Ammonia Now At 0.6 Cant Get It Down

[CheniseMummy]

Hello as title says im stuck at 0.6,

I had some decaying plants which ive ripped out the tank as it was badly gone, i also removed my floating salvina natans as this was losing it roots as well.

Ive got trace reading of nitrite and nitrate at 20. I did 80% water change last night.

This morning 0.6, nitrite trace, nitrate 20
i took out filter and placed in bucket of tank water, i removed nealry all water only 90% and filled up again and still at 0.6 20min later.

The fish are showing no signs of any problems. What do i do now? I am going to go get some fast growing plants to replace the ones that rotted away. I have prime which ive treated to 2 x the daily dose today it says up to 5x is safe. Will the prime remove the ammonia for a bit.

 

[Verminator89]

Your always going to have ammonia in your tank so long as you have living organisms in there and plants ect. So unless you have no plants, crystal clear water and NO fish your going to have ammonia. Fish poop, food gets stuck in places you cant see/find, plants will have some dyeing leaves every now and again and water will always have microscopic organisms that contribute. I think you'll be fine is what i'm trying to say

Its always going to exist in our tanks you'd have to have a HUGE tank with virtually no fish and an extremely overfiltered tank with lots of water changes to stand a chance of 0 ammonia. The important part is keeping ontop of maintenance to keep it from turning into nitrite then nitrate in large quantities - thats the challenge.

Hope this helps, James

 

[Gvilleguy]

But it is very possible to have a planted tank with zero ammonia all the time isn't it? The first question that pops to mind when I see a post like this is have you tested your source tap water to make sure there isn't ammonia in it? I'm currently going through a mini-cycle on my own tank (after cleaning my filter) with 0.25 ppm ammonia for several days now. Water changes won't help me because my tap water contains 0.25 ammonia right out of the tap! So I'm just waiting for my bacteria to get re-established.

 

[Verminator89]

True. If you were to take a heavily planted tank with optimum growing conditions and had a few shoaling fish, as many people do, then there is the distinct possibility you won't have much if any at all ammonia as it is converted and used up by the plants to quickly to pose a threat or be of any real issue. But going on reality i think i can vouch for most people when i say not everyone can sustain a planted tank. It is apparently alot harder to suss out than anyone first tries. I know i'm still learning to keep plants properly.

Tap water is a big issue, with it varying so much over such a short distance. I know my tap water has 19.7ppm for nitrate and chloride is 40ppm.

And your right, no one will ever agree on a set conclusion.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Have you vacuumed the sand/gravel recently, plus rinsed the filter sponges gently in tank water, to remove any rotting food?

If so, perhaps the answer is to try placing the fish in a bucket of tank or de-chlorinated tap water, while you empty the tank completely of its current water.

 

[OldMan47]

Measure your tap water for all 3 chemicals.
I got quite a surprise today when a newly set up tank was reading high nitrites and a 90%+ water change made it worse. I tested my tap for nitrites and sure enough there were some, about as much as I had in my new tank. My tap always shows a little ammonia once I dechlorinate but this is the first time I have seen any nitrites in it. Nitrates are fairly common in any water supply so it would be helpful to see if you are merely measuring tap water in your tank. For me, with lots of running mature filters, the answer was easy. I used water from other tanks to clear up the tank with bad water and topped them all off with tap water. The tap was such a small part of the water I added to each tank that the concentrations stayed low and the mature filters took care of things.

 

[CheniseMummy]

Thanks i have tested my tap water before adding declorinater so i will try this out as i was getting A=0 NI=0 NA=5

My results this morning are slighly lower Ammonia 0.3 Nitrite 0.1 nitrate 30

I will test declorinated water from the tap.

I brought 3 plants yesterday which are fast growing to replace the ones id taken away they ammonia level this morning is lower so maybe this is helping too.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

CM, any updates? Hopefully your toxin levels are not spiking by now.