Ammonia

[stang8689]

I posted my problem on here last week bout nitrite and ammonia. I have done 50-70% water changes for a week now. Tank is 150 gallon with varoius catfish, bala sharks, tiger barbs, tetras, guariomies. I got the nitrite to 0 5 days ago and has been at 0 every reading for 5 days. The ammonia went down to .25 a few days ago and after every water change it remains the same. Now I do have some live plants now so is this ok to have it at .25? I cant get it to 0

 

[chrisrm]

how big is your tank, how longs it been running and exactly how may fish have you got?

 

[stang8689]

its 150 gallon, been running for bout 3 weeks with fish had 55 transfered fish over have 25 fish, didnt have live plants in old tank

 

[chrisrm]

wow 50-70% water changes on 150G thats a task!

do you meen you had 55 fish and now you have 25? if so are there some dead fish in there somewhere?

 

[stang8689]

no I had a 55 and upgraded to the 150, havent had any die in a long time. Its not that bad got nice set up to my sink

 

[stang8689]

just did another water change and same results before and after

 

[ellena]

Which test are you using? The API is very difficult to read below 0.25ppm. If that's what it was reading before and you changed 50%, it should be 0.125ppm which can look very like 0.25. I would recommend using seachem prime as your conditioner until the filter is fully cycled. It makes small amounts of ammonia safe for fish and is good value

 

[drobbyb]

Is it possible that you have ammonia in your tap water?

 

[stang8689]

well I tested my tap water and tank water for ammonia and they are the same color. I am using the api kit and it is hard to tell the difference from .25 to 0. It looks yellow but I can see a slight green tint in certain light. Guess it can be 0 maybe ill try a different test

 

[Assaye]

API test can be hard to tell, but when it really is zero you know. If it looks even slightly green, there is some ammonia there. I have a 0 ammonia reading on the API test right in front of me and there is no doubt about it. Until you see that colour, it's easy to wonder if it's just hard to tell.

Could be tap water doing that - add enough live plants and test in a few hours. With enough plants, they'll happily deal with any excess ammonia in the tap water.

You could also use a water conditioner with ammonia remover. What these do is transfer the ammonia into a harmless state that can still be used by the bacteria.

 

[OldMan47]

The 0.25 ppm has a slight hint of green to it but otherwise looks a lot like a zero yellow. If you test your tap water after adding the dechlorinator and see that same hint of green color, it may be that you are dealing with chloramine. Chloramine is composed of chlorine and ammonia. When your dechlorinator breaks the chemical bond, you will see some ammonia. In my case, I get about 1 ppm of ammonia from my tap water after using a good dechlorinator. Since I have a mature cycled filter in each tank, I never see any ammonia a few hours after a water change but I know that there is some ammonia in the water for a short time until the filter takes care of it.

 

[stang8689]

well I was at my lfs and came across some ammonia cut to fit filters that are new and got them anyone try these, are they ok to use?

they are made by HBH

 

[ellena]

The API kit is a bit easier to read if you take the lid off and look down the tube held up to the white card

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

The API kit is a bit easier to read if you take the lid off and look down the tube held up to the white card

oooh I'll have to try this tonight