Arghhhhh Ammonia Back With A Vengeance

scotslasszoe · Sep 23, 2007

well transfered everything from my 3.5 ft tank to a new 4 ft tank. including fluval 4 plus. only thing not been transfered is my external filter (Eheim 2217) as no room to put it in

Now i got ammonia probs again.

So heres what i have done. have also put in a fluval 3 plus. so tank now running with 2 filters.

Will this help?

I think the bacteria from fluval 3 will have gone as was out my other tank for over 24 hrs.

Any tips on what i should do.

was thinking of buying that ammo lock liquid.

what ya all think.

Is it back to water changes 3 times a day again?

Zoe :angry:

afishdude · Sep 23, 2007

sounds to me like you need to start your cycle over again. raise the temp and aireation. do WC like you are cycling it for the first time and test your ammonia and nitrITe vigurasly (sp?)

scotslasszoe · Sep 23, 2007

Got fish in there. Other tank not set back up yet, plus eheim been out of wate for a few days now so will have to start a new cycle in other tank.

Cheers dude

grimmy · Sep 23, 2007

well you can get a.c.e from jungle labs itll turn ammonia to non toxic ammonium that easiser to filter up and get dimand bled that helps alot with me

afishdude · Sep 23, 2007

that defeats the purpose of cycling, you cannot cycle if you use that stuff. the bacteria will starve if there is no direct source of ammonia. grimmy if you use this the minute you forget to dose or stop dosing, all your fish will surly die because it will keep it from cycling

grimmy · Sep 23, 2007

yes but the bacteria can eat the ammonium or ammonia from fish poop

afishdude · Sep 23, 2007

bacteria cant eat ammonium, if you dose with that there will be no ammonia because it turnes it into ammonium, thus no bacteria because thers no food. when you stop dosing the ammonia will be amminia and turn to nitrite killing all your fish.

grimmy · Sep 23, 2007

cryslea · Sep 23, 2007

afishdude said:
bacteria cant eat ammonium, if you dose with that there will be no ammonia because it turnes it into ammonium, thus no bacteria because thers no food. when you stop dosing the ammonia will be amminia and turn to nitrite killing all your fish.

I'm very new to this, but I've read in a variety of places that bacteria can use ammonium. In this thread here, post 7, Tolak says "The conditioners that state that they remove ammonia actually convert it to ammonium, which is used the same as ammonia by your nitrifying bacteria."

rdd1952 · Sep 23, 2007

The bacteria can use both ammonia and ammonium. Our test kits measue total ammonia (ammonium + ammonia). The lower the pH, the larger the percentage of ammonium (thus the reason ammonia is less toxic at lower pH levels). Conversely, the higher the pH, the higher the percentage of ammonia thus higher toxicity. From reading about Ammonia Chlorine Eliminator, it will probably works but I think I would go with Prime instead.

One thing you will have to be careful of though is that these chemicals only work on the ammonia present at the time you add it. Any ammonia produced later by the fish will still be toxic. So you never know how much of the ammonia you are seeing is toxic and how much isn't. I think Prime also works on nitrite to neutralize it too although I'm not certain how as I don't think it as a non-toxic form. In any case, water changes to keep the toxins low are always the best course of action.

Chrispixx · Sep 23, 2007

Sorry about your situation zoe.. but just so i understand this correctly, the eheim is a cannister? and you didn't use it because of space issues?

If that is the case then thats is the problem, as thats where most of the the bacteria supply would have been. If it wasn't shut off so long you could have squeezed the media sponge(s) directly inside the new tank letting the new filters pick up the bacteria, colonizing the new sponges.

I hope you get it sorted out ok.

I like your new avatar pic, and your new pics on the website are great.

scotslasszoe · Sep 24, 2007

Hey Chris. I am really gutted. but if i have to go back to water changes then so be.

Thanks again

Zoe :good:

GRJ · Sep 24, 2007

I used ammo-lock while i cycled my first tank as i had fish in there. It does allow for the cycle to continue as long as there is a source of ammonia in the tank, ie fish poop, it converts ammonia to ammonium. It wont do anything for nitrite though, aquarium salt can help a little with that depening on whether you have fish that can tolerate salt. GRJ :good:

scotslasszoe · Sep 24, 2007

GRJ said:
I used ammo-lock while i cycled my first tank as i had fish in there. It does allow for the cycle to continue as long as there is a source of ammonia in the tank, ie fish poop, it converts ammonia to ammonium. It wont do anything for nitrite though, aquarium salt can help a little with that depening on whether you have fish that can tolerate salt. GRJ

Hiya GRJ

Thanks for replying.

I think i will prob be best to keep up with water changes. Will do a water test today and see what the score is. if it is deadly high will use ammo lock. if just a little on the high side will keep doing WC.

Good news also. Electricans coming today to fit a plug socket in my hall so can get my 3.5 ft tank set back up again. (off to Boots with me ) :hyper: