Ammonia High

[Lewiscouse]

Hi my new 60 litre tank is set up and has had fish for two weeks but my ammonia level is sky high 8.0ppm, I have a fluval 106 external filter and two tiger barbs that have been at the top since day of purchase? It's not my first tank either I have a brilliantly cycled fluval but I need help

My api master test kit all reads perfect apart from ammonia??

 

[CezzaXV]

Ouch! Firstly, you need to do a big 90% water change to get the ammonia way down. Leave just enough water for your fish to swim upright. You need to get the ammonia below 0.25ppm, so you may need to do multiple water changes to get the ammonia down and keep it down. You need to do this right now. If I'm honest I'm amazed your fish are still alive.

Once that is done, have a read through of the Beginner's Resource Centre. Pay specific attention to the fish-in cycling section. I'm afraid to say you've got a lot of work ahead of you.

 

[phoenixgsd]

you need to do a huge water change which would bring it down to 4ppm which is still extremly high so be prepared to do several changes in quick succesion

 

[MrGT500]

i have had so much amonia in my tank at times that the water looks like milk. my advice, DONT CHANGE THAT MUCH WATER! do 20 percent water changes every other day. along with those water changes get your self some Seachem Stability. folow the directions on the back of the bottle. i battled with amonia for months until i found this stuff. my tank came clear in a week. i was amazed.

 

[CezzaXV]

i have had so much amonia in my tank at times that the water looks like milk. my advice, DONT CHANGE THAT MUCH WATER! do 20 percent water changes every other day. along with those water changes get your self some Seachem Stability. folow the directions on the back of the bottle. i battled with amonia for months until i found this stuff. my tank came clear in a week. i was amazed.

I cannot disagree with this advice more.

Firstly, ammonia does not make the water cloudy. Bacterial blooms do this. Now, it can be argued that bacterial blooms are caused by ammonia, but the best way to prevent this would be to remove the ammonia by doing water changes. Also let it be known that cloudy water does not harm fish, it just looks unsightly.

I'm not going to make this into a debate whether Stability works, but it's not going to rapidly remove highly toxic levels of ammonia like several large water changes will. Anyone who is battling with ammonia does not have a cycled tank, and therefore does not have a tank suitable for keeping fish in.

Ammonia is TOXIC to fish, and they need to not be exposed to it. A level of 0.25ppm is considered the safe maximum during cycling, but even this is too much long term.

 

[phoenixgsd]

as your doing a fish in cycle, for the sake of your fishes lives, large daily water are your only option besides rehoming your fish and doing a fishless cycle, seachem prime is a dechlorinator that temporarily detoxifies the ammonia untill you get ontop of it

 

[The Taffy Apple]

i have had so much amonia in my tank at times that the water looks like milk. my advice, DONT CHANGE THAT MUCH WATER! do 20 percent water changes every other day. along with those water changes get your self some Seachem Stability. folow the directions on the back of the bottle. i battled with amonia for months until i found this stuff. my tank came clear in a week. i was amazed.

Changing 1/5th of his tank water every other day is allowing his fish to be in direct contact with the Ammonia that is slowly killing them. Afraid to say, as cezza mentioned, that this advice should be ignored...you need to do regular, BIG, water changes, now.

Terry.

 

[Xraymark]

Well ammonia of 8ppm. I would expect the fish to be dead. A large water change should give a different reading.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Massive water change needed now, or your fish will die.

Harsh advice, but true.



Tom

 

[fluttermoth]

OP, if you have another tank that's cycled, you could take some media from the filter in that to seed the filter in the new tank; that should give the tank a boost, but I agree with the other posters who are recommending big water changes too.

It's virtually impossible to do too many, or too large, water changes, as long as the new water is temperture matched and dechlorinated.

 

[Lewiscouse]

I can do a massive water but what about the bacteria that must be building up and how do I control the water going in?

 

[CezzaXV]

When you change the water you just need to declorinate it and make sure that it's roughly the same temperature so as not to shock your fish.

The bacteria will grow in time, even if you keep ammonia and nitrite at undetectable levels. They grow in the filter, not floating around in the water as seems the obvious thing to a beginner.

I don't know if you've had chance to read the topic on fish-in cycling yet, but basically you want to test the water every day and do a big water change whenever you detect ammonia or nitrite. 0.25ppm is the maximum you want to allow it to go. If you find it builds up more than this in a day, you need to test twice daily.

 

[Lewiscouse]

Sounds good but why arent my fish dead yet?
My nitrates are low and my nitrites are 0
My PH is 7

 

[CezzaXV]

Some fish are more resistant to it than others, even within the same species. That's not to say they won't be suffering though, so really do try to keep those levels down.

 

[Lewiscouse]

Ok so big water change tomorrow with dechlorine and then add media from my other tank?