ammonia

[elmj]

i had some problems with my tank awhile back then had to reset up the whole tank again. the thing was that i kept my filter media so most of the bacteria should be still in the sponge right? but now is perhaps 2 weeks or so after the tank has been reset up but my ammonia reading has not gone down to totally 0 even after changing 50 % of the water every two days.


what is the problem and what else can i do? my ammonia reading now is around 0.6. thanks!

[mogurnda]

When things don't make sense, I often check the kit. Have you got some distilled or RO water you can test?

Otherwise, have you got a big fish load?

[OrionGirl]

If the media sat in an empty tank for 2 weeks, there was no source of food and the bacteria died off. Food and oxygen, and water are 'must have's' to keep bacteria colonies active.

[elmj]

that was a fast reply! haha. thanks! well, mogumda, i had the same idea as you and went ahead to test my tap water. it gave a clear reading! so i really guess its my tank then. but orion girl the weirdest thing is that after resetting up my tank, the ammonia level when the new water was put in was still 0.6. apparently i didn't clean my gravel throughly. i left the tank to run for 4 days over hoping the bacteria in the filter would bring the ammonia level down but it didn;t. but my fishes will slowly dying in the smaller holding tanks that i had no choice but to transfer them back into the tank.

any help? thanks!

[elmj]

by the way its a two ft tank( around 45 litres plus) with an OTTO internal filter. there are 2 corys, 2 otto cats, 4 lampeyes and 5 neon tetras. these are the survivals of the great tank die-off.

[wetmanNY]

Your tank is cycling after the disturbances. Keep on doing water changes for the fishes' sake, and all will be well.

[famman]

When you do large water changes with a chloramine/chlorine remover such as Amquel you will often get a positive ammonia reading. It is the result of transforming the chloramine into something less toxic that results in a bound form of ammonia that is not toxic to fish but will still provide food for bacteria.
good luck
:)

[elmj]

famman: i didn't know that! i did indeed use an anti chlorine by baxter labatories. could this be the case of my ammonia level of 0.6?

wetmanNY: thanks for your help. i shall keep doing 20% water change until one day they give me a 0 ammonia! :D

[wetmanNY]

Further to famman's good points about AmQuel: sometimes on other boards I overhear folks warning each other away from AmQuel during cycling. famman's post should remind us that AmQuel is detoxifying the ammonia, for the health of the fish, but leaving it available, for the growth of the nitrifying bacteria.

[RTR]

And a further note - the false positives for ammonia after Amquel use are with tests based on Nessler's reagent. Salicylate based tests will not show false positives.

[wanda_crab]

RTR - Is that because with Nessler's reagent, it reads total ammonia (ammonia + ammonium) and Salicylate based tests only read ammonia? Also, how can I tell which type of kit I have? I don't have mine in front of me, but the last time I was trying to determine this, I couldn't find any indication in my kits (either on the boxes or in the enclosed literature). I've been using tetra test kits and Mardel test strips.

[wetmanNY]

"Nessler kits have one reagent, that is, a single bottle of liquid or one tablet to dissolve in your water sample. If your ammonia test kit registers in shades of amber, it's Nessler...

The other type of kit is salicylate based, with two sets of reagents. If your ammonia test kit registers in shades of yellow to green to blue, it's salicylate. Salicylate test kits are unaffected by AmQuel and similar products, but they do take longer to develop a reading..."

-- www.skepticalaquarist.com

[wanda_crab]

Thanks, wetmanNY! I use the tetra for testing ammonia as it is easier to judge the colors against the chart, now I know it is salicylate based.

[elmj]

i'm using hagen's tyest kit. and after water change with anti chlorine it has gone down a little but not much!