Dying Fish...

[fyrefaerye]

Okay tested again. ammonia still shows around 0.25 even in natural light. The fish aren't showing any signs of stress though. They are swimming around like normal. Could it be that the liquid kit shows a level of both ammonia and ammonium? I've tried to read up on it and am getting conflicting info.

 

[CoryLover95]

Yes it is possible.  My guess is that if the ammonia was 2.5ppm this whole time, your fish would be showing signs of stress.  If you do a 90% water change (just enough for the fish to stay upright) and it's still .25, it is almost certainly showing some ammonium.

 

[fyrefaerye]

I haven't quite gotten brave enough to do that large of a water change yet. I think the most I've done on that tank is 40% and that was quite the adventure. haha. Though even with doing water changes every other day or every day the level has remained a constant 0.25. The same thing is happening in my 10 gallon and I've done a 90% in that one. So (and please point out any flaws in this logic) since I'm treating both tanks with prime it leads me to think it's showing ammonia and ammonium levels. I've looked into that for some test kits and the site I found shows the total amount that the test is showing and the amount of actual ammonia (with a crazy long complicated equation). I'm going to try to find that page again because if this is the case then it will be useful for at least keeping me from pulling my hair out. 

 

[Sophie]

Throwing this out there, my API test kit has been reading 0 Nitrate for quite a while now.
 
Went and got it tested else where and low and behold it was 0, 0, 20 Nitrate. Was orange instead of the bright yellow I was receiving at home.
 
I'd suggest getting it tested else where to double check, maybe even triple check as I have had it tested in the past at other places and still showed 0 Nitrate!
 
Only discovered this after 9 months of having my tank established I had an upside down Ruby Shark this morning (not because of the water quality though, just solved a previous problem!) :'(
 
Unless the tank is super duper heavily planted then there should be some Nitrate.
 
Referring to my thread earlier this morning; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/418849-ruby-shark-upside-down-still-alive-just/
 
Good luck with everything

 

[CoryLover95]

Sorry, in my earlier post I meant .25, not 25.



 

I haven't quite gotten brave enough to do that large of a water change yet. I think the most I've done on that tank is 40% and that was quite the adventure. haha. Though even with doing water changes every other day or every day the level has remained a constant 0.25. The same thing is happening in my 10 gallon and I've done a 90% in that one. So (and please point out any flaws in this logic) since I'm treating both tanks with prime it leads me to think it's showing ammonia and ammonium levels. I've looked into that for some test kits and the site I found shows the total amount that the test is showing and the amount of actual ammonia (with a crazy long complicated equation). I'm going to try to find that page again because if this is the case then it will be useful for at least keeping me from pulling my hair out. 

If the ammonia is .25, you need to be doing water changes every day.  Try that for a while and see if the levels don't go down (I'd recommend AT LEAST 50%, but if you can't do that 40% is better than nothing).  If they don't, then I'd readily presume it's ammonium.
Good luck!