Gotta Love Ammonia

[Leitch]

Heres the story:

I set up my tank and added what i thought was the correct amount of ammonia. However i later realised that it was WAY to much. The 'not-so-great-' test kit i had was registering 8 or more ppm of ammonia (it only went up to 8). So anyway, i did a 90% water change and the water looks alot better and smells far better too.
However i recently bought an API Test Kit, and it has confirmed that i still have 8 or more ppm of ammonia. It could be 15ppm...or 30ppm. All i know is that it is above 8.

So what should i do? It could take a very long time for the ammonia to get broken down so i was thinking of doing another water change. Im just wondering if this will actually make much of a difference. I suppose it will because the tank smelt horrible before the first water change and now it is fine.

So im just checking if anyone has a better/easier way of going about this, or if a water change is the only/best way to go.

Thanks.

 

[fry_lover]

unless your in a huge rush just let it be? There is no problem here i think, it will be cool!

in cycling tanks the ammonia eating bacteria always grow faster than the nitrite bacteria, it shouldnt take too long

EDIT: dont start doing doing water changes during a fishless cycle, defeats the whole point

 

[-germ-]

If it was the first time you'd added ammonia i'd perform a 100% water change, test to check if it has dropped below 8ppm or has hopefully nearly all been removed (i'm not sure, but i'd think you'll have a little ammonia left over) and as such start from the beggining/where the test tells you are.
If the level is still at 8ppm then keep water changing till it isn't.
If you have built up any bacteria it won't die off immediately without an ammonia source.

 

[Ilya]

I probably added close to half a cup of ammonia my first time. Don't make the same mistake as me .

 

[fry_lover]

oooops, well maybe a water change is advisable, but i was always under the impression to just let the bacteria take their course, i fishless cycle with Prawns, the first time i did it, i went away for the weekend, left prawns in the tank. I put in about 10 King Prawns (way too much) and when i came back my flat STANK to the high heavans LOL, my ammonia reading was off the charts, i took the prawns out, made the sure the tank was covered coz of the smell and then the ammonia readings disappeared after 4-5 days. The tank did take about 3 weeks to cycle though, but i then fully stocked it with Malawi all at once and the filters coped fine, no ammonia and no nitrite and i tested daily for about 14 days after i put all the Malawi in

 

[Leitch]

Well i did about a 99% water change, couldent get the last few drops out, and i washed all the gravel and decorations. I then refilled the tank and for some reason is was cloudy. This surprised me as it was the 3rd+ time that everything had been washed, so i wasn't expecting clouds.
AnyHoo, its setteled now and everything looks fine. I did an Ammonia test and it is showing 0.25-2ppm.

Depending on how long it takes the remaining ammonia to go away i might just go ahead and put some Zebra Danios in to finish the cycle for me. If i do decide to do this i will probably be changing 10%+ of the water every day. Still havent made up my mind though.

Im a little worried as to why the water went cloudy though. Everything was washed, but perhaps i just disturbed some dirt that was remaining at the bottom of the tank.
The only thing i can think of is the fact that i used a bucket to refill the tank. This plastic bucket was often filled with all sorts of stuff, however it looks clean and i even spent 20 minutes rinsing it with a hose, so that should be enough to get rid of anything.

Should i be worried that the water went cloudy? The tank doesnt smell like bleach or anything and the cloud-y-ness settled after 10 minutes or so.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Musho3210]

if you put fish you have to keep things BELOW .25, even if it means 90% water changes daily. If the parameters are .50, then you will need to do a but more than 50% water change, if they are 1.0, 50% water change, wait about an hour, 25% water change. You do the math, at the same time you are shortening the life of the fish and putting it through very painful and deadly situation.

If the bucket used to have detergents in it you may need to change all the water, rinse off all the decorations etc, rinse the tank, fill it up with water from a clean, never had detergent in it bucket and use some heavy activated carbon to stay on the safe side.

Water gets cloudy from a bacterial bloom.

 

[fry_lover]

i missed the bit about the Zebra Danio's

Not sure why you'd put fish in a tank that has ammoinia in it?

I wouldn't advise it

 

[rdd1952]

If you do decide to add danios, do a 100% water change first. Don't put them in a tank with ammonia already present. From there you will have to do daily water changes of what ever volume is needed to keep the ammonia and nitrite below .25ppm.

 

[Leitch]

I was never planning to put the fish in while ammonia was present. I was saying that if the ammonia goes away quickly, i might add them, as there is at least a little bacteria there. And if it stays long then i will continue with the cycle.

But i think im going to continue with it anyway. As for the bucket; it was rinsed thoroughly so i dont see a problem with that. However i might take the safe option and take Musho's advice. However i dont know what heavy activated carbons are. Can i get these at the pet shop?
I dont fancy doing another water change. Ive already done two 100% water changes and my tank hasn't even began to cycle.

 

[Musho3210]

you would be surprised what can "leech" into plastic buckets. I have a specific bucket to clean floors etc and no matter how well i rinse it, scrub it, even poor boiling water in it, it will always have a detergent smell. Activated carbon can be found at petstores, i said heavily which means using a lot and renewing a lot (not like every day but maybe once every 2-4 weeks).

This is a just in case.

 

[rdd1952]

Are you talking about carbon in his filter? If he had detergent in the bucket, it would have had a pretty quick effect on the fish. And if had leeched into the plastic, it would take longer for it to leech back out tha just the few minutes the water was in the bucket for a water change. Also, carbon usually is only good for a day or so (some say a matter of hours) and then its fully saturated and not removing anything else. It can also slow a cyclin tank as it will pull ammonia from the water. That's basically carbon's job is to remove chemicals like ammonia from the water.

To be on the safe side though, I would get new buckets and mark them as fish buckets so no one uses them for soap.

 

[Leitch]

Should i just continue with my cycle then?

 

[rdd1952]

I would. You are going to do a big water change as soon as it cycles anyway. I forgot that you were cycling without fish so the detergent obviously wouldn't have had any effect on something that isn't in there.

 

[AshleySpatula]

i use a bucket i got from work that contained non dairy whipped topping i dont belive i used soap to clean it just rinsed it 4 or 5 times with extremely hot water and then used a sanitizer then re-rinsed it. the sanitizer is the only thing we are allowed to use on surfaces that we prepare food on because it's not really soap so i figured it would be ok.

as for the carbon thing my filter has a carbon sponge thingy and another sponge thingy, should i be changing the carbon?