A little under 1ppm ammonia after a 100% water change

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Rocky998

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So I did a massive water change to rid of nitrates. I ordered fish on Sunday and they will be here tomorrow! I tested the water after the water change and its a little under 1ppm. My water does have chlorine and ammonia in it but I add the API chemical the rids of chlorine AND chloramines... I just need help before adding fish... Im just really worried.
 
hopefully it drops to 0 for both nitrites and nitrates tomorrow...and nitrates need to be less than 20ppm
 
hopefully it drops to 0 for both nitrites and nitrates tomorrow...and nitrates need to be less than 20ppm
Here are the results as of now... The nitrates are around 5-10 ppm... It appears darker in the photo. I may try to find that aqua essential stuff by API if I can...
0125221832.jpg
 
hopefully it drops to 0 for both nitrites and nitrates tomorrow...and nitrates need to be less than 20ppm
And if they dont drop by the time I get fish, what do I do?
 
Do another large water change before adding fish, try not to disturb the substrate.
What is the aqua essentials stuff?
 
and then you would have to do a very large water change and begin a fish in cycling with daily water changes as needed to keep nitrites and ammonia at 0
 
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I will assume the OP is referring to the API Aqua Essential conditioner, here:

This seems to be a conditioner much like Seachem's Prime.

@Rocky998 are you still adding ammonia? And you have live plants don't you?
 
I will assume the OP is referring to the API Aqua Essential conditioner, here:

This seems to be a conditioner much like Seachem's Prime.

@Rocky998 are you still adding ammonia? And you have live plants don't you?
I have slow growing live plants and no after this water change I jave not added any ammonia. Yes that is the chemical I'm talking about
 
Do another large water change before adding fish, try not to disturb the substrate.
What is the aqua essentials stuff?
This is if the ammonia and nitrites are NOT 0 correct? I would hate to do another water change... And I cant wait on getring the fish... Their coming
 
Even if ammonia and nitrite are 0 tomorrow, you should check it daily to be sure you are fully cycled. Do a large water change daily if levels are above 0.
 
Even if ammonia and nitrite are 0 tomorrow, you should check it daily to be sure you are fully cycled. Do a large water change daily if levels are above 0.
By large what do you mean? I cant do huge water changes with fish in there... Cause I have no where to put the fish...
 
Agree, if ammonia and nitrite are above zero. But...having said that, if you have chloramine added to you water, you will see ammonia but very low, usually around 0.25 and you cannot get past this. Use the conditioner mentioned above, it will detoxify the ammonia (prob by changing it to ammonium) but probably temporarily (if it is similar to Prime, which I suspect it is), but by then the plants and bacteria will easily handle it. Tests for ammonia will show ammonia and ammonium as "ammonia" throughout.

Re the water changes, provided the parameters (here we mean GH, pH and temperature) of the tap water and the tank water are reasonably identical, you can change as much water as you like with no harm. Leave the fish in the tank.
 
So, I will try getting that aqua essentials stuff OR prime... I'm just going to hope its all good.
 

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