Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Ammonia in the aquarium

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mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
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02 May 2008 14:06 #1 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)

Ammonia in the aquarium was created by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)

a very interesting article by Galilee, Might explain the NH3 & nh4 problem and why test differ it will also help with choosing a test kit

www.livebearersr.us/viewtopic.php?p=1413#1413

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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nomad (pat murphy)
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02 May 2008 18:59 #2 by nomad (pat murphy)

Replied by nomad (pat murphy) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

Yet another interesting educational post Mickey,short but effective,hense easier to digest,good work as usual.....

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02 May 2008 23:00 #3 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

Fair play Micky.
He brings up a point i was pondering over recently about water conditioners and weather they can remove chloramine or not?
Water conditioners claim to be able to remove chlorine and chloramines from one solution you add to the tap water. They can remove the chlorine but to remove the chloramines would take a bit more messing about. Chloramine is made up of chlorine and ammonia and you need to break the bond between these too before you can remove them. I think if you add ammonia to your water first then add a dechlorinator and ammonia remover this would rid the water of chloramine.
Sounds a bit messy i know and why would you want to add ammonia to your water. Another way would be to add chlorine to break the bond. But you would still have to remove the ammonia and chlorine.

So can these chlorine and chloramine tap water conditioners really work?

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sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
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02 May 2008 23:32 #4 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)

Replied by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

good article mickey, well spotted.. galilee did a great article, thanks for bringing it to our attention

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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galilee (mark johnson)
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03 May 2008 02:08 #5 by galilee (mark johnson)

Replied by galilee (mark johnson) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

platty252 wrote:

So can these chlorine and chloramine tap water conditioners really work?

I don't know i never use them.

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Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
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03 May 2008 09:35 #6 by Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)

Replied by Peter OB (Peter O'Brien) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

Not sure if I agree that Ammonium being excreted by fish is harmless but I'm no scientist....

In Ireland are there many Local Authorities that actually use Chloramine?

If we did actually find out that Chloramine is in widespread use in Ireland it might justify using a dechlorinator and then an additional product like ammo-lock?

The key to all of this is to keep it simple. Regular water changes and monitoring (Providing the water changes don't add Ammonia to the water!!!! :laugh:

... confusing myself now....)

Peter

Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.

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galilee (mark johnson)
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03 May 2008 15:34 #7 by galilee (mark johnson)

Replied by galilee (mark johnson) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

Peter OB wrote:

The key to all of this is to keep it simple.

Peter[/quote]

best advice a hobbiest can give.

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chris (chris)
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03 May 2008 17:02 #8 by chris (chris)

Replied by chris (chris) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

I would like to correct that in both methods - nessler and salicylate results are expressed in ppm (mg/L) ammonia-nitrogen, NH3-N.The Salicylate Method offers the same sensitivity as the Nessler Method. The main benefit of Salicylate method is that the Salicylate products have unlimited shelf-life and don't contain hazardous ingredients (mercury) as Nessler method. Reagents for Nessler method could be only used within 5 months. Refrigeration will dramatically extend the shelf-life of these products. Water hardness above 1g/L, iron, organic chloramines can affect correct readings. Also, water sample's temperature and pH are important. Chemically it's easy enough to convert reading to NH3 (mg/L).

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mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
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03 May 2008 22:23 #9 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)

Replied by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

but you don't get those results and surely for us to know the correct action requires we need some thing more precise.

the ammonia produced by fish i would agree is not as dangerous to them as something produced else were.

how will i but this :blush:

our body waste is not as dangerous to us as another animal. In fact it is not that long again it was used in medications and creams.

while prolonged exposure would be dangerous, the very short term effect would be tolerated.

i would say the best option is to aerate water for at least 24 hours before use this will bring it to room temp plus if my understanding is correct remove chlorine not to sure about chloramines but some one will i am sure confirm how it would be effected.

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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chris (chris)
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04 May 2008 10:42 - 04 May 2008 10:46 #10 by chris (chris)

Replied by chris (chris) on topic Re:Ammonia in the aquarium

Clorium water treatment is more cancerogenic to humans than chloramine treatment, but chloramines are much more stable in a water and it's much harder to eliminate them. To find out is your tap water treated with chloramines you need to do 'total chlorine' test, not 'free chlorine' and if your tap water tests for ammonia,this is a sign that your water is being treated with chloramines. it's useful to know that declorinating products like Ammo-lock (sodium tiosulfate) bound ammonia but not actually remove it - it does remain available to the nitrifying bacteria.
Leaving water in open buckets for 24 hours of for 4 hours in direct sunlight will eliminate chlorine, but not chloramine. General methods for neutralizing chloramines:
1. activated carbon in filtration(filtration with granular activated carbon to break the chloramine bond, make sure the carbon is fresh and the filtration is slow. Since some ammonia is likely to be freed, one way or the other, you have an additional incentive to de-chloraminate before you add water to the aquarium)
2. sodium thiosulfate
3. commerically-available de-chloramination products
4. a chemical agent plus a biological agent (\"bio-filter\") to remove the ammonia

Last edit: 04 May 2008 10:46 by chris (chris).

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