I just added Osmocote Smart Release Plant Food (19-6-12) to my plants about a week ago and I'm now seeing a large ammonia reading (0.5-1ppm) The fish seem to be doing fine but I'm still worried. I tested the ammonia in my tap water and it's pretty much zero. I then took some of my substrate (a mixture of play sand and fluorite) with some balls of Osmocote in it (probably like 20 of them). I drained the substrate, put it in a jar, filled it with tap water and let it sit for an hour. I tested it and it read around 1ppm ammonia.
I read my fertilizer bottle again and I'm a bit concerned. It says that the nitrogen is 10% Ammoniacal Nitrogen and 9% Nitrate Nitrogen. Is my fertilizer causing this spike in ammonia? Also, is this dangerous ammonia? I understand that there are different kinds of varying danger to fish?
Does anyone have any idea of why my ammonia spiked recently? The tank is fairly new but was stable after cycling. I added fish a while ago and they're doing fine. It's a 30 gallon with 6 corys 6 neon tetras and 3 swordtails. I'm running a Magnum 350 with cut up filter media sponge as a media. I also have a DIY CO2 system. I feel as though I chose the wrong fertilizer...
I read my fertilizer bottle again and I'm a bit concerned. It says that the nitrogen is 10% Ammoniacal Nitrogen and 9% Nitrate Nitrogen. Is my fertilizer causing this spike in ammonia? Also, is this dangerous ammonia? I understand that there are different kinds of varying danger to fish?
Does anyone have any idea of why my ammonia spiked recently? The tank is fairly new but was stable after cycling. I added fish a while ago and they're doing fine. It's a 30 gallon with 6 corys 6 neon tetras and 3 swordtails. I'm running a Magnum 350 with cut up filter media sponge as a media. I also have a DIY CO2 system. I feel as though I chose the wrong fertilizer...
