Ammonia off the charts, but fish seem ok?

Walker Anderson

Walker Anderson

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Dec 12, 2005
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www.walkeranderson.com
Hello, I am new to the Forums here and I come looking for some advice.
I have a 30 gal tank that I started a little more than a month ago. It is live planted with Amazon Swords and some bushy Mayaca Selloniniana.

To start the cycle, I got 5 guppies and 3 Coryadoras cats (love those little critters). I am using a Penguin 150 Bio-wheel filter. Stuck an airstone from my other tank at work in the filter box to hopefully get some good bacteria in there.

I am using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test Kit. My Ph level is 7.2, Nitrate 0, Nitirite .25, Ammonia is off the scale. Somewhere on the order of 5.0 to 7.0 according to the kit.

I am worried about my fish, yet they show no signs of stress. No clamped fins, no bleeding at the gills. They eat regularly and are playful. I am wondering if I got a bad test kit, or if I am doing something horribly wrong.

I am also doing 20% water changes from the start every 5 days, 2 days ago I did a 50% change and still no change in Ammonia levels. I also gravel vac when I change water.

Any help or suggestions would be appriciated.
Thanks.
 
Did you try retesting?
With ammonia over 2 you should be very concerned. though you may not see signs, your fish are being effected.

Are you conditioning you water with something that removes ammonia? If so, then it may still register ammonia in the water, it just isn't ina form harmful to fish.

Also you Nitritie is highly toxic!! that should be at 0 and can only be fixed with water changes.

You might need to do daily changes until both read 0. Is your tank completely cycled? IF you added all those fish at once, that could have caused the spike.
 
Yes, I have checked the levels daily hoping for a change in them. They have been at these levels for a bout a week. I added the fish over the first 3 weeks a few at a time.

I have used nothing to counter the ammonia, just using Aquarium Pharmacuticals Stress coat when I change the water. I will take your advice though and look at daily changes. How much daily? Would 20% be sufficient or should I do a 50%.

I am amazed I have any fish at all, but they seem to be ok and playful, when by all rights they should be toast.
 
Every water change will only cut the ammonia by that much. So if it is off the chart it may be really high and a 50% water change won't register on the kit. So if it were my tank I would start doing 20-30% changes every hour until the ammonia level started to register at 1ppm or less. From that point on do enough water changes to keep it that low. It will be a lot at first but will get easier once things are under control.
 
Thanks for the advice, It looks like I will be bailing water this evening when I get home. If only the siphon reached the sink. It is bad though, in the test kit, the card for ammonia starts at yellow and goes to green the worse it is over a 5 min span. In 3 mins, my samples pass the darkest green on their chart. So a'bailin I will go. Guess I will run by the pet store on lunch to get some more dechlorinator. :)

By the way, I was just thinking. Would it be ok to put the fish in a bucket of tank water, and drain the tank completely. Refill with fresh dechlorinated water and re-entroduce fish to the tank using zip lock freezer bags till they acclimate to temp?
 
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A few large water changes will do the same thing as removing the fish without the worry of freaking them out. And once the ammonia reaches less than 1ppm (or low) tonight then it should be really easy to keep it low as the tank continues cycling.
 
Thanks guys,
And my fish thank you also. :) I guess tonight it's Monday Night Football and the Great tank cleansing of 2005. I went out and bought some dechlorinator on lunch and ended up also buying a 2 bulb flourescent hood to swap out with my 1 bulb one, the gro-light just looks a little odd.
Fish won't know what to do once this all gets straightened out.
 
Things are getting better

I did about a 80% water change, Ammonia dropped from 8.0 to 1.0.
Nitrite from .25 to 0. No Nitrates either. Thanks for the advice guys, you have helped save some fish I am sure. Now to let the dust settle and let them relax and acclimate. :dance:
 
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