# Tropical Fish Help, Amonia levels off the charts



## Miss Fishie123 (May 31, 2011)

Long story short:
The water was murky
clarifier was put in
we were instructed to clean the filter every 2 hours to rid this *old dude
Filter was cleaned with tap water (Several times!)
Amonia levels increased due to no bacteria
this is because the chlorine in the tap water killed the filters bacteria bed. WOOPS~! :betta:

More information:
Amonia levels are at 4.0 even though water was treated with ammolock
all fish are currently in a bucket with an air pump and intermittent water changes :fish-in-a-bag:

While we wait for the Nitrite cycle to level off, we will keep the fish in the bucket, is this advisable or should we donate them to the local fish store?

Thank you for your help! :animated_fish_swimm


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Is it possible to put the heater in the bucket to keep the fish at the proper temp? Cycling can take weeks.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Leave the filter alone...until the cycle is complete unless flow is impeded for some reason.

Do a 50% water change. Read the level again and if still too high, do another 50% the next day. Try and keep the level at 1 or below. If it gets higher, perform a water change.


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## bolram (May 17, 2011)

Keep checks on the water in the bucket as well as you dont want problems with that as well and as it is a smaller water volume it can be easier for certain factors to fluctuate. More frequent larger (upto 50% daily) water changes for the time being should help level out things. Obviously you just need to keep constant testing as you do this.

If you can't get levels to an acceptable level some LFS will put your fish in an empty 'bay' tank and look after them for you if you ask nicely. Mine offered to do it for me free of charge when i had a problem with one of my older tanks


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

bolram said:


> If you can't get levels to an acceptable level some LFS will put your fish in an empty 'bay' tank and look after them for you if you ask nicely. Mine offered to do it for me free of charge when i had a problem with one of my older tanks


That's amazing! I guess there are some nice people left in the world, lol.


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

You can't have ammonia without bacteria being present. Ammonia is the result of protien being decomposed by bacteria. Don't clean your filter. Many of the bacteria needed to complete your nitrate cycle are generated there. Ammonia is a natural part of your Aquarium cycling, don't be afraid of it. I'm against changing water during cycling, it takes food (ammonia, nitrite) away from the bacteria populations you are trying to generate. Cycle only with a few tough fish (Guppies, Clouds, Danios).


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Miss Fishie123 said:


> Long story short:
> The water was murky
> clarifier was put in
> we were instructed to clean the filter every 2 hours to rid this *old dude
> ...


Ammonium locks do make ammonia safer but most test kits still test ammonia.

I would use a test kit like the seachem multitest ammonia kit which measures free and total ammonia. If the 4 ppm is total but the free is .25ppm or less, the ammonia is safe and no additional lock is required. The danger is one will test ammonia, add more, which will reduce oxygen in the tank possibly suffocating the fish. When all along the original treatment fully locked the ammonia and no additional dosing was needed.

Lacking that I would stop adding food and let the tank cycle until ammonia drops down. For that matter nitrItes also.

I would also add as many fast growing plants (anacharis, vals) as possible. The plants will rapidily consume ammonia to that is a day or even a few hours the ammonia levels drop down. And in the process suck out carbon dioxide and return oxygen while filtering out addition nasties as well.

my .02


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## carpus (Oct 16, 2010)

Hello
Sorry, I must ask: Do you use a water/chlorine/chloramine remover/conditioner??
If not please get some. I like Seachem Prime, others use a variety of similar products.
Only clean your filters in treated water (put in a container, swish/swirl/whatever).
Do a big water change with well-treated water (Prime, or similar) to knock down ammonia.
Never use tap water on any aquarium item.


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

carpus said:


> Hello
> Sorry, I must ask: Do you use a water/chlorine/chloramine remover/conditioner??
> If not please get some. I like Seachem Prime, others use a variety of similar products.
> Only clean your filters in treated water (put in a container, swish/swirl/whatever).
> ...


Again and hopefully not to belabor the point, Prime does not "knock down" ammonia but locks it up to a safer form. And ammonia test kits still test for ammonia.

I highly recommend you do not make repeated Prime (or other) dosing to control ammonia. The danger is Prime and other chemicals lock up oxygen as well and over dosing will suffocate the fish.

By contrast a tank (even if brand new and devoid of all aerobic bacteria) with thriving plant life will consume the ammonia in short order. Especially if the water cahnges are extremely small to non existant. Which is why I use plants, do not add chemicals, and only replace the water the evaporates with straight untreated tap water.

After the tank has built up the aerobic bacteria then the ammonia reduction process is even faster.

my .02


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