Help Please Ammonia Problem!

[rocknurworld2006]

Hi im having problems with high ammonia,nitrites and higher ph! One minute i get told to do water change everyday to bring ammonia and nitrites down, then my lfs told me to just let it run and do one water change a week and add cycle when doing it. i've tried adding salt, ammo chips and interpet ammonia remover as was told by pets at home to do this but just not budging! i

i'm at a loss of what to do as been told all different things to do. and all seem to be different.

Please can someone help as i dont want fish to die. all fish are fine and eating fine, but one barb which is swimming fine but then stands on his head when beside other bar bs to show them his fins , then follows them and does it agin, but has no difficulty swimming.
thanks

 

[Angel_Queen]

What are your exact water statsfor the ammonia, nitrIte & nitrAte?
How big is your tank?
How long have you had it?
Have you cycled the tank?

In any event, you should be doing daily changes daily if you have high ammonia and nitrIte if you have fish in there. Both of these are toxic to fish at any level above 0!
Potions and chemicals will not help the problem, only water changes will?

What action are you taking right now?

 

[merry78]

don't listen to pets at home, avoid ammo removing products if possible, water changes are the answer!!

if you are really worried, get some seachem prime, it will help to detoxify your water, but you won't get accurate readings for your test kit while using it....i think. Better check that last bit!

anyhoo, water changes, and prime if you are really worried.

 

[Tolak]

Water changes, 50% daily.

The water treatments that claim to remove ammonia convert it to ammonium, which is not toxic to fish, but still utilized the same as ammonia by your nitrifying bacteria. This gets turned into nitrite. Nitrite affects a fish's ability to process O2, which obviously is not good. Increasing aeration will help with this problem, as will the water changes.

Pets At Home is out to make money, as they are a business. Nobody posting here makes a single cent for giving advice. Pets At Home would like nothing more than to sell you more products that don't work, then more fish when the ones you have go belly up.

Members here want to see your fish live, and for you to have a pleasant experience with aquatics.

BTW, welcome to TFF!

 

[Daveyg1969]

Hi Rocknurworld2006 and welcome to TFF.

I had the same problem when I first set up my tank as it was just beginning to cycle.

As the previous posters have said water changes are the answer, and believe it or not, 'Cycle' does not help, as it will just throw your nitrite levels higher, (apparently, it adds nitrite and ammonia to your tank).

Just keep doing your water changes and it should eventually come down, also if you haven't got 1 already, invest in a gravel cleaner, this is a big syphon with 1 larger end, which removes all the debris from your gravel as you siphon. Keep stopping and starting it on various parts of your gravel as you siphon.

Unfortunately, if it is really high, it will have a long term effect on your fish's health, and you may lose a few fishes a few weeks after it has dropped , but please don't give up, as life with your fishes will get easier the longer your tank is running.

 

[-germ-]

Theres plenty of info on SeaChem Primes website about innacurate test results, i think it only applies to Nessler based test kits, what this means, i don't know but it certainly sounds clever.
If you are planning on using Prime make sure you read the general info and FAQ on the site....

http/www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Prime_faq.html

 

[Essjay]

This explains the Nessler test compared to the salicylate test

http/www.nckws.com/water_test_ref_guide....name=Techniques

From the description I would say that the api test is the salicyate one, I don't know about any other make.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

Hi
4/10/07
ph=7.5
ammonia=1.2-2.4
nitrite=0.8
nitrate=30

checked today
ph=7-7.5
kh=3
ammonia=between 1.2 to 2.4
nitrite=0.8
nitrate=50

it is an 84litre tank been going month and a half to 2months

didnt cycle as was told it'd be ok after a week to add a couple of fish at a time in 1week.

have been doing daily water changes of 30% for last three days do i keep doing them or wat d i do, and how can i get ammonia and nitrite down to 0 .
it has been same levels last 3 days, only thing changed is nitrate is up!
thanks for your help

 

[Tolak]

You have two sets of bacteria in a mature bio filter; the first convert ammonia to nitrite, the second convert nitrite to nitrate. You bio filtration is not yet mature enough to handle the amount of ammonia the fish produce, or the amount of nitrite that is being converted from ammonia. Since it's only doing the job partially you are seeing ammonia & nitrate.

I would continue with the water changes, feeding the fish only once every other day. Less food in means less ammonia produced, which will give your bio filtration a chance to grow, while exposing the fish to less ammonia & nitrite.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

You have two sets of bacteria in a mature bio filter; the first convert ammonia to nitrite, the second convert nitrite to nitrate. You bio filtration is not yet mature enough to handle the amount of ammonia the fish produce, or the amount of nitrite that is being converted from ammonia. Since it's only doing the job partially you are seeing ammonia & nitrate.

I would continue with the water changes, feeding the fish only once every other day. Less food in means less ammonia produced, which will give your bio filtration a chance to grow, while exposing the fish to less ammonia & nitrite.

How often will I do water changes and how much? Do you mean that I should feed the fish every 2nd day?
Thanks

 

[Tolak]

Continue with the 30% water changes daily. Yes, you will be feeding them every second day, you are cutting their food consumption in half. Fish in the wild live on much less food than you would think, healthy adult fish can easily go for a week without eating.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

hi here are parameters as of yesterday that was the fourth daily water change,i am still feeding fish every 2 days, and making sure i get rid of all waste using syphon, do i keep carry on doing water changes?

ph=6.5-7.0
ammonia=1.2
nitrite=0.3-0.8
nitrate=10

ass you can see levels are slowly coming down, fish are starting to become more lively than ever and colours are coming back very well. So there is small improvements in such a small amount of time.

it just shows you what water changes can do. and NEVER LISTEN TO LFS, as they told me to let it run when ammonia was high and do weekly water changes. if i done this my fish would probably be dead!!

they are under impresssion that if i do daily water changes ill lose all my bacteria but nearly all of beneficial bateria lives in filter is this right???


if i get high nitrites will i need to do daily water changes also??


i wud like to thank everyone for your help i really appreciate it

 

[Angel_Queen]

You should carry on doing the daily changes until your ammonia and nitrItes are both 0 and stay there for a while.

Well done. Nearly at the end of my fishy cycle and I didn't listen to the LFS either!

 

[rocknurworld2006]

hi update on new levels as of today

ph=7-7.5
ammona=0.6
nitrite=0.3
nitrate=5-10

its going down more and more so its looking good!!

 

[scooterchick]

Excellent news, nearly there! One idiot in my lfs told me I was doing too many water chages as well, unbelievable the things they say.

Just in case anyone hasn't mentioned this.....when you clean the filter make sure you do it in the tank water you've taken out the tank, never run it under the tap as this will kill off your good bacteria too cosing a mini cycle. HTH.