Need help! My tap water ammonia is 1.0

L

Lynguini71

AC Members
Dec 6, 2005
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Virginia
I need help quick please. I've been driving myself crazy second guessing myself on why my ammonia is all of a sudden so high in my 75 gallon tank. It's been zero for months. I set up a new tank last night and hadn't added anything yet except for Aquasafe to dechlorinate. I tested all my tanks just now (not strips, I have a Freshwater Master Test Kit) and here's what I got for results:

75 g - Ph 6.6, Ammonia .5, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 40
10 g (1 goldfish) - Ph 6.8, Ammonia .5, nitrites 0, Nitrates 20
10 g (new setup) - Ph 7.0, Ammonia 1.0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5.0

I've been looking for dead fish in my big aquarium trying to find why the ammonia is so high. I did 30% water changes on it today and yesterday. Bad idea - it started out at .25 and raised to .5 after I added the tap water that was 1.0. My goldfish ammonia was .5 after I changed almost all of the water.

My county's utility website says nothing about ammonia in their water quality breakdown so I'm assuming this is not something they measure and therefore don't care about. How do I fix this? I saw some references in different threads about transforming ammonia into a non-lethal form (binding?). I'm willing to do that to my tapwater if it'll work. How do I do it and will it last? The only bad ammonia after that would be what my fish produce and then my biofilter takes care of it, right?


Thanks so much for any advice you can give me.

Lynn
 
Does your water have chlorine or chloramine in it? If it is chloramine and you use the wrong water conditioner it will just break the chloramine bond leaving chlorine (which is taken care of) and ammonia. Some water conditoners do deal with the excess ammonia. I know of Amquel+ and Prime, though Tetra may make one as well. They will convert the ammonia into ammonium which is safe though may still show up as ammonia on certain brands of test kits.

As I don't have the chloramine problem currently I am not completely sure of all the details so for the sake of those that do please reply back and answer

1. Chlorine or Chloramine
2. Brand of Water conditoner
3. Type of ammonia test used

For now don't worry too much as the ammonia levels are low enough to not cause damage in the short term. But long term lets hope to get this figured out. Stick to smaller water changes for now to let the bacteria catch up quicker.
 
My water has chloramines. I get about 1ppm ammonia after neutralizing the chloramines with general dechlorinator. I use Amquel+ for water changes and test for ammonia with Aq. Pharm Freshwater/Saltwater Test kit (salicylate test method - two reagents).

After a 30% water change, my ammonia level returns to 0 ppm within a few hours.

From your test results, I would assume your water has chloramines as well. I'm not sure why your ammonia hasn't returned to 0 a day after the water change. Your test kit may be wrong, or you may not have adequate bio-filtration.
 
In our area they've stopped using chlorine altogether because of trihalomethanes (not sure about the spelling). I'm told it's a carcinogen.
Did you use any meds or lose filtration somehow? Sounds like either something is making excess ammonia or something has stopped removing the normal amount. Prime works really well for water changes and filling new tanks. It's all I use in my aquarium business, since they started using chloramine.
 
Okay, let's see if I can answer this all. Yes, my water has chloramines but no chlorine according to the county website. I use Aquasafe by Tetra Aqua. The bottle says it neutralizes chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals harmful to fish. Yes, I am using the proper amount per the directions. I am testing using a Freshwater Master Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It has little bottles and test tubes. I'm making sure to hold the bottles all the way upside-down so as to get the proper amount of liquid per drop.

I went to my lfs today and now have both Prime and Ammolock beside me. Should I use the Ammolock to fix things now and the Prime to treat tap water during water changes?

As far as my biofilter goes, I have not vacuumed my gravel recently but I did change my filters a week ago. I have two Whisper 60 power filters, one on each end. Should I be using something else in the bag instead of the carbon that comes with the refill cartridges. You have to fill them yourself so this is not a problem. I changed all four cartridges at the same time, but in the future I should probably just change two at a time and take turns.

My knives are fairly new and I'm still getting the hang of how often and how much to feed them. I'm feeding frozen bloodworms with a turkey baster and the knives are about five inches long. The guy at the lfs told me today I should feed around a cubic centimeter every other day. Does this sound right? Needless to say, I've been feeding more often than that but will cut down.

Is that enough information to diagnose what's wrong? I need to know the quick fix and what to do in the future with this ammonia in my tap water.

Thanks,
Lynn
 
One more thing . . . when I tested my tap water it was before I added any conditioner. That means I didn't break any chloramine bonds and the ammonia was already in there.
 
Well I would ask the water company about the ammonia already present.

As for changing the filter media. Yes, I would change only half at a time. I personally never change mine. I just use ceramic rings and sponges in my Aquaclears and in my Fluval (canister). Every couple of weeks I rinse the filter media in dechlorinated water (old tank water works well) to get rid of the large chunks. The smae sponges have been in my tanks for years now. If they get to the point of falling apart I will replace them.
 
Go to your water company's website or call them and ask for the consumer confidence report. By law they are required to test their water and tell their customers what is in it. My water company mentions that they treat their water with chlorine, chloramine, and sometimes ammonia.
 
Yea, I'd go with the Prime. In stead of chelating it converts ammonia into ammonium. Sounds like you found your spike. I use an aquaclear and still have the same sponge since '91. When it needs replacing I'll put the new one on top of the old one for about two weeks. In a couple weeks it has a good biobed. Works good for starting new tanks as well. With two filters on your tank you can rotate your pads. You wrote about cleaning your substrate. How deep is it? What type? Do you use an undergravel filter?
Those knives are gonna get so big and nasty! Ive seen them approach two feet in large tanks. They grow fast and as they do you'll be tempted to feed
them live food. I would advise against it. I stopped using comets, guppies, rosys and all other feeder fish in my aquaria many years ago. IMO feeder fish are an intestinal parasite infection waiting to happen. I would try to get them switched over to prepared food asap; and that won't be easy. A fortified beefheart mixture may work for that. Lots of LFS's carry frozen beefheart.
If yours doesn't you can make your own with a food processor. Many people will disagree with me about the feeders. Not just my opinion. I know shopowners who have been in the business for thirty years who have stopped even selling feeder fish for the same reason. Hope this helps.

Mark
 
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