Ammonia Problem New Tank

[mike126]

good stuff, apologies if the question sounded a bit patronising, but you'd be surprised some of the funny little things we come across on here, i'd rather ask the silly questions and be sure!

No offense taken. I can imagine this being an issue.

Also, I do not have any live plants in the tank yet. Should I hold off until I get the ammonia stabalized?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nope, plants favourite food is ammonia, so feel free to stick some in.

on the subject of plants you'll often find dodgy lfs's selling houseplants as aquatic, they'll survive underwater for a few weeks then start to rot! so do a little research into some common species before you go. As a general guide if you lift the plant out of water true aquatic plants will flop and non-aquatic ones will stand up. Not true in 100% of cases but it's a good starting point if you're not sure!

 

[waterdrop]

plants can go both ways - they can possibly be an "inoculant" of good bacteria in a bare new fishless cycling tank, but that's less important in a Fish-In situation like yours -- one potential negative is if they start to die and thus add more ammonia back into the water in unexpected amounts. Overall, if kept reasonably healthy and trimmed or taken out if they fail, they are usually a good addition even if cycling.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mike126]

Thanks WD and MW on the plant advice. Maybe I'll hold off a few more days/week until I introduce them into the tank.

 

[OldMan47]

As an old time method of dealing with a new tank, robustly growing plants can be your best friend. They will absorb a lot of the ammonia from your water and give your fish a chance. These days we usually do things with water changes but if your fresh water is loaded with ammonia, the plants can actually help quite a bit. Usually it is not worth complicating the situation with plants but you do not have "usually" tap water.

 

[mike126]

I checked my ammonia tonight and it has dropped to just over 1.0ppm. So that's an improvement since yesterday. I also dod a 15% water change and added Prime to condition the water.

 

[kcharley]

Hi Mike,

I'm a noob myself so take anything I write cautiously.

I'm also battling ammonia in my tap water. In my case though it is 1.0.

Regarding test kits, I'm using an API Master Freshwater Test Kit. I didn't know it when I bought it but it's ammonia test is a two part salicylate (hope I spelled that right) test. The significance is some tests apparently read ammonium as ammonia. I've been told that the two part salicylate test reads ammonia only.

I seem to be having good luck with API's Stress Coat + as a water conditioner/ammonia reducer. (I suspect it has liquid Ammolock in it as the label states it treats ammonia.) A teaspoon per 5 gal of tap water reduced my 1.0 to .25. The LFS said I could double up the dosage if I needed more reduction. As it appears to be a good shop, which the owners work in, I took them at their word and put in another teaspoon. After a 25% water change last night, the fish seem happy. (They showed stress after prior water changes, so I stopped until I could try something different.)

I won't be able to test the water until after work tonight.

I'll look for the Prime. It sound like you and others have good results with that.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Greg
in KC, MO