Ammonia 4.0

[ks2012ks]

I'm somewhat confused, but I would like to help you solve this if you agree. I will need some more info. First, some generalities.

I assume the plants were floating plants? Floating plants are "ammonia sinks," it is remarkable how much they can assimilate. I asked about the artificial ammonia because ammonia is toxic to all life forms depending upon how strong it is, and 4ppm ammonia would kill many (perhaps all) aquarium plants. It can be done, but I would never use ammonia to cycle a tank if live lants are present. This is just for info, as I realize you didn't add any. Which begs the question, how did it get to 4 ppm?

With an acidic pH, "ammonia" is primarily ammonium and this is harmless to fish. Though I would want to know why it was 4 if it were my tank.

How did the temperature change to kill the fish? And how could the water change break them apart...what plants were they?

The plants were not floating they were in a cheap aquatic pot. They were cheap to begin with... no i never and would never put any ammonia in the water just food. Unless a magical elf comes into my apartment only to poison me and the fish. I added a 10 gallon measurement of prime to the water 2 before the water change only to help with the cycle ... i didn’t want the fish to be living in ammonia so i decided to add it to clean water but this water was too cold since i have only 1 gallon bucket to rest the water for 24 hours. Thus shocking the fish so i flushed the betta and then the plants were falling apart so i said **** it ... and decided to start fresh. After the the new water was in the 10 gallon tank i added ph 7.5 only to keep the ph to a higher level than 6.6... i plan to after the water settles and filters do a water test.. and then go buy some plants from the expansive store rather than the cheap store and slowly and surely try to get a bio filter established before i introduce fish this time...

 

[Byron]

The plants were not floating they were in a cheap aquatic pot. They were cheap to begin with... no i never and would never put any ammonia in the water just food. Unless a magical elf comes into my apartment only to poison me and the fish. I added a 10 gallon measurement of prime to the water 2 before the water change only to help with the cycle ... i didn’t want the fish to be living in ammonia so i decided to add it to clean water but this water was too cold since i have only 1 gallon bucket to rest the water for 24 hours. Thus shocking the fish so i flushed the betta and then the plants were falling apart so i said **** it ... and decided to start fresh. After the the new water was in the 10 gallon tank i added ph 7.5 only to keep the ph to a higher level than 6.6... i plan to after the water settles and filters do a water test.. and then go buy some plants from the expansive store rather than the cheap store and slowly and surely try to get a bio filter established before i introduce fish this time...

If you include live plants, forget about establishing the biofilter (cycling), it will occur in the background. Once the tank is planted and aquascaped, and the plants show signs of growth--and floating plants are the best here--you can begin adding fish. Nothing could be simpler. Just don't add too many fish. If this is a 10g tank, fish will have to be either something like a lone Betta, or a group of one or two or maybe three shoaling species of "nano" fish.

 

[ks2012ks]

Ok thanks for the help ... i am going to worry first about getting plants in there first! Being patient is another story!

 

[Essjay]

You don't need to rest the water for 24 hours. Put the dechlorinator in the bucket then add hot and cold water to get the temperature right. If you run the water in very fast it will mix in the dechlorinator. Then pour the water into the tank slowly. I use a jug to transfer the water from the bucket to the tank.

 

[Tttay89]

I always assumed the hot tap contained a load of unwanted stuff, does dechlorinator really take the lot out ‍

 

[Essjay]

If you don't want to use the hot water tap, boil a kettle. That's what I do. At the moment in the middle of winter I use 1.5 litres (a kettleful) of boiling water in a 7.5 litre bucket (that's 0.4 gallons in a 2 gallon bucket) and that gets the temp right. In summer when cold tap water is not nearly as cold, I use less than a kettleful of boiling water.

What's in hot water depends on where you live. In the UK there are basically 2 ways of getting hot water (there are more but two are the most common). The older one is where the hot water is stored in a tank, and as water is run out, the tank is topped up from another cold water tank in the attic. This tank can get contaminated, so hot tap water should not be used. The other type is where a combi boiler is installed. These heat freshly drawn mains water and there is no contamination, so hot tap water can be used.