Help Needed - Cycling And Ammonia Levels

[denise1904]

Hi,

I'm a beginner to this and I read the article on cycling the tank which I am now trying to do. However, prior to reading the article I had already added the first dose of stress zyme to the tank.


I have a 30 litre tank and I tried adding the recommended amount of drops, in this case about 4 drops. However, I can't seem to get the ammonia levels up to 4/5 PPM. I keep adding more and more, I think I've now added about 30 drops and I still cant get the colour in the test tube to go dark green 4/5 ppm.

the tank is starting to smell of ammonia and I think my lodger (who is sitting near the tank watching television) is going to pass out before I get the ammonia levels up to the right levels

Can somebody please help!

Thanks........Denise

 

[Helen G]

A few questions..................

What is your ammonia level

How long have you been adding ammonia for?

What are your other levels?

 

[jwddboy]

What are you testing with?

It is VERY likley that your tester is either of a bad quality or out of date if it is giving a low reading and you can actually smell ammonia.

What brand is your kit?

Do not add any more for the time being. First of all, try testing pure ammonia with this test kit. If that does not read above and beyond the top level, buy a new test kit. If it does go over, try taking a sample of your water to your LFS for testing. If they get a reading that is different to you, but a new test kit and test it right then and there in the shop.

If they get the same reading as you then buy a purer form of ammonia and treat with that instead.

 

[OldMan47]

If you can actually smell ammonia from the tank water, you have added too much. Even at 5 ppm it is hard to detect ammonia with your nose. It is very easy to detect from the bottle though. try to keep the bottle capped as much as you can because the fumes are not really good for you. Like others have already said, your test kit is suspect if it is not detecting ammonia that you can smell.

 

[denise1904]

Hi,

Thanks for responding.

My ammonia level is 4 to 5. I only added it the other day, on Friday (now Monday). I have not added it since as I've been trying to get the level down to 1 again. It seems strange that I added so many drops of ammonia and that the level did not go off the chart but it is 4 to 5. Nitrite levels are 0 which makes me think that nothing is happening.

Since adding the ammonia just for that one day, I've added a plant, upped the temperature and added Zyme solution (although somebody said it was not worth the money). I have no other source of bacteria so I'm not sure what else I can do to generate bacteria.


Denise

Hi,

I'm a beginner to this and I read the article on cycling the tank which I am now trying to do. However, prior to reading the article I had already added the first dose of stress zyme to the tank.


I have a 30 litre tank and I tried adding the recommended amount of drops, in this case about 4 drops. However, I can't seem to get the ammonia levels up to 4/5 PPM. I keep adding more and more, I think I've now added about 30 drops and I still cant get the colour in the test tube to go dark green 4/5 ppm.

the tank is starting to smell of ammonia and I think my lodger (who is sitting near the tank watching television) is going to pass out before I get the ammonia levels up to the right levels

Can somebody please help!

Thanks........Denise

Thanks for responding, I will bear this in mind, just got a bit fed up of having to add more and more drops, was on the verge of tipping the whole bottle in

Denise

If you can actually smell ammonia from the tank water, you have added too much. Even at 5 ppm it is hard to detect ammonia with your nose. It is very easy to detect from the bottle though. try to keep the bottle capped as much as you can because the fumes are not really good for you. Like others have already said, your test kit is suspect if it is not detecting ammonia that you can smell.