Ammonia, Nitrite, And Nitrate Levels

[cambojnr]

are you sure it is 0.25ppm as the colour of the water will always be a greenish colour, as you are never gonna get perfect yellow unless it when you are cycling as I found out yesterday that you will never have 0ppm as fish are always excreting ammonia so there will always be a sign of it. as I had always wondered why I never have perfect yellow, and then I got told that yesterday.

 

[RyanV]

yeah it was pretty much yellow (smallest tint green), just not as bright yellow as the color chart. Never having 0ppm would make sense a little bit, so pretty much if it stayed at say 0.25 or less I should be fine? I was just worried about adding more fish with it reading that, will the good bacteria be able to handle more waste? Would it be a good idea to wait a good week or more?

 

[cambojnr]

yeah it was pretty much yellow (smallest tint green), just not as bright yellow as the color chart. Never having 0ppm would make sense a little bit, so pretty much if it stayed at say 0.25 or less I should be fine? I was just worried about adding more fish with it reading that, will the good bacteria be able to handle more waste? Would it be a good idea to wait a good week or more?

wait another week just to be sure, and aslong as it is just the slightest bit green then you are fine, as I have never had perfect yellow as I cycled my tank with goldies when I was just a noob who got told the wrong stuff by the shop I used to get my fish from, and in some place you will more than likely be getting slight ammonia through you tap water. the good bacteria will just grow to support the amount of waste that is in the tank within reason to you filter capacity.

 

[JohnHuff]

The activated carbon pouches should be sucking up the ammonia and nitrites.

Carbon does not remove ammonia and nitrite. They are ions, carbon only removes things that bond covalently not ionically. It will remove medication, tannins, other organic acids etc by binding them to the surface of the carbon. Once the surface is full, it won't adsorb any more.

The ways to remove ammonia and nitrite are by water changes or growing enough bacteria in the filter.

Just to get things straight, activated carbon does absorb ammonia through chemisorption. The bacteria will also get rid of ammonia and nitrites biologically. The best way to get rid of ammonia is with bacteria, I suggested activated carbon is because it looks like the OP does not have enough bacteria yet.

The carbon will also provide a place for bacteria to colonize but it's better to use other types of media which is specifically created for bacteria.

The carbon has a finite lifespan for absorption, you will find that date on the manufacturer's box. It's usually 4-6 weeks. I don't use and don't like to use carbon because I don't want to keep buying it among other reasons.

 

[Essjay]

I should have said carbon will not remove any significant amount of ammonia.
New fishkeepers are at the bottom of a steep learning curve. I like to keep things simple for new fish keepers, I don't want to mislead them into thinking that all they have to do is add carbon and they won't need to do any water changes. Carbon may remove small amounts of ammonia, but not the amount made by a tank full of fish, so for all practical purposes it does not remove ammonia.

I quite agree that other types of media are better than carbon as a biomedium.

 

[RyanV]

One more question, when I replace my filter carbon pouches won't I lose all the bacteria? Is there a way around this?

 

[Essjay]

There are a couple of options.

First you can just leave the cartridges there, don't change them. Although the carbon inside the cartridge will get full and stop adsorbing things, it will still work as a home for bacteria.

The second alternative is to cut a small slit in the bag and empty the carbon out. Then fill the space inside with sponge, cut to fit, or filter wool. You would have to this one cartridge at a time with at least a month between each one. If you do them all at once or don't leave a big enough gap between you are likely to find yourself with ammonia and/or nitrite spikes. The fabric part of the cartridge will hold a fair amount of bacteria, so you'd only be losing the bacteria on the carbon itself.

 

[RyanV]

There are a couple of options.

First you can just leave the cartridges there, don't change them. Although the carbon inside the cartridge will get full and stop adsorbing things, it will still work as a home for bacteria.

The second alternative is to cut a small slit in the bag and empty the carbon out. Then fill the space inside with sponge, cut to fit, or filter wool. You would have to this one cartridge at a time with at least a month between each one. If you do them all at once or don't leave a big enough gap between you are likely to find yourself with ammonia and/or nitrite spikes. The fabric part of the cartridge will hold a fair amount of bacteria, so you'd only be losing the bacteria on the carbon itself.

For the first option could I just add more carbon from time to time? How often? Every 2 months, 4, 6? Would it help to rinse the pouches every month with the tanks water? I also have two pouches for each tank, so if I had to I could replace 1 at a time, than the other a few months later?

 

[mossonthemoon]

The big problem with using carbon, and not changing it regularly, is that when it reaches its capacity it will dump its contents. This includes the good and bad contents. The problem then is that if you do only use carbon, or if it is the main component of the filter, you will lose your bacteria colony when you change it. For this reason carbon is a poor choice for filters. Sponges are cheap and last for such a long time I would never recommend anything else, really.

 

[Essjay]

You could leave the cartridges there until the carbon started to turn to dust. Since you don't actually need carbon, I would then just empty the carbon out and refill the bag with sponge/filter wool. Until then just squeeze them gently in old tank water to get the debris off. But one cartridge at one time in each filter, then the second at least a month later.

 

[RyanV]

Thanks for all the information. I currently have the tetra whisper 60 filter with the 2 carbon pouches, I did also add a sponge about 2 weeks ago that fits right between the carbon pouches. If I did what you said and got rid of the carbon pouches and used sponges/ filter wool, will that work in the filter I have? Also if I did that, do I still need some type of carbon? Do the sponges/ filter wool take care of whatever the carbon did? Could bioballs work the same if I put them in the bottom of the filter?

 

[Essjay]

All carbon is useful for is removing the brown colour from bogwood and medication after treatment has finished. Sponges etc don't do this, so if you have a lot of bogwood leaching tannins, then it's fine to use carbon to get rid of the brown colour. And if you need to medicate you'd need to put some carbon back in for a few days to remove it afterwards - though as the carbon would get full of med, you'd have to throw it away after a few days. I have a small, cheap internal filter in the cupboard that I keep just for running carbon if ever I need it.
Carbon also removes organic acids, but they are quite useful in the tank as they help bind heavy metals (though most dechlorinators do that to).

The sponge you added will be slowly growing bacteria, it does take a few weeks though, probably at least 6 weeks.

I'm not sure about bioballs as I'm not familiar with this type of filter - they're not nearly as common in the UK as they are in the US

 

[mossonthemoon]

I would go for as much sponge as you can fit in, with maybe a little wool on top to catch the very small debris. Carbon needs to be changed often because it gets full and then dumps, which isn't ideal for a fish tank (or a water filter...), so it gets expensive. Sponges can be used until the fall apart and keep bacteria colonies much better.

 

[gforce17]

In my experience most filters come with a range of bio media which aquatic shops usually have for you to replace or add to eg. Ceramic rings, bio balls, white filter pads, carbon filter pads, fine filter wool for clarifying the water more effectively. All these build up the bacteria in your filter to get rid of the ammonia and nitrites as the filter becomes cycled. You don't need to replace them too often. When they get clogged and dirty you just rinse them in water from the tank. I replace the wool when it's restricting the flow of water. I haven't replaced the other stuff, just rinsed.