Hello, so 3weeks ago my tank had cycled it went through the ammonia drop, nitrite spike and drop and nitrates rising. However, this week my ammonia has spiked all the way up to 1ppm ammonia and I can not for the life of me figure out why or how to get it down, my tapwater is 1ppm ammonia so I can’t even do water changes to fix it. I have prime so I was dosing that but stopped to see if it was a false reading, it’s not. I have 0 ppm nitrites still but my nitrates are still rising so I know the bacteria are working. I have several plants, non of which are melting and my tanks isn’t anywhere close to overstocked with 6 non fully grown cherry barbs. My ph is low intentionally at 6.4 so that should be helping making the ammonia into ammonium at least some but it’s never ok to read 1ppm regardless and I cannot for the life of me figure out what’s going on. I have 2 filters that are more than sufficient for filtration and have added in some ceramic rings and sponge filter on the intake to try to boost bacteria load but nothing seems to be working. All of my cherries seem fine and are even spawning but I don’t want to be hurting them with the ammonia and can’t figure out what’s going in.
Ammonia will not drop
- Thread starter Maxsfish
- Start date
Read again about chloramines in your tap water. They are often 1ppm...I think that's what's you're seeing if you use API ammonia test. It "should" be fine...
It's not the amount of filter media you have, it's the amount of beneficial bacteria. With only 6 small cherry barbs & their small feedings (& pooping) there's only so much BB you can grow...
It's not the amount of filter media you have, it's the amount of beneficial bacteria. With only 6 small cherry barbs & their small feedings (& pooping) there's only so much BB you can grow...
Yeah I do have chloramines but shouldn’t they still be taken care of by the bacteria once they’ve been split by the prime conditioner so I shouldn’t be seeing them in the tank right? And okay how would I grow more? I know with time they should grow but it was originally at 0 ppm so I’m not sure why it’s upped and isn’t going down when the nitrates are rising so the bacteria cycle is happening. There isn’t anything in my tank that’s producing ammonia in large levels, no dead fish or dead plant matter.
Prime will keep the ammonia in the "safer" form (ammonium) for up to 48 hours until your BB use it. It will still show on your API test...& you can just dose Prime after 48 hours if you're worried. But really! if your tank was cycled & you added 6 small cherry barbs, it'll be fine! But every water change you will see ammonia if your tap water has chloramines for up to 48 hours.
First, the bacteria do not consume chlorine. Also, chloramine tends not to kill the bacteria if the is any level of ammonioa present. rather it tends to put them to sleep and when the chloramine breaks down, they revive. This is most apparent thr further away from the water treatement facility the water travels. It is most commonly seen in the home plumbing part of the water supply system. Finally, research shows that chloramine will penetrate the biofilm in which the bacteria live about 29 tims faster than chlorine. However, onece it does it pretty much can kill the bacteria.
Second, Seachem will tell you that using Prime can and will cause false ammonia readings .Go yo yjr link, click the FAQ link and read: "I tested my tap water after using Prime® and came up with an onia reading. Is this because of chloramine? Could you explain how this works in removing chloramine? " https://www.seachem.com/prime.php
Third, in a cycled tank the quantities of ammonia and nitrite oxidizers are in balance, otherwise you would see nitrite even when you do not see ammonia. That is because the nitrite oxidizers grow more slowly than the ammonia ones. Plus you cannot get nitrite until you have enough ammonia converters to produce it.
Fourth, if one set out intentionally to create a situation in an aquarium where there was always a 1 ppm reading of ammonia and 0 nitrite, you could not do it.
Lastly, 1 ppm of total ammonia in a tank with pH pf 6.4 would not be toxiceven if the water temp were 100F. pH rising has a much great effect on toxicity of ammonia than temp. Assuming your tank is 80F and 6.4 pH, you have 0.0015 ppm of NH3 (toxic) and .9855 ppm of NH4 (much less toxic ammonium). The red line for most fish species in tanks is 0.05 ppm of NH3. Lept under that they are not in fanger,especially in the shorter term. Here is a link to an online calculator which lets one calculate the amounts of NH3 and NH4 for any total ammonia reading. You need only have the pH, temp. and salinity of the water in addition to the total ammonia level. https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php
Second, Seachem will tell you that using Prime can and will cause false ammonia readings .Go yo yjr link, click the FAQ link and read: "I tested my tap water after using Prime® and came up with an onia reading. Is this because of chloramine? Could you explain how this works in removing chloramine? " https://www.seachem.com/prime.php
Third, in a cycled tank the quantities of ammonia and nitrite oxidizers are in balance, otherwise you would see nitrite even when you do not see ammonia. That is because the nitrite oxidizers grow more slowly than the ammonia ones. Plus you cannot get nitrite until you have enough ammonia converters to produce it.
Fourth, if one set out intentionally to create a situation in an aquarium where there was always a 1 ppm reading of ammonia and 0 nitrite, you could not do it.
Lastly, 1 ppm of total ammonia in a tank with pH pf 6.4 would not be toxiceven if the water temp were 100F. pH rising has a much great effect on toxicity of ammonia than temp. Assuming your tank is 80F and 6.4 pH, you have 0.0015 ppm of NH3 (toxic) and .9855 ppm of NH4 (much less toxic ammonium). The red line for most fish species in tanks is 0.05 ppm of NH3. Lept under that they are not in fanger,especially in the shorter term. Here is a link to an online calculator which lets one calculate the amounts of NH3 and NH4 for any total ammonia reading. You need only have the pH, temp. and salinity of the water in addition to the total ammonia level. https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php
