. Once your cycle is complete, you will be glad you did wait it out. If you do lose some fish, its tough but unless your willing to take the fish back to the petstore, you might lose some. I know its frustrasting but its still worth the wait.

Ph is fine and so is your hardness. If you do find that your ph is bouncing around, trying bringing up your kh o r buffering capacity. Otherwise your doing great.
 

R

ronrca

Guest
#37
#37

Dont worry about the chemistry now like luvfishes :-* mentioned. Just keep an eye on it. You may not have to worry about it at all (lucky).
 

A

aspguru

Large Fish
#40
Oct 22, 2002
213
0
0
www.aspalliance.com
#40
Ok. If you are familiar with the Marineland Magnum 350 canister filter, I took the carbon container, filled it with gravel from the LFS and put it in the filter. That way, all of the water that runs through the filter, runs through the gravel carrying out the bacteria!! That sounds like it will work. What do you think?
 

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