High Ammonia and Nitrates, Low Nitrites!

Have you tested your Tap water? Ever calibrate your test kits before? if not any reading you take really isnt very trustworthy.

Sounds to me like you have more then one issue. The cloudiness in the tank is most likely a Bacteria bloom happening. It can happen. Is this a planted tank? If not when you do the water change are you removing any decor and doing a nice substrate cleaning good and deep? If not this could be another cause for Nitrates. Your Tap water could even have Nitrates. .25 for Ammonia isnt to big or crazy. if your getting Nitrates that tells me the Nitrites are being converted. Keep doing water changes of 50% use the prime as per directed for a water change. Make sure to remove any bad organics from the substrate. The cloudiness should pass when the Ammonia goes to zero.

one last thought..... Make sure no chemical airborne contaminates have been near the tank. If there has been this could explain everything.
 
constevens said:
Have you tested your Tap water? Ever calibrate your test kits before? if not any reading you take really isnt very trustworthy.

Sounds to me like you have more then one issue. The cloudiness in the tank is most likely a Bacteria bloom happening. It can happen. Is this a planted tank? If not when you do the water change are you removing any decor and doing a nice substrate cleaning good and deep? If not this could be another cause for Nitrates. Your Tap water could even have Nitrates. .25 for Ammonia isnt to big or crazy. if your getting Nitrates that tells me the Nitrites are being converted. Keep doing water changes of 50% use the prime as per directed for a water change. Make sure to remove any bad organics from the substrate. The cloudiness should pass when the Ammonia goes to zero.

one last thought..... Make sure no chemical airborne contaminates have been near the tank. If there has been this could explain everything.
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The cloudy ness wasn't too cloudy though, just not crystal clear like my other tank. As for decor, I just have a couple of thin pieces of driftwood, and an inch of play sand, with live plants, and a couple larger fake plants, nothing where stuff is trapped or anything like that.

How does one calibrate the test kits? I have never even heard of that!

But I have tested my tap water, and it's always 0,0, and 0.

With the water change I did today, the cloudy ness is pretty much gone. I'll be sure to do 50% water changes til things are normal.

No chemical airborne contaminates have been near the tank that I know of, I am guessing it was just me over feeding on the frozen worms and shrimp.. bad me. :/ They will now be a twice monthly treat, (if that) and only 1 cube. I gave them some zuke for their meal today, and they seemed to like it! :)
 
Ive seen light to medium cloudiness in tanks be nothing more then a mini cycle or a Bacteria bloom. Alot of the times you will test and find Ammonia or Nitrite spikes. It can happen. With only an inch of play sand you shouldnt ever have any issues with dead spots in the substrates. Normally you see this an issue if you have 3 inches and over with sand. MTS come in handy for keeping the sand moving so it doesnt develop that. BUT even BETTER yet would be MORE LIVE plants. If your going to do live plants one of the best pieces of advice is to pack it full of plants. The more the better. They can bail you out and help you control your water conditions.

Calibrating your test kits.... Here is a great read about doing that. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/f...83545-calibrating-test-kits-non-chemists.html

It will help you be able to read and determine your water perimeters. It will also help tell you if your test kit is bad or if some thing is way out of wack.

Dont do to many Water changes of 50%. You do want the plants and bacteria to use that Ammonia. If a Bacteria is trying to form let it form. you only want to dilute it. I would calibrate your Nitrate test kit and re-test it and see where you really are. Who knows you might not be that bad off.

BTW...... Bravo for testing your water. I know lots of people that never do it. Personally me I test it once or twice a week for various stuff. Its like early warning radar.
 
Doing water changes shouldn't inhibit potential bacterial growth. Any ammonia that is registering on a test is, in theory, available for the bacteria to use because it is excess. If that weren't the case then it wouldn't be possible to cycle with fish.
 
constevens said:
Ive seen light to medium cloudiness in tanks be nothing more then a mini cycle or a Bacteria bloom. Alot of the times you will test and find Ammonia or Nitrite spikes. It can happen. With only an inch of play sand you shouldnt ever have any issues with dead spots in the substrates. Normally you see this an issue if you have 3 inches and over with sand. MTS come in handy for keeping the sand moving so it doesnt develop that. BUT even BETTER yet would be MORE LIVE plants. If your going to do live plants one of the best pieces of advice is to pack it full of plants. The more the better. They can bail you out and help you control your water conditions.



Calibrating your test kits.... Here is a great read about doing that. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/f...83545-calibrating-test-kits-non-chemists.html

It will help you be able to read and determine your water perimeters. It will also help tell you if your test kit is bad or if some thing is way out of wack.

Dont do to many Water changes of 50%. You do want the plants and bacteria to use that Ammonia. If a Bacteria is trying to form let it form. you only want to dilute it. I would calibrate your Nitrate test kit and re-test it and see where you really are. Who knows you might not be that bad off.

BTW...... Bravo for testing your water. I know lots of people that never do it. Personally me I test it once or twice a week for various stuff. Its like early warning radar.
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Ah okay. I always worry about dead spots, so I have bamboo chop sticks I use or my fingers to poke holes in the sand, in my 29 gallon, I have a bunch of MTS and assassin snails (the assassin snails reproduced, lol, oddly I bought the MTS and somehow a couple assassin snails got mixed in, so now I have 20+ assassin snails, and like 5 MTS that I can see) for the purpose.

Great link, thanks for the help, I'll calibrate as soon as I can go to the store for distilled water.

As for plants, I wish I could have more live plants, but given that I am pretty much broke right now, won't be happening. I spent like $200 on live plants, just to have them all die (and they were low light plants too) on me, so I am pretty wary of getting any more live plants until I can afford better lights, which won't be for like a couple years at least.

What classifies as too many 50% changes? I was just gonna do like one a day, or maybe one in the morning one at night at around 40% each? I just don't want any fish to die, I love these fish more than pretty much any other fish I've had.

And thanks, over the holidays I got kinda lazy, but now I am back to having fun being a chemist at least once a week.. lol :p. I figure, I spent over $50 on the darn thing, I better at least use it, especially if it can save my fish! :)
 
What I meant by doing to many was doing several in a day or really Everyday. As long as the Ammonia levels dont get to out of control (OR Nitrite) it shouldnt be an issue. Weekly should be more then enough. Your Ammonia only tested at .25ppm Not like it was 1.0
 
Ammonia at any detectable level isn't good for fish. It may not kill them outright but it is still an irritant to the gills. Longer-term exposure to even low levels like can certainly cause chronic issues. Better safe than sorry...
 
jpappy789 said:
Ammonia at any detectable level isn't good for fish. It may not kill them outright but it is still an irritant to the gills. Longer-term exposure to even low levels like can certainly cause chronic issues. Better safe than sorry...
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So like 30% twice a day is okay?
 
If it were me, and I had all the time in the world...I'd change the water whenever I detected ammonia/nitrite and change enough to get it down to an undetectable level.

If your schedule allows you to do so to some degree, then go for it, but I would suggest at least daily changes until things even out. You can always increase the size if you cannot keep up with the frequency. Using Prime will help too.
 
Sorry...... But I do disagree. Each to his or her own on this. Just like some folks do Fishless cycles Ive never done Fishless cycles since starting the hobby more then 30 years ago.(and might add ive not lost any fish for more then 29 of those years due to a cycle)

With the amount of Ammonia in the tank. Via s hobby grade test kit you never know if your ppm is right on or not. It could be less it could be more. Youd have to calibrate the test kit to be any bit for sure. Let alone if a tank has Live plants, The Ammonia will be consumed quite fast by live plants in a tank as food. Even faster then it would Nitrates. While I know that any amount in the water is not what you want. Having such a small amount is far from going to kill anything. Sometimes we need to know when to leave well enough alone and let the tank establish and do what it needs to do.

My reasons for not OVER water changing. And yes there is such a thing. Is that if your CONSTANTLY disturbing the bacteria in the tank and constantly flushing the tank with more new water over and over daily, the Bacteria will never or very weakly establish itself on things like the gravel, plants, decor, HOB, or anything. Besides the obvious of changing water all that much would suck the fun right out of the hobby. I say let the tank work it out. If your Ammonia creeps up higher then by all means do a water change of 50%. but at .25ppm..... Let it just work it out. Nitrite on the other hand I would try to keep to even lower amounts as it is more toxic. But even then, I wouldnt change it ever day twice a day or anything like that.

But This is my opinion and the way id do it. Other may do it different. Doesnt make it right or wrong.
 
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