ammonia question

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wigglejaggles

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Oct 26, 2003
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north tonawanda, ny
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hey all,

I am alittle nervous because I am getting ammonia readings and I dont even have fish in the tank yet. I suspect my water company uses chloramines in the water and that is why i am getting readings of it.
I used marinelands bio-safe which does remove chloramines, and I read somewhere that coul dbe the reason why ammonia is showing up.
I use the aquarium pharm. test kit.

What do you guys think? Ahh...I also have live plants. I didn't detect any nitrite so I just dont know what it is, and if its the bio safe which is causing the ammonia to show, what can I do so I can take accurate ammonia tests once my fish are in the tank. I dont want to always have readings of ammonia and just figure its the bio safe neutralizing the chloramines.

Any help would be greatly appreciate on this matter. I am all set with everything else and am ready to put fish in.

take care,
jared
 
it's entirely possible that your tank has yet to cycle, therefor ammonia has started to peak.
how long has it been set up for?
 
ok,

well i just called the water company and they said they do not use chloramines. They use a chlorine gas and the water goes through activated carbon, and they also use a type of corrosion inhibitor but he said that wouldnt affect anything.
so now I am wondering why my tank has ammonia readings. would the bio safe just simply being in the tank give a false reading?
Perhaps plant debris would be causing ammonia.

well anyhow I am going to get the fish today and i have biospira ready to go into the tank.
I think I will put the biospira in the tank now go out run some errands get the fish.

If any of you in the meantime have any ideas as to why my tank is reading ammonia before fish have been in it that would be great. I tested for ammonia straight out of the tap and it reads zero.

ok thanks!

take care,
Jared
 
I'm not familiar with BioSafe, but it is not at all unusual for some conditioners that treat chloramines (e.g., Amquel, AmmoLock, Prime) to give false positives on certain kinds of ammonia test kits.

If you water utility says they don't use ammonia, if your tap water tests zero ammonia, and if you don't have any rotting organic material in the tank, I'd be willing to bet the BioSafe is screwing around with the ammonia tests.

HTH,
Jim
 
Originally posted by wigglejaggles


If any of you in the meantime have any ideas as to why my tank is reading ammonia before fish have been in it that would be great. I tested for ammonia straight out of the tap and it reads zero.

ok thanks!

take care,
Jared
Click to expand...

Already been done, it would appear. Still, a good idea if it hasn't been tried...

Jim
 
So...has your tank cycled yet? I'm slightly confused. How long has your tank been set up? If it hasn't been set up long then it's probably an ammonia spike, which will be followed by nitrite spike. And I don' t think you want to have fish in the tank when this happens because they will die. I wouldn't run out to buy fish yet when you have ammonia readings in your tank.
 
Originally posted by wigglejaggles
hey all,

I am a little nervous because I am getting ammonia readings and I dont even have fish in the tank yet. I suspect my water company uses chloramines in the water and that is why i am getting readings of it.


What do you guys think? Ahh...I also have live plants. I didn't detect any nitrite so I just dont know what it is, and if its the bio safe which is causing the ammonia to show, what can I do so I can take accurate ammonia tests once my fish are in the tank. I dont want to always have readings of ammonia and just figure its the bio safe neutralizing the chloramines.

take care,
jared
Click to expand...

And from another post by wigglejaggles

well anyhow I am going to get the fish today and i have biospira ready to go into the tank.
I think I will put the biospira in the tank now go out run some errands get the fish.
Click to expand...


Jared, you are doing fine. If you really want to get a sense of what's going on with the ammonia, get a salicylate-based ammonia test. They will read true even in the presence of chloramine-removers. I think you can safely add the BioSpira and then the fish, per the directions on the bottle. Just keep testing to make sure your bioload doesn't overwhelm the fledgling biofilter provided by the BioSpira.

Good luck,
Jim
 
hey now everyone,

ok..just got back from the fish store...a really nice mom an dpop shop ! its great..they even label quarantine tanks.
ok so I decided on two very pretty dwarf gouramis for my 10 gallon.
I am acclimating them now. they are in the bag floating in my tank and i have been putting in two teaspoons of the tank water every 5-10 minutes. I will do this for an hour.

I put two teaspoons of biospira in and now i hope that it will do its thing.

the lady at the store told me its the biosafe that is causing the false ammonia readings. I think she may be right.

So looks like i will have to look into one of those ammonia tests that will give me accurate reading.

ok just wanted to give an update thanks for helping me out!

take care,
Jared
 
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