Alarming levels of Ammonia

[bhargavs]

Hi All,

I happened to check the ammonia level in my tank today, it was alarming. The strip that I was using was green (somewhere in the range of 3).

The last water change (30%) was done on sunday and I'm not sure what went wrong. Normally I dont add water directly into the tank, I treat them with anti-chlorine and then add it to the tank. Is there any way that I could bring this back to the normal level.

Cheers
Bhargav

[Quixotic]

Is this the tank using ADA soil? How long was the cycling?

It has been reported from hobbyists that ADA soil releases NH3 over the initial periods. So your tank should be cycled for at least 3 weeks before introducing any fauna.

Also, the strip you mentioned is a strip that you wet with aquarium water for testing? I don't really trust these kind of test strips as they are unreliable most of the time. Besides, Ammonia test kits normally tests for Total Ammonia Nitrogen, not just NH3.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...6&postcount=24

[vinz]

Ummm... 3 what? 3ppm? Or it's some arbtiray colour scale that tells you whether the water is ok?

If ammonia is high in your tank water, your fishes will conspicously dying or dead already. So if the fishes are ok, I'll say your kit is faulty.

I did a quick check on the web and read that some of the test kits measure both free ammonia/ammonium and bound ammonia/ammonium. Some kits only measrue the free ammonia/ammonium. Only free ammonia is toxic. So your kit could be working fine, but you have lots of bound ammonia/ammonium in your tank water.

In any case, if your fishes have not died and are not showing signs of dying/stress, gasping at the surface, ammonia burn, then the free ammonia levels in your tank water is fine.

If you are really worried, and there are no fish deaths yet, I suggest you get some robust fast growing plants and toss them in. Floating plants are the best as they will not be limited by CO2 in the water. If not, get Hygrophilia difformis. There are others, but I can't remember their names.

In an emergency, a major water change will help greatly. But be sure to treat with water conditioners like anti-chlorine/chloramine so that the filter bacteria do not get killed off.

There are also several products out there that will neutralise ammonia, but I strongly recommend NOT using those except for emergencies (i.e. massive fish death due to ammonia poisoning in an immature tank). Don't forget your plants need that ammonia/ammonium (direct and also when they get converted to nitrate). Read the labels and make sure you use something that binds the ammonia but keeps it available to the bacteria and plants. Seachem has a product that works that way.

[bhargavs]

I'm using one of those QuickDip test kit which reads out based on color code. The reading is in ppm.The fishes are doing fine and no signs of stress on them. For now I've done 50% water change. I'll get a new ammonia test kit, may be from Sera.

Just a quick note, whenever I do a water change I make sure that my filter media is turned off. Also treat the water in a bucket before adding into the tank.

[bhargavs]

Quixotic, sorry I did not see your reply. Yes the tank is using ADA Africana and the tank is now close to 6 weeks old. I've added the fauna only lately.

[Quixotic]

No worries. It could be other things though if your cycling is done for 6 weeks.

In any case, like I mentioned, tests kits measure TAN, so it doesn't necessarily mean that NH3 is high in your tank.

If you are worried, you can either get more plants as mentioned by vinz or dose ammonia removing solutions like Seachem AmGuard or Prime temporarily while performing water changes regularly.

[vinz]

Frankly, no point getting ammonia test kits. If your fishes are well, there is no problem. If there is a real ammonia problem, your fishes will be dead before you test and discover it. Or rather there is no point testing a mature tank regularly.

Ammonia test kits are mostly good for testing cycling tanks. But if you follow proper cycling procedures, you should never have to test for ammonia.

[bossteck]

I think Vinz may be hitting on a very good point. Anti-chloramine water conditioner will produce ammonia (I think should be bounded) as a by product of removing chloramine. That could be the reason.

[tsktcc]

Hi,
Use aged water for the water change, place the water in a pail and let it aged for more than 24 hrs before pouring it into tank.

Try not to change too much water to remove the ammonia it would cause a sudden change in water quantity which lead to fish have breadthing difficultly.

Li Liang