Ammonia Chips

[pnyklr3]

Has anyone ever used/seen these. They are supposed to absorb ammonia from the water.

My question is this: Would using these (assuming they worked) help lower my nitrates? I figure that less ammonia=less nitrite=less nitrates.

I have always had a problem with nitrates. Water changes don't really help, my tap doesn't register any, and my live plants don't seem to be helping. There was actually a point of about 6 weeks that I couldn't really get them down very far (I had frequent water changes and cut down on feedings).

What do you think?

 

[BobK]

Don't know but doesn't activated carbon absorb nitrates? You could also try reverse osmosis water.

 

[Bignose]

If your tap water does not have nitrates, partial water changes should do the trick. So long as you condition the water, match the pH, temp. and hardness and don't disturb your bacteria too much you can do a water changes as often as you want. Every day even. Otherwise some plants are well known as nitrate scavangers -- like the 'wort family. Hornwort in particular is what I am thinking of, grows quickly, and uptakes nitrate very quickly.

But I feel ammonia chips should only be used in an emergency. Consider this: you use the ammonia chips to lower the concentration of ammonia; your bacteria's current numbers are based upon how much ammonia they are eating right now. Assuming the tank is fully cycled, the total number of bacteria is roughlt constant. With the chips, you lower the amount of food available to the bacteria, therefore some of your bacteria die off. Now, you will have to change out the chips often, but say you forget, or leave town for some days. The chips become saturated, and ammonia builds back up. The bacteria cannot take care of it immediately, they have to grow back up to a sufficient level. The answer to your direct question is yes less ammonia does indeed mean less nitrate, but this seems to me to be a very band-aid patchwork method of deadling with the problem.

I guess the real question is what levels are the nitrates at now? and how often are your "frequent" water changes, and what % of the tank? And then, really, what are your stocking levels? An over-stocked tank will probably always make high nitrates -- part of the reason why if you overstock your tank you have to do water changes very often.

 

[pnyklr3]

Ok, let's see.

55 gallons:
8 bloodfin tetras
3 Black line tetras
Harem of apistos (1 male @3 inches, 3 females @ 1 inch each)
1 glass catfish (2 inches)
Bristlenose plec (poop machine is 5 inches)
3 Clown Loaches (1 @ 3 inches; 2 @ 2 inches)
2 Bala Sharks (2 inches each)

I figure about 43 inches of fish.

I have some live plants (but not "worts").
My water changes were roughly 15-20% every week (when they were high the first time). My usual water change rate is 15-20% every 2 weeks. When I first had the nitrate prob, I was doing the same water changes about every 3 days and was told to wait awhile longer between them.

 

[Bignose]

You do not appear overstocked at the moment. (In the future you will be, but we're talking about now.) People's advice against too frequent water changes kind of stems from old wives tales' inertia. Back when undergravel filters were state-of-the-art, if you vacuumed too much of the gravel at once you disturbed your beneficial bacteria too much and many have caused a mini-cycle. Nowadays, your bacteria are on your sponge or filter medium or bio-wheel, and so long as you dont expose them to unconditioned water they will be fine.

So, so long as you use your favorite water conditioner, match the temperature, the hardness, the pH of the water you mean to put in with the tank water, there is no reason against performing as frequent of water changes as you like. Think about nature -- basically continual water changes! As an added bonus, it seems whenever I do an extra water change or two, my fish begin to act much more amorously than usual, so you might get to watch some new behavior from your fish, too.

 

[pnyklr3]

I know what you mean! I purposely put in new water that was a bit colder to simulate the rainy season and get some fishies in the mood. And it's worked!

Animal Husbandry=good
Nitrates=not so good