Ammonia @ 8Ppm+

[elliotuk]

Hey,

So i set up my tank and started the fishless cycle a few days ago as described in the forum. I hadnt yet recieved my test kit but thought I would add 2ml of ammonia to get it started.
A couple of days later I also added another 1ml of ammonia.

Now my master test kit has arrived almost a week later, I tested for ammonia and the reading is off the scale, the colour is a very dark green which is even darker than the green that corresponds to 8ppm on the chart.

Should I be worried? Have I added too much?

What now? Should I just wait a week or 2 and it will hopefully come down?

thanks

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd do a water change to bring the level down to around 4ppm. You don't want the ammonia levels too high as you can get the wrong kind of bacteria growing

 

[anon02]

That would just waste a week or 2, if you do a 50% water change that should get the ammonia to about the right level

 

[The Taffy Apple]

That would just waste a week or 2, if you do a 50% water change that should get the ammonia to about the right level

This is exactly the same problem i had last night, Ammonia reading went through the roof....

Done a 75% water change this morning and it is down to 4-6ppm..

Fingers crossed now, still registering nitrIe @ 5 ppm.

 

[elliotuk]

ok thanks guys will do a water change, i have some stresscoat, should I add the stresscoat to the new water and then put the new water in?
or just add the stresscoat straight in to the the tank itself.

It should kill the chlorine right, but wont it reduce the amonia too much as well??

 

[Aqua Tom]

ok thanks guys will do a water change, i have some stresscoat, should I add the stresscoat to the new water and then put the new water in?
or just add the stresscoat straight in to the the tank itself.

It should kill the chlorine right, but wont it reduce the amonia too much as well??

Add it to the water before you put it in the aquarium.

 

[waterdrop]

You will notice that the conditioners mostly all say that they detoxify ammonia in addition to removing chlorine/chloramines from the tap water. This often concerns the new fishless cycler. The answer is that what the conditioner is doing is converting the ammonia(NH3) into ammonium(NH4+) for a short 24 hour period or so. The ammonium is much more harmless to fish, which is why they do this, but the important bit of information for cyclers is that bacteria will process the NH4+ just as well as NH3, so it matters not to the bacteria!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Aqua Tom]

You will notice that the conditioners mostly all say that they detoxify ammonia in addition to removing chlorine/chloramines from the tap water. This often concerns the new fishless cycler. The answer is that what the conditioner is doing is converting the ammonia(NH3) into ammonium(NH4+) for a short 24 hour period or so. The ammonium is much more harmless to fish, which is why they do this, but the important bit of information for cyclers is that bacteria will process the NH4+ just as well as NH3, so it matters not to the bacteria!

~~waterdrop~~

Nice one WD.

A.T. gets out notepad & starts scribbling.

 

[elliotuk]

You will notice that the conditioners mostly all say that they detoxify ammonia in addition to removing chlorine/chloramines from the tap water. This often concerns the new fishless cycler. The answer is that what the conditioner is doing is converting the ammonia(NH3) into ammonium(NH4+) for a short 24 hour period or so. The ammonium is much more harmless to fish, which is why they do this, but the important bit of information for cyclers is that bacteria will process the NH4+ just as well as NH3, so it matters not to the bacteria!

~~waterdrop~~

ahh thanks for this info, good to know

so when u do a water change you should always treat the new water in a seperate bucket before adding the new water in to the tank?
or would it be ok to tip stresscoat straight in to the tank once i have fish?

 

[OldMan47]

The basic information that you need is that both NH3 and NH4 work fine to cycle your tank. At levels above 5 ppm, and especially starting at around 8 ppm, you will be developing the wrong bacteria in your filter media. Although those bacteria will be quite good at converting high levels of ammonia, they will not do well once the tank is cycled and most of the ammonia the fish produce ends up at levels we have a hard time detecting. Under the low concentration regime, a different bacterial colony is needed. That bacteria does better at levels below 5 ppm so we say to hold 5 ppm or less to develop the right ammonia processing bacteria. In your situation, it is time to do a large water change, measure the result and charge up towards 5 ppm if you happen to take things too low. Anything over 1 ppm is plenty to get a fine start on your cycle and you can feel your way to larger doses when you find levels near zero.