High Ammonia Levels Noob

[ianofaraby]

Hi guys, having read numerous threads and posts on here, I am a bit confused as to what to do.

I started out last year with a 30L tank with a few neons and guppies. No problem (probably by luck). I decided to upgrade to an Interpet fishbox 60L. Filled it with gravel and some new plants and left it to settle for 2 weeks. Having now transferred the fish from the small tank, one by one I have lost four neons. The fish seemed distressed so I done a water change of 20L on Tuesday. I decided to talk to someone at my well known pet shop who advised bringing a sample of water in for test. To my shock, the ammonia level is through the roof. It was deep green in colour in the bottle. All the other tests were fine.

She advised me to wait until tomorrow to do another 20L water change and bring another sample in on Sunday. Is this correct, or should I be changing water more often and at bigger volumes whilst buying myself the relevant test kits?

Fortunately, I have had 2 nights without losing any more fish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I realise I have probably left out loads of relevant info as well.

Thanks Ian

 

[boabmac63]

Hi guys, having read numerous threads and posts on here, I am a bit confused as to what to do.

I started out last year with a 30L tank with a few neons and guppies. No problem (probably by luck). I decided to upgrade to an Interpet fishbox 60L. Filled it with gravel and some new plants and left it to settle for 2 weeks. Having now transferred the fish from the small tank, one by one I have lost four neons. The fish seemed distressed so I done a water change of 20L on Tuesday. I decided to talk to someone at my well known pet shop who advised bringing a sample of water in for test. To my shock, the ammonia level is through the roof. It was deep green in colour in the bottle. All the other tests were fine.

She advised me to wait until tomorrow to do another 20L water change and bring another sample in on Sunday. Is this correct, or should I be changing water more often and at bigger volumes whilst buying myself the relevant test kits?

Fortunately, I have had 2 nights without losing any more fish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I realise I have probably left out loads of relevant info as well.

Thanks Ian

U shld do daily waterchanges uf ammonia is that high to get it down amd have a read at fish in cycling if u havnt

 

[Louiseness]

If your ammonia is dark green you need to be changing LOTS of water and you need to be changing it NOW.

It would be massively helpful if you had your own test kit so you could monitor your water levels yourself to see if/when you need to change water, so I'd suggest picking one up ASAP.

For now, though, I'd suggest changing as much water as you can, perhaps 80-90% (make sure you refill with warm, dechlorinated water) and then doing a maybe a 50% change every day until you can get that test kit to help save your fish.


Your problem is you;re in a 'fish in cycle' and until your filter grows the necessary bacteria, your fish will be swimming in their own waste (poisonous ammonia and nitriate) so you need to be changing water to help them out. Good luck!

 

[alexinoz]

Agree, partial water change is a must, particularly if your PH is higher than about 6.5 as the ammonia will be toxic.

You could also add some fast growing plants too - such as cabomba perhaps. My cabomba seems to love ammonia, to the point that it has pretty much paused my cycle (all ammo is being absorbed by the cabomba, and not being converted into nitrites etc - which isn't perfect but I'm doing regular water tests and changes to keep an eye on things).

If it is of interest, I've written a web based application you may find helpful to log your water tests, I built it for cycling my fish tank and has been quite popular since I launched it for free for everyone.

http/aquarium-manager.herokuapp.com is the link if you think it may help you out.

If your ammonia is dark green you need to be changing LOTS of water and you need to be changing it NOW.

It would be massively helpful if you had your own test kit so you could monitor your water levels yourself to see if/when you need to change water, so I'd suggest picking one up ASAP.

For now, though, I'd suggest changing as much water as you can, perhaps 80-90% (make sure you refill with warm, dechlorinated water) and then doing a maybe a 50% change every day until you can get that test kit to help save your fish.


Your problem is you;re in a 'fish in cycle' and until your filter grows the necessary bacteria, your fish will be swimming in their own waste (poisonous ammonia and nitriate) so you need to be changing water to help them out. Good luck!

 

[ianofaraby]

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I will get some test kits this afternoon and post some figures. Louise, when you say dechlorinated water, do you mean adding something like "tapsafe", and do I add any nutrafin cycle when changing this water?

Sorry for sounding stupid.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

When you've got your test kit (it needs to measure ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH, something like the API freshwater master test kit) you have to test your water at least daily and if the ammonia and/or nitrite is at, or slightly less than, 0.25ppm then you need to make a water change to reduce that. you're doing a fish-in cycle so expect daily water changes for anything up to two months if your bacteria on your filter have died off.

You need to dechlorinate with, as you suggest, something like Tapsafe, but not API Tapsafe as that doesn't detoxify ammonia. The best value for money dechlorinator is Seachem prime but you probably won't find it in the Local fish shop, get it off eBay.

 

[Rummynose]

What happened to the filter from your 30L tank?

 

[ianofaraby]

Foolishly I cleaned the old tank and all its components (pump/filter) with a view to selling it. I have now realised that the fish in this tank have thrived and survived purely by luck.

 

[ianofaraby]

Ok, I have now bought the test kit and the results are as follows:

PH 7.6
Ammonia 1.0 - 2.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.25 ppm
Nitrate 0 - 5.0 ppm

Do I now do a water change (changed 20 litres on Tuesday) and if so, how much? I know to add dechlorinator but do I add cycle as well?

Thanks Ian

 

[boabmac63]

Ok, I have now bought the test kit and the results are as follows:

PH 7.6
Ammonia 1.0 - 2.0 ppm
Nitrite 0.25 ppm
Nitrate 0 - 5.0 ppm

Do I now do a water change (changed 20 litres on Tuesday) and if so, how much? I know to add dechlorinator but do I add cycle as well?

Thanks Ian

Yes u dont want any ammonia or nitite

 

[Prime Ordeal]

If your ammonia is a 2ppm you want to get that below 0.25ppm so you need to change at least 90% of the water. If you do this in one go you must make sure the temperature is matched so that you don't shock the fish. Yes you can add cycle if you have it.

 

[ianofaraby]

Done as recommended, 90% water change at same temperature, dechlorinated and added some cycle. Will take some tests tomorrow and go from there.

Thanks to all who have offered some advise. Nice to know you are there.

 

[mozcheez]

Whenever you aren't sure how much water to change out, just think of the math. For example, the 90% that Prime Ordeal came up with above.

You have 2ppm ammonia and need to reduce it to no higher than .25ppm (still toxic, but better than 2ppm!). So, divide .25ppm by your current ammonia level (2ppm), and you get .125 (or 12.5%). Flip that percentage (or subtract it from 100%), and this means your tank would require an 87.5% (rounded up 90%) water change to reduce 2ppm of ammonia to .25ppm.

Just to give another example of this.... reducing 1ppm to .25ppm: 0.25/1 = .25 or 25%, so a 75% water change would be needed. When in doubt, change out more than you think you should.

I hope that makes sense and I didn't over-complicate. I know it's not proper math terminology or an extremely detailed explanation, but I hope it's helpful.

 

[ianofaraby]

Thanks for the advice Mozcheez, having tested the water again today, the ammonia level looks like it is between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm. The other values are similar to yesterday. I therefore changed approximately 80% of the water again.

If this value remains like this, should I continue to change the water daily or will the level decrease on its own?

Thanks Ian

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for the advice Mozcheez, having tested the water again today, the ammonia level looks like it is between 0.25 and 0.5 ppm. The other values are similar to yesterday. I therefore changed approximately 80% of the water again.

If this value remains like this, should I continue to change the water daily or will the level decrease on its own?

Thanks Ian

You need to be doing daily massive water changes. Any Ammonia reading is to much, so you need to get it as close to zero as possible. 80% water changes are good but I would be doing 90% plus changes to get that reading hovering around zero.

Tom