Continuous Ammonia Readings

[firsttimefishboy]

Hi, i have had small traces of ammonia now for the last 4 days. My 96ltr tank is 9 days old. I have an eheim biopower internal filter. I have 10 (bunches) live plants. I didn't do a fishless cycle. I used stress zyme as per instructions. I used stress coat on the water to take away the chlorine. I added 8 zebra danios 5 days later as they are hardy. The nitrite and ammonia readings were zero on the 4th (the day the fish were added). They aren't showing any signs of problems and I am not feeding them too much but still have ammonia showing up.
Details are as follows.

5th feb
ph 7.4 amm 0.5 ppm no2 0.25 ppm no3 10 ppm
6th feb
ph 7.4 amm 0.5 ppm no2 0.25 ppm no3 20 ppm
7th feb
ph 7.4 amm 0.5 ppm no2 0.25 ppm no3 5 ppm
8th feb
ph 7.4 amm 0.5 ppm no2 0 ppm no3 5 ppm

i'm using an api master test kit. i have done 10% water changes for the last three days. i noticed the nitrite reading was zero tonight so maybe things are getting better. I do have one plant that's leaves are rotting from the bottom up, could this produce excessive ammonia.

any help greatly accepted.

 

[Skins]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
You are in what we call a fish-in cycle, With your filter only being 9 days old there will be no beneficial bacterias to remove the toxins(ammonia/nitrIte) from your tank waters chemistry. You will need to test your water daily backed up by a water change when your ammonia/nitrIte levels reach 0.25ppm or higher. With the readings you have just posted i would recommend a 75% water change asap.

Please have a read of the article "fish_in cycle"(link) in my signature at the bottom of this post.

Keith.

 

[firsttimefishboy]

Hi Skins,
I have just read the 'fish in cycling' article before your reply. very helpful.

I also look at other sites and this one http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/Water_Changes.html indicates in the 5th paragraph that too many water changes are not good. I may have got the wrong end of the stick but with so many sites and so much info it can be confusing to the beginner.

I will carry out changes as per 'fish in cycling' article straight away.

Thanks

 

[Skins]

Hi Skins,
I have just read the 'fish in cycling' article before your reply. very helpful.

I also look at other sites and this one http/www.thinkfish.co.uk/article/Water_Changes.html indicates in the 5th paragraph that too many water changes are not good. I may have got the wrong end of the stick but with so many sites and so much info it can be confusing to the beginner.

I will carry out changes as per 'fish in cycling' article straight away.

Thanks

Very interesting article, but its aimed at the fishkeeper with a cycled filter, with your filter not being cycled yet you really have no option but to perform large water changes when there are levels of ammonia or nitrIte in your tanks water. When you come to the end of your cycle in 4 to 6 weeks thats when this article will be good to fall back on.

Keith.

 

[firsttimefishboy]

Thanks very much.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Keith. You are still at the very beginning of a month or two Fish-In cycle. At 0.50ppm ammonia you are in the beginning range of giving the danios permanent gill damage - this is why you want to adjust your water changes such that it doesn't spike over 0.25ppm. Same with nitrite, you want to keep the spikes below 0.25ppm (in the case of NO2 the damage is to red blood cells though, causing nerve damage.) Fish-In cycles can be very hard work, requiring a couple of test periods per day and often large water changes following these as you gradually adjust your percentage and frequency of water change to keep the fish safe. The reason you want to go by the numbers is that in the early stages of damage the fish won't show visible symptoms.

The way you end a fish-in cycle is by being able to go a week with no water changes and yet no longer getting any trace readings of ammonia or nitrite. After that you can consider very slow additions of 2 or 3 small fish with a couple weeks between additions, ideally.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[firsttimefishboy]

Ok. Two days ago my danios moved to a friends tank for a 'holiday' and I have now started a fishless cycle and my ammonia was added yesterday. I have now noticed tonight loads of tiny fry!! I know they won't survive because the ammonia level is 4ppm but will they block my filter or affect my cycle in anyway?