Ammonia Just Refuses To Go Down. -_-

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t1tanrush

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This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.
 
This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.


Have you tested your tap water it could be high in your tap water thats the reason its not going down (I had that same problem.) I ended up finding someone with well water. But before I found someone with well water I just let it go and freaked out about it but didn't do anything about it. I have been doing a fish-in-cycle (my first one ever) for 20 days now and have only changed out 15 gallons (my ammonia is at 0 and my nitrites are down to .25 the highest my ammonia got was 1 and my nitrites went off the scale but all my fish seem to be healthy and active)
 
This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.


Have you tested your tap water it could be high in your tap water thats the reason its not going down (I had that same problem.) I ended up finding someone with well water. But before I found someone with well water I just let it go and freaked out about it but didn't do anything about it. I have been doing a fish-in-cycle (my first one ever) for 20 days now and have only changed out 15 gallons (my ammonia is at 0 and my nitrites are down to .25 the highest my ammonia got was 1 and my nitrites went off the scale but all my fish seem to be healthy and active)
I will test this later, for now hopefully prime can sort it out, no one with well water nearby ;*O
 
This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.


Have you tested your tap water it could be high in your tap water thats the reason its not going down (I had that same problem.) I ended up finding someone with well water. But before I found someone with well water I just let it go and freaked out about it but didn't do anything about it. I have been doing a fish-in-cycle (my first one ever) for 20 days now and have only changed out 15 gallons (my ammonia is at 0 and my nitrites are down to .25 the highest my ammonia got was 1 and my nitrites went off the scale but all my fish seem to be healthy and active)
I will test this later, for now hopefully prime can sort it out, no one with well water nearby ;*O

You can always just go with the flow and see what happens.
 
This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.


Have you tested your tap water it could be high in your tap water thats the reason its not going down (I had that same problem.) I ended up finding someone with well water. But before I found someone with well water I just let it go and freaked out about it but didn't do anything about it. I have been doing a fish-in-cycle (my first one ever) for 20 days now and have only changed out 15 gallons (my ammonia is at 0 and my nitrites are down to .25 the highest my ammonia got was 1 and my nitrites went off the scale but all my fish seem to be healthy and active)
I will test this later, for now hopefully prime can sort it out, no one with well water nearby ;*O

You can always just go with the flow and see what happens.
Fish are obviously somewhat annoyed, clamped fins/gill scraping, I'm buying some prime after fishing tommorow to hopefully help it a bit.
 
This is my first decent sized tank, all the little stuff was pretty simple and easy to maintain. The problem I'm having is my ammonia is constantly 1-2 ppm. I did a 50% water change yesterday, and an 80% today, and it is still very high. I really don't want to have to change the water twice a day at huge levels as it is very time consuming and probably unneeded. Is prime a good option on getting the stuff down or is this just a spike that will go away in my cycling? Stats in sig.


Have you tested your tap water it could be high in your tap water thats the reason its not going down (I had that same problem.) I ended up finding someone with well water. But before I found someone with well water I just let it go and freaked out about it but didn't do anything about it. I have been doing a fish-in-cycle (my first one ever) for 20 days now and have only changed out 15 gallons (my ammonia is at 0 and my nitrites are down to .25 the highest my ammonia got was 1 and my nitrites went off the scale but all my fish seem to be healthy and active)
I will test this later, for now hopefully prime can sort it out, no one with well water nearby ;*O

You can always just go with the flow and see what happens.
Fish are obviously somewhat annoyed, clamped fins/gill scraping, I'm buying some prime after fishing tommorow to hopefully help it a bit.


O see I didn't know all that at first well then... well then im to much a noob to help anymore sorry
 
the tank is not nearly close to cycled, ammonia wont start to go down on its own for at least 2+ weeks.
 
the tank is not nearly close to cycled, ammonia wont start to go down on its own for at least 2+ weeks.
I know, so I'm guessing prime + water changes should do fine until then? Water changes alone aren't doing crap so I figured adding prime might be good.
 
the tank is not nearly close to cycled, ammonia wont start to go down on its own for at least 2+ weeks.
I know, so I'm guessing prime + water changes should do fine until then? Water changes alone aren't doing crap so I figured adding prime might be good.

prime is just a conditioner right? I dont know if that will help much. your fish are just large waste producer. I would just stay on top of it, daily water changes and mim feeding. keep it <1ppm with your fish will probably be best. they are very hardy if im not mistaken.
 
the tank is not nearly close to cycled, ammonia wont start to go down on its own for at least 2+ weeks.
I know, so I'm guessing prime + water changes should do fine until then? Water changes alone aren't doing crap so I figured adding prime might be good.

prime is just a conditioner right? I dont know if that will help much. your fish are just large waste producer. I would just stay on top of it, daily water changes and mim feeding. keep it <1ppm with your fish will probably be best. they are very hardy if im not mistaken.
Prime also advertises that it reduces ammonia well, and I've heard good things... I don't feed more than they eat in a few hours, but they only eat live feeders, and I toss them an insect or two (which is gone immediately). They are very hardy thankfully. I'm doing daily water changes, but short of doing 100%... I don't know.. 80% cant keep it under 1ppm so meh might just let them eat it for the next couple weeks and hope they make it.
 
When you are doing your water changes, are you giving the gravel a good thorough deep clean?

Cleaning the gravel is vital otherwise waste and leftover food will rot under your gravel causing ammonia

Prime helps by breaking down harmful ammonia to ammonium which isnt harmful to fish, the only bad thing about using prime is that you are just masking the problem rather than identifying and rectifying it.

Andy
 

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