Stable ammonia

L

louxrs

AC Members
Jul 15, 2011
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ive been tracking my water param for the past 5 days:

07-18-11
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Hardness: 250
Alkalinity:100
Ph:7.4

07-19-11
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Hardness:250
Alkalinity:80
Ph:7.6

07-21-11
Ammonia: 1 ppm
Nitrite: 0
nitrate:0
Hardness:250
Ph: 7.6

So yea, my question how come theres a bunch of ammonia when my nitrite and nitrates are 0? (reading about fishless cycling, nitrites should be zero before ammonia), And it was always 1, not going up or down, even after doing water change. Or maybe is my test kit? Im using mardel 5 in 1 strips (I know theyre not very accurate), but ammonia staying 1ppm for 5 days? while the rest have always been zero?
 
Pretty normal for a beginning of a cycle.

Ammonia >>> Nitrite >>> Nitrate. No ammonia has been consumed and "converted" to nitrite yet.

That being said test strips are horrendous. Get a liquid reagent test kit.
 
Are you doing a fishless or fish-in cycle and when did you start the cycle? When cycling a tank you will always see ammonia appear before anything else. First ammonia starts to rise and then the bacteria will begin to develop and break it down. After some time you will begin to see nitrites and then a second form of bacteria develops to break that down and finally you have nitrates. It sounds like you are still in the first stage of your cycle and you simply need to be patient. A cycle can take 4-8 weeks. If you have any established media such as gravel or filter media from another fully cycled tank you can use this to seed your tank. This can help accelerate the bacteria growth. If you don't know anyone who has an established tank try asking your LFS, sometimes they will give some gravel. And you also may want to invest in a liquid test kit. Strips can be very expensive and aren't the most accurate. The API master test kit is a very popular choice.
 
I know!! it cost me $40 for that 25 strip test kit... My fault, I didnt research beforehand.. Well the tank is in its 3nd week now. When I set the tank, I put 30 guppies in there (again, my fault didnt research beforehand) and of course they all died. So with all those guppy poops and probably uneaten food, I kinda thought the cycling shouldve started. And I really couldnt find anybody I could steal some "seeders" from. I buy everything from Petsmart, and when I asked if I could get even a small amount of gravel, or any used filter media, they said they couldnt. Anybody wanna send me some? lol. So yeah, I just decided to take it the hard way doing fish-in cycle. I put 5 tiger barbs after a week my guppies died, and now I'm down to three... Spent over $500 for a 20g tank...
 
I have 2 new 27 gallon tanks. They have both been up about a month. We put media from other tanks plus some fish in both of these. One of the tanks just yesterday had its ammonia level out and the nitrites appear to be starting to level out. The other tank is still in high ammonia state. So it can take a LONG time for the tank to cycle. Be patient!
 
Well at this point you need to get that ammonia down to non registering. Having it at 1 ppm is just going to damage those fish. You say that the ammonia stays up even after a water change, but how big of a water change are you doing? It has to be big enough to make a difference, probably well over 50%. Because even a 50% water change will only drop you to 0.5ppm ammonia.

Going with a fishy cycle isn't ideal for the fish, but if you go that way you have to do more work to help keep the fish healthy. And of course it will take a lot longer to get the tank cycled. And don't forget that every new fish will essentially restart a mini cycle as the tank tries to catch up.
 
I went to the grocery and bought "Pure Power clear ammonia" (made by stop and shop). When i got home, I checked its ingredients: Ammonium hydroxide and surfactant. I dont know what surfactant is, is it safe for my tank to use for fishless cycling? I googled it and some people said its okay, and others cautioned not to. I tried shaking it, it did create a few bubbles but dispersed immediately. Anyone used this brand before? Is it safe?
 
A surfactant is a detergent additive, so you can't use that for your tank, or any ammonia as long as you have fish in there. Ace Hardware and Dollar Tree are the only stores I know of that sell pure ammonia.
 
Surfactant = soap
 
+1

No surfactant allowed in aquarium.
 
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