High Ammonia In Cycle

[Ilovemybetta]

Hello, Early today, I tested my Ammonia levels and it was about 1 ppm, I did a 20% water change, I waited 15 Minutes, and my results are at 0.50 ppm What Should I do?

 

[fluttermoth]

Is this a fish in cycle? If it is, you need to do as large a water change as necessary to stop the ammonia from going over 0.25ppm.

 

[Ilovemybetta]

Is this a fish in cycle? If it is, you need to do as large a water change as necessary to stop the ammonia from going over 0.25ppm.

Yes, I have 2 Zebra Danio's

 

[fluttermoth]

Big water changes then.

 

[paulyoung666]

Hello, Early today, I tested my Ammonia levels and it was about 1 ppm, I did a 20% water change, I waited 15 Minutes, and my results are at 0.50 ppm What Should I do?

what are you using to test the levels ? .....

 

[Ilovemybetta]

Hello, Early today, I tested my Ammonia levels and it was about 1 ppm, I did a 20% water change, I waited 15 Minutes, and my results are at 0.50 ppm What Should I do?

what are you using to test the levels ? .....

API Ammonia Test kit

 

[paulyoung666]

Hello, Early today, I tested my Ammonia levels and it was about 1 ppm, I did a 20% water change, I waited 15 Minutes, and my results are at 0.50 ppm What Should I do?

what are you using to test the levels ? .....

API Ammonia Test kit

liquid test kit ? ....

 

[Ilovemybetta]

Hello, Early today, I tested my Ammonia levels and it was about 1 ppm, I did a 20% water change, I waited 15 Minutes, and my results are at 0.50 ppm What Should I do?

what are you using to test the levels ? .....

API Ammonia Test kit

liquid test kit ? ....

Yes

 

[4seasons]

Just a quick math lesson.
If you have 1 ppm ammonia(that is one of a part per million or of all the stuff in your water in every 1 million parts you have 1 part ammonia) and you did a 20% water change and now have 0.5 ppm one of your test is wrong. Or I should say not entirely accurate. If you water you put in was completely free of any ammonia the best that a 20% water change could do is reduce your ammonia concentration by 20% or to 0.8 ppm. To truly reduce your ammonia concentration 50% you would have to do a 50% water change. So if you really have 0.5 ppm ammonia in your tank, you need a 50% water change to reduce that to 0.25 ppm assuming the water you are putting in has no ammonia in it.

My real point is even though some of the test kits out there are better than others there is still a little inaccuracy in them and they only give you an idea what is going on in your tank. If you want to cut your ammonia in half you need a 50% water change. To truly drop it from 1 ppm to .25 ppm you need a 75% water change if your water source has no ammonia in it.

 

[Aqua Tom]

90% water change asap


Tom

 

[paulyoung666]

Just a quick math lesson.
If you have 1 ppm ammonia....

that was exactly why i was asking what test kit was being used ....

 

[Ilovemybetta]

Just a quick math lesson.
If you have 1 ppm ammonia(that is one of a part per million or of all the stuff in your water in every 1 million parts you have 1 part ammonia) and you did a 20% water change and now have 0.5 ppm one of your test is wrong. Or I should say not entirely accurate. If you water you put in was completely free of any ammonia the best that a 20% water change could do is reduce your ammonia concentration by 20% or to 0.8 ppm. To truly reduce your ammonia concentration 50% you would have to do a 50% water change. So if you really have 0.5 ppm ammonia in your tank, you need a 50% water change to reduce that to 0.25 ppm assuming the water you are putting in has no ammonia in it.

My real point is even though some of the test kits out there are better than others there is still a little inaccuracy in them and they only give you an idea what is going on in your tank. If you want to cut your ammonia in half you need a 50% water change. To truly drop it from 1 ppm to .25 ppm you need a 75% water change if your water source has no ammonia in it.

Well, 20% was just a guess, maybe it was a 30%. I did a 60% water change and got it to drop down to 0.25%