Ammonia????

Hey i cant seem to keep my ammonia down at 0. i just checked my water and my readings where ph 6.8 ammonia is between 0 ppm and 0.25 ppm nitrite 0 ppm and nitrate is just under 5.0 ppm. im doing water changes 3 days a week and cant seem to get my ammonia to 0 is this a problem???? at the min in my tank its 54 litre i have 2 mollys 2 catfish 3 neon tertas and 1 guppie. any info or advice would be great cheers................................. And come on united today

In my opinion your nitrogen cycle doesn't work. pH is OK but NO2 should be on zero while NO3 should be between 10 to 20 ppm (40 can be also accepted).
Could you refresh our memory regarding your tank: when was it set up? is is planted? what kind of media do you have in your filter? what kind of 'water improvements' do you use?
All these information will help Forum members to find solution to your problem.

i have 2 internal filters one i got with the tank its a aquael for 60 litres and i both a anterpe power filter for up to 40 litres. my tank is up in running id say close to 6 months. i use stress coat when doing water changes and no it has no plants.

wat catfish are we talking about?
how often do you clean the filters out?
and wat test kit are you using and is it in date?

try do 10% daily for a week or two

the little small ones think there bronze catfish. ive only cleaned the filters once so far? and im using the api test kit ive heard there the best. thanks for your help hopefully i can fix it soon ive no deaths ( touch wood )

Internal sponge filters should be cleaned every week in fish tank water. besides that I would add some nitrification bacteria, too.

cheers whats the name for the nitrificatin bacteria??

e.g. : Easylife - EasyStart bacteria combi system; MicrobeLift - Bacterial Aquarim Balancer; Tetra, Sera, JBL and every other company have it in their offer. just ask a shop assistant.

Will do man thanks

would there not be enough bacteria in the sponges after a squeezing? also mate when cleaning do one filter and the next one the following week, lightly wash the sponges in a bucket/jug of water from the tank and do the filter cleaning the weekend and water changes mid week or suss out your own routine but keep it all seperate or you will flush the good bacteria

Might be no harm to bring water sample to lfs and get them to test it, see how results compare with your test kit

Are your fish showing signs of ammonia poisoning? eg any dead, or generally not in good shape (eg look irritated, gasping, tatty fins, trying to jump out?)

What test kit are you using? and what is the temperature of the water in the tank and when you do a test?

Increase the aeration of the tank......even if you add nitrosofying bacteria, they will not do their job if there is insufficient oxygen.

Cut down on feeding until you get this sorted.

ian

i'm using prime water conditioner. well i was till the missus tried killing a fly and knocked it over spilling it all, i am always telling her bad things will happen for killing them, i just never believed her bad actions would result in me being punished. but anyway it states it removes ammonia and detoxifies nitrites and nitrates, and it is also great value. but by all means dont just buy it to clear up ammonia, you need to tackle the reason it is there

do an ammonia test and hold the bottle and test card under a flourescent light to check the reading...sumtimes bad lighting will make you read the colours in the test tube wrong..im thinkin you mite be reading the colours wrong seein so your ammonia is so low

I thought the ammonia looked too high.
If you can read anything above 0mg/l ammonia with an aquarium test kit then there is need for checking something.

On the otherhand, aquarium test kits will also give false highs.....touching the test system with your fingers (eg test tube, dipping fingers in the test sample...for whatever reason), using Prime or AmQuel or other ammonia removing reagent will give a false high of the free ammonia in the tank.

Are the nitrite and nitrate test kits from the same manufacturing batch?
It is important to make sure than if trying to cross-compare nitrites and nitrates that you use the same brand and use reagents from the same batch......why?

Because most aquarium nitrate test kits (unless there are some I haven't checked out) are nitrite test kits and only measure nitrite. ie if they are of the sulfanilic acid type

In the test reagent, nitrates in your water are converted to nitrites.
The nitrate test kit then gives a reading for the amount of nitrites within the test sample.

Thus the final reading from a nitrate test kit is:
the total nitrites from the nitrates plus any nitrites originally from the tank.
If you happen to have zero nitrates in the tank, but your test kit gives a positive result then the test kit will be giving an answer for the amount of nitrites in the tank.

The logic why a 'nitrate' test kit is assumed to work is based upon the logic that nitrite levels should be lower than nitrate levels.

ian

somethimes i think it reads 0 ppm and then if i go outside to the sunlight i get a diff reading so i dont no really. there is no fish dead no real signs of posining gills are fine every fish in the tank is eatting well. i washed out my filter today and plan on doing the other next week. i dont wanna use any chemicals i hear the just mask the problem and it will come back. im using the api test. any other tips i could post a pic of my amonnia reading and see what the lads think????

My first thoughts are a question on the quality of the test results rather than a problem in the tank.

Although, any suspect test result should be looked into as a sign of something wrong in the tank.

You say that your tank is established, and you do frequent water changes......so long as you wash the filter in a sample of your aquarium water (ie not under the tap) then maybe your tank is running well.

As for the ammonia-quelching compounds....... I think that they are not great as a permanent solution, but even I have the zeolite resins and AmQuel at hand just in case I get a system crash (I am a bit of a purist with some things ).

ian

whats that mean in simple terms????

fishhead88 wrote:

whats that mean in simple terms????

oh no better man for simple terms, ive been called worse.

My first thoughts are a question on the quality of the test results rather than a problem in the tank.

translation:ian thinks your test or your reading of it might be wrong (specsavers is an option, we could get a two for one special)

Although, any suspect test result should be looked into as a sign of something wrong in the tank.

translation:even if the test is showing a problem just treat it as there is man, just incase

You say that your tank is established, and you do frequent water changes......so long as you wash the filter in a sample of your aquarium water (ie not under the tap) then maybe your tank is running well.

translation: your tank is running a while, and you replace dirty water with clean water, and once you use tank water to clean the filter then it shouldn't be the tank it might be the test or again your reading of it

As for the ammonia-quelching compounds....... I think that they are not great as a permanent solution, but even I have the zeolite resins and AmQuel at hand just in case I get a system crash (I am a bit of a purist with some things

translation: dont use ammonia removing stuff all the time but ian likes to keep some just in case he has an emergency, do you know wat i mean

ian translation fee's are pm'd to your inbox

ha dar brilliant i think i get that now. but ian cheers for ur advice man ill keep working on it.