Ammonia education

James0816

James0816

AC Members
Feb 14, 2007
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Someone educate me on ammonia in the aquarium. Now I know when there are fish involved of course, their waste creates ammonia. However, in a tank with no fish just plants how can ammonia be so high?

I have done 80% water changes each of the last three days, rinsed out the media, treated with prime but still the ammonia is sitting around 1. 0 ammonia out of the tap by the way.

Curious to know of others factors that might come into play on this.

It's a 10g with plants only. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I just added quite a few more plants to it.
 
It is not uncommon to find ammonia in tap water. That is why you should use a water conditioner, like Prime, to lock it into a form not toxic to the fish, until your bacteria can consume it.
 
rbishop said:
It is not uncommon to find ammonia in tap water. That is why you should use a water conditioner, like Prime, to lock it into a form not toxic to the fish, until your bacteria can consume it.
Click to expand...

Aye, my tapwater has 1 ppm ammonia right from the tap. And also 5-10 ppm Nitrates. So if for some reason I have .25 ppm ammonia in my tank, I cannot bring it down with a water change. Very frustrating...
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Again....there is no ammonia from the tap. I have cleaned (vac'd) the tank extremely well and have stirred up the sand. No plant material lying around.

jinxy...yes, this is the tank that the die happened in.

I figured with all the water being replaced and prime being used, that would have pretty much taken care of it.
 
James0816 said:
Someone educate me on ammonia in the aquarium. Now I know when there are fish involved of course, their waste creates ammonia. However, in a tank with no fish just plants how can ammonia be so high?

I have done 80% water changes each of the last three days, rinsed out the media, treated with prime but still the ammonia is sitting around 1. 0 ammonia out of the tap by the way.

Curious to know of others factors that might come into play on this.

It's a 10g with plants only. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I just added quite a few more plants to it.
Click to expand...


???
 
ahhhhh....i see the confusion..."ammonia is sitting around 1." end of sentence. 1 reading for the tank. "0 ammonia out of the tap by the way" .... new sentence. Well water has 0 ammonia reading.

sry bout that.
 
Thanks...I would say it is residual decay from your recent die off, plant decay and/or possible testing issues.
 
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