Ammonia

[FREDYFLINTSTONE]

hi i have had my tank up and running since november 8th ,i have a 380ltr tank everything was fine untill mid january when my water went cloudy last week i found out it was due to a algae bloom and i added some green away which cleared my tank overnight ,i only have my lights on for 5 hours and some blue led nights lights on for 3 hours i do a regular water change of 25% every week and use my gravel cleaner every fornight i today have done a water test and my ammonia is at 0.25mg is this dangerous my nitrires are 0 and nitrates 0 someontold me to use nutrfin cycle after every water change to add any good bacteria to my filter which i may loose during a water change is this a good idea and what can i do to reduce my ammonia to 0 thanks andy

 

[KittyKat]

Check your tap water ammonia.

If it is below 0.25 ppm, do a water change to reduce tank ammonia.

Ammonia over 0.25 ppm is toxic to fish. Ammonia is less toxic at lower pHs and more toxic at higher pHs.

A water change should not affect the filter bacteria in any way.

Clean filter sponges only in old aquarium water. Cleaning filter sponges under tap water will kill the bacteria, replacing filter sponges removes the bacteria.

 

[FREDYFLINTSTONE]

Check your tap water ammonia.

If it is below 0.25 ppm, do a water change to reduce tank ammonia.

Ammonia over 0.25 ppm is toxic to fish. Ammonia is less toxic at lower pHs and more toxic at higher pHs.

A water change should not affect the filter bacteria in any way.

Clean filter sponges only in old aquarium water. Cleaning filter sponges under tap water will kill the bacteria, replacing filter sponges removes the bacteria.

my ph is 7.4 i have recently on wednesday changed my filters in my filter box this probably didnt help should i add some interpet ammonia remover thanks andy

 

[Gvilleguy]

Did you change all filter media at the same time?

 

[FREDYFLINTSTONE]

Did you change all filter media at the same time?

i did yes a mistake i think had to add some ammonia remover and it has removed the ammonia from the tank to 0 ppm i am going to add some nurafin cycle tomorrow to boost my filter with bacteria and hopefully after a few days it will be fine or have you got any better suggestions many thanks andy

 

[KittyKat]

Try to get some media to seed your filter and keep ammonia/nitrite levels below 0.25 ppm.

 

[FREDYFLINTSTONE]

Try to get some media to seed your filter and keep ammonia/nitrite levels below 0.25 ppm.

many thanks im adding nutrafin cylcle which has active bacteria to help the filter hoping this works andy

 

[Gvilleguy]

We haven't actually said it on this thread yet, but if all of the media was replaced at once, you are now in a fish-in cycle situation. Hopefully there are still bacteria colonies on the surfaces of your filter and elsewhere that will assist with this process, but you will need to monitor levels of ammonia and nitrite daily and do water changes as needed.

For future reference, the media in your filter (sponges, bio-stuff) should be left in the filter as long as possible (until it is falling apart). Just periodic cleaning by swishing in a bucket of tank water. You then want to plan ahead and do gradual replacement. Like cut a sponge in half and put a new half sponge in its spot, etc.

 

[orli]

We haven't actually said it on this thread yet, but if all of the media was replaced at once, you are now in a fish-in cycle situation. Hopefully there are still bacteria colonies on the surfaces of your filter and elsewhere that will assist with this process, but you will need to monitor levels of ammonia and nitrite daily and do water changes as needed.

For future reference, the media in your filter (sponges, bio-stuff) should be left in the filter as long as possible (until it is falling apart). Just periodic cleaning by swishing in a bucket of tank water. You then want to plan ahead and do gradual replacement. Like cut a sponge in half and put a new half sponge in its spot, etc.

Hi everyone, Im a newbie to tropical fish keeping and wondered how I could get around the filter change without destroying everything, never thought of changing just bits of sponge thankyou for the tip!

Orli

 

[fluttermoth]

In all honesty, you should never have to change filter media (well, not for years and years). I've got sponges that are 15 or 20 years old; they just get moved around as I set up and break down different tanks or cut up and added to other filters.

Very occasionally one will get really clogged; like if you have to run a smallish internal filter with something like a goldfish or plec (well, we all have emergencies; these things happen). but even then, there's no need to buy new sponges; just cut it into thirds and wash the pieces really thoroughly in hot water and they come out practically new. Of course, you lose the bacteria in each piece doing that, so you do only one piece a fortnight or something slow like that; but it still saves money on buying new sponge

 

[menacer]

Yes unfortunately fish in cycle, as stated monitor and do regular water tests. nice tips there fluttermoth will use that for myself

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Algae is a living thing. When you kill it, it will break down like any other organic matter and this will produce some ammonia. The same applies to cyanobacteria ("bluegreen algae").