# keeping ammonia below .5



## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

so ive been doing daily water changes - usually around 30% ish and my ammonia never leaves .5
any suggestions?

every water change im using the PRIME water conditioner,
current readings
nitrAte - 5
nitrIte -0
hardness - 75
alkalinity - 40
ph -7.5

ammonia .5

ive lost about 8 fish in the past week due to ick / high ammonia
i think i have the ick under control but now.. not sure what i should do


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Many questions, and we can go from there:

1. How big is the tank and how many fish in there?

2. How long has the tank been set up? Is it cycled yet?

3. Do you dose the prime into the tank or into the filling buckets during your PWC's?

4. Do you siphon the water into the tank or dump it in?

5. Are you dosing ich meds?

6. Have you tested your water fresh out of the tap to see how much ammonia is in it?

7. Are you using perfectly clean unused buckets? This might be a stupid one but I fell prey to it - I used to use my mop bucket for PWC's and wondered why my ammonia was so high...

Let me know and we'll figure out what must be done.


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## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

[email protected] said:


> Many questions, and we can go from there:
> 
> 1. How big is the tank and how many fish in there?
> *55 gallon - 1 pleco 3 angel fish 1 is about to die from fin rot. 2 red platties, 2 yellow platties, 4 neons, 4 skirt tetras.*
> ...



This is what my ammonia has been sitting at for the last 4 days


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

If there's one thing that I have to say I don't like about the API Liquid Test Kits, it's that the ammonia test almost never reads 100% zero. Also, you didn't answer my questions about using clean buckets and dumping vs. siphoning the new water into the tank.

Everything else sounds good except it sounds like your fish are suffering from a host of maladies. From my initial thoughts, it sounds like you know what you're doing fairly well and I'm confident in saying that I don't think ammonia is killing your fish. It seems to me there's several diseases you have to contend with first. I would start dosing ich meds straight away, remove your filter carbon, and don't worry about PWC's for awhile. Or, you could keep doing PWC's and not dose meds. Either way, grab a routine and stick to it, don't waffle around with different treatments.


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## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

i think ill let the tank sit for 24 hours and take a reading, then start dosing the quICK again

id like to stock my tank back up again lol it looks SO empty.


with the bucket question im using the python that hooks straight up to my sink so i am not messing around using buckets


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Gotcha, pythons are cool 

Sounds like a good idea to me. I hope your fish make it!


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Check you tap water to make sure it doesn't have any ammonia in it. Check your test kit to make sure it isn't giving you bad readings. You have ammonia, so having no nitrites in your readings doesn't make any sense unless cycling has not been completed. Making big water changes can delay the cycling process. Are there any dead fish or uneaten food in your tank? Both will continously generate ammonia. Do nothing for a few days, including water changes, big temperture changes and adding food, and your ammonia levels should drop. Add some plants, they like ammonia for fertilizer. Your ammonia reading, even if true, aren't at a toxic level so don't worry about them too much.


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## rtbob (Jul 18, 2010)

Prime changes ammonia to a non-toxic form. The API test kit still detects it as Ammonia.

If your tap water contains chloramine (NH2Cl) the Prime will take care of this also. In doing so ammonia is created and converted to a non toxic form which your API test kit will detect as ammonia. 

Below is an insert copied from the Seachem web site.

Prime® also contains a binder which renders ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate non-toxic. It is very important to understand how those two functions work together. All dechlorinators operate through a chemical process known as reduction. In this process, toxic dissolved chlorine gas (Cl2) is converted into non-toxic chloride ions (Cl-). The reduction process also breaks the bonds between chlorine and nitrogen atoms in the chloramine molecule (NH2Cl), freeing the chlorine atoms and replacing them with hydrogen (H) to create ammonia (NH3).

Typically, dechlorinators stop there, leaving an aquarium full of toxic ammonia! Seachem takes the necessary next step by including an ammonia binder to detoxify the ammonia produced in the reduction process.

End copied insert.

Hope something here explains your problem. They do make a test kit that can detect only the real ammonia (NH3) I don't have one.


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## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

NeonShark666 said:


> Check you tap water to make sure it doesn't have any ammonia in it. Check your test kit to make sure it isn't giving you bad readings. You have ammonia, so having no nitrites in your readings doesn't make any sense unless cycling has not been completed. Making big water changes can delay the cycling process. Are there any dead fish or uneaten food in your tank? Both will continously generate ammonia. Do nothing for a few days, including water changes, big temperture changes and adding food, and your ammonia levels should drop. Add some plants, they like ammonia for fertilizer. Your ammonia reading, even if true, aren't at a toxic level so don't worry about them too much.


ive done several waterchanges where i cleaned the gravel with the python-
also in doing so i did find a dead platty he looked like he was there for a while (inside a rock) i took him out immediatley and contined with my water change.

i tested my tap and my kit reads 0 ammonia , so im pretty confused

im pretty skeptical on adding any more fish at this time -
would you all say its okay to add a few more fish?


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Glad you found your dead fish. They would be a continous contributor of ammonia to your tank until removed. Try adding two new fish. Since your ph is a little high and your water hard, I would recommend livebears. Try mollies, they are pretty tough. Another fish not often mentioned for cycling are female Bettas. They come in lots of colors, are cheap and can breath air. Just make sure they have floating plants to hide in.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Anything dead in your tank would cause the ammonia reading. My guess is you found your source of ammonia. If the tank is still cycling it is very common to read a constant ammonia. This will occur until the next phase of the process has started and at that point you will see your ammonia decrease and nitrites increase.

During a cycle I wouldn't worry about a .5 reading. That is fine during a cycle. Just fight to keep it below 1.


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## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

how do i know when my cycle is over? i would love to buy more rummy nose tetras, since mine died.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Bascially....you will see ammonia rise....once it starts going down you normally see the nitrites increase and may start seeing nitrate readings. Once you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and some reading on nitrates, all the bacteria you were trying to create during the cycle should all be finished.


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## CrispedPenny (Jan 3, 2011)

well i just bought the API test kit..

as of RIGHT now my
Nitrates : 0
Nitrites : 0
Ammonia .25-.50
PH - 7.6

whats wrong with me..


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

CrispedPenny said:


> Nitrates : 0
> Nitrites : 0
> Ammonia .25-.50
> PH - 7.6


Looks to me like you're just starting a cycle. It will be denoted by an initial rise in ammonia, then a rise in nitrite, then a rise in nitrate, with the ammonia and nitrite falling off to zero. Adding medication to the tank will slow the colonization of bacteria which is necessary for the cycle, but in my opinion you need to medicate or disease will kill your fish. With ammonia that low, as long as it's below our touted 1 ppm mark your fish will be fine.

And as stated above, treatment with Prime does not remove ammonia, it locks it in a non-toxic form. Your test kit will still detect the non-toxic ammonia.


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