Ammonia levels are high.

[jamzwayne]

I cant wait to get some fish in my new 55 GAL tank, but the Ammonia levels wont go down. I have done tons of water changes, and did some gravel vaccuming, but the test keep showing about 7.5 - YUCK.

The gravel was from an old tank. The gravel, rocks, drift wood, and tank has been sitting in my garage since december. I built a homemade stand for it (Im really proud of it too), and FINALLY got it up and running.

Now, I just have to get it cycled. What can I do to help with the cycle? I have 4 small feeder goldfish in it now. The Ammonia levels dont seem to be bothering them. They have been in the tank for about 8 days now, and holding strong.

1. I know NOT to feed, but maybe every other day, and make it small amounts.

2. Water changes dont seem to be helping.

3. I dont really wanna use any chemicals in the water.

~Any ideas?~

 

[kikuchiyo]

The Ammonia levels dont seem to be bothering them

Did they tell you this or was it on their blog?

*ta ta tish*

But seriously, ammonia damages the animal, even if it's not visibly noticable.

I'm no expert on cycling, but I think it would have been a good idea to fishlessly cycle, especially since you had the patience to put the tank together.

What do you intend to do with the feeders?

 

[jamzwayne]

Originally posted by kikuchiyo
The Ammonia levels dont seem to be bothering them
Did they tell you this or was it on their blog?
*ta ta tish*

IF ( ) they make the cycle, I was gonna put em in my 10 Gal. I know that sounds horrible, but I was just following directions. Buddy told me I need to get a few "starter" fish to get the nitrogen cycle going.

The fish seem very active, and look health

 

[kikuchiyo]

Look up fishless cycle on the forum search. You can jumpstart the cycle without subjecting fish to the stress of ammonia (shortening their life) by using pure ammonia.

IF ( ) they make the cycle,
debate on whether they'll live through the cycle is not something to be proud of, honestly. Not to mention the fact that you don't know what kind of crap, like parasites, poor quality feeders are bringing into your tank.

Not that they'll need much help in shortening their lives, if you intend to put all 4 (or even 1) of them in a 10 gallon. Those feeder goldfish get huge, fast. People use them to stock ponds. And contrary to popular belief they don't grow to the size of their container - they get stunted and die early. One goldfish needs 15 - 20 gallons of space, and then 10 gallons for every additional fish (and that's at a minimum).

Don't feel bad, all of us have made those mistakes, but the current situation isn't going to work out, at all. My advice is take the feeders back, get some pure ammonia (which you won't have to find a home for after you're done cycling) and look up fishless cycling on the forum. You and the fish will be much better off.

 

[jamzwayne]

Thanks kikuchiyo. I was gonna put the feeders in an outside pond I was gonna put together someday. I knew a 10 GAl would eventually be too small, so I had that in mind.

Advice taken, and thanks again.

 

[TKOS]

How big are the water changes that you are doing? In a 55 gallon tank you may be looking at changing 40 gallons of water to get the levels of ammonia down if they are that high. 10% changes just won't cut it at all.

The best thing you can do is a 20% change and then look at the results. If they are still not below 1ppm then continue doing water changes until they are.

The other question is do you have chloramines in the water or just chlorine? And what are you using to dechlorinate your water? And what type of test are you using. There are tests that will give false positives.

 

[anonapersona]

Locked ammonia? Several water treatment products may have detoxed the ammonia but left it visible to ammonia tests.

Does the ammonia test kit have one bottle or two?

 

[jamzwayne]

I am changing about 25 gallons (5 5GAL buckets)a pop. My plants are loving it

The test that IO am using has 2 bottles. I have gotten it down to about 2.0 Yesterday it was reading about 8.0

As far as chloramine or chlorine, I dunno.

 

[anonapersona]

2 bottles

2 bottles to test ammonia is probably a salicylate test so it reads toxic ammonia only, but be sure to read it right away, apparently if you wait it may vary (according to something I read today!)

Ok, get it to 1.0 and try to keep it there with water changes. The plants ought to start helping as soon as they get over the shock of transplanting.

 

[jamzwayne]

Almost got it.

Thanks for all your help folks.