Ammonia Reading

[bymauldin]

I did a fishless cycle on my tank. I stocked it with 2 Dwarf Puffers and several ghost shrimp. It's been running for about a week and a half now. I've tested the water every 3 days just to kind of get a feel on how often I should be testing and cleaning. (It seems that a lot of people on the forum only test once a week.) Every third day that I've tested I have gotten an ammonia reading of about .25-.50ppm. I realize that any amount of ammonia in the water could be potentially hazardous to fish especially puffers since they are sensitive to water quality. I guess what I'm asking is...Is this normal? Even with me doing a cycle before hand. I know puffers are extremely messy fish and that you really have to stay on top of water changes, but since I'm getting this reading am I going to need to change the water twice a week? Or is this such a trace amount that I don't necessarily need to change it yet? Water changes twice a week and vacuum once a week? 20-30% water changes? I don't know. I'm just looking for some input.

 

[rdd1952]

If you did a fishless cycle, you should not get any ammonia or nitrite reading. How long did the fishless cycle take? How long was the tank taking to process the 2 to 4 ppm of ammonia you were adding. I would start doing water changes every day to keep the ammonia as low as possible until the bacteria can build enough to catch up. Once you have gotten rid of the ammonia, you should be able to go to once a week.

 

[bymauldin]

My fishless cycle took around 3 weeks to complete. It was processing 2-4ppm in about 12 hrs. That's why I'm a little confused as to why my tank isn't processing ammonia as it should be. I have a 10 gal with 2 DP so I'm not overstocked. I will also say that my nitrites have stayed at 0ppm everytime I've tested. I haven't tested my nitrates since I've been doing water changes every 3 days. I figured they couldn't possibly be dangerously high in 3 days. This may sound like a dumb question, but if I'm changing out 20-30% of my water every day how will my bacteria ever get built up?

 

[rdd1952]

Are you adding any chemicals other than dechlorinator? The bacteria in a bottle products like Stress Zyme, Cycle, etc. contain ammonia so those can give you a reading. Also, what is the pH of the tank? Bacteria metabolism slows at lower pH levels so that could be a factor but that shouldn't be an issue. One more question. How long was it from the time you added the last ammonia to your cycling tank until you added the fish?

 

[bymauldin]

Well, after I cycled my tank I had to wait about a week or so before I added fish. I continued adding ammonina as it would drop (after the cycle to keep the bacteria alive) but I would say it was probably a day or possibly two at the most from the last time I added ammonia til I added my fish. The pH of my tank is about 7.5. I am not adding any additional chemicals to the tank besides dechlorinator. The only possible thing I could think of is that I have some panty hose wrapped around my filter intake to keep my fish from getting caught. Could it be that with the panty hose around the intake that it's not filtering the tank as effectively? I figured it would still be able to filter ammonia out of the water...I don't know though.

 

[rdd1952]

I've never used anything around the filter intake of my tanks. Most filter aren't strong enough to suck in a healthy fish. I guess it is possible for the mesh of the panty hose to become clogged and not allow enough water through thus limiting the effectiveness of your filter and bacteria.