High Amonia, Is This Causing It?

[phishyphil]

I Have a 14 Gallon Tropical Tank, Live plants, with external filter and air supply into the tank for o2, which i have had for approximately 2.5 Months now. In it i have 8 Neon Tetras, 1 Baloon Molly, 2 Saffron Mollys, 2 Peacock Guppies and 2 catfish. My Nitrate and nitrite is at Zero, But amonia is high around 4.00. I cannot seem to get this dpwn to ideal. It was ideal around 3 weeks ago, but now i cannot seem to shift it. I have been completeing a 15% water change everyday, treating the water with King British Safe Water to treat chlorine etc. I also have been using NUTRAFIN CYCLE . I read somewhere that the bacteria in this is possibly the cause for the problems as the bacteria will not allow the amonia to feed the good bacteria. Is this true? Please help.

I am new to fish keeping, and want to provide the best habitat for my fish, and want them to be happy. Please lend me your experience.

My tank is below

 

[KittyKat]

You should increase water changes to 50% per day because ammonia and nitrite over 0.25 ppm are *very* toxic to fish. You should make sure the water is warm and dechlorinated.

Did you cycle the tank?

 

[phishyphil]

You should increase water changes to 50% per day because ammonia and nitrite over 0.25 ppm are *very* toxic to fish. You should make sure the water is warm and dechlorinated.

Did you cycle the tank?

Yes mate, Cycled it, Just an update, went to the aquarium today with a water sample for a amonia check, turns out my water is perfect he said the tester i may be using may produce in accurate results. Incidently its a king british tester, amonia and a 6 in 1 separate too

 

[mwood2]

I would never truest a pets store to test my water, I would just assume they tell me its fine so I buy fish. Also I'm pretty sure they use test strips which are off usually. just my guess. Large water changes are the only way to fight high ammonia, things like zeolite/ammonia remover only mask a problem. Did you recently add a large quantity of fish or change your filter media?

 

[phishyphil]

I would never truest a pets store to test my water, I would just assume they tell me its fine so I buy fish. Also I'm pretty sure they use test strips which are off usually. just my guess. Large water changes are the only way to fight high ammonia, things like zeolite/ammonia remover only mask a problem. Did you recently add a large quantity of fish or change your filter media?

Replaced one of the filter cartridges the two days ago. Not put a large quantity of fish in either, only two or three max at a time when i do add fish. The fish seem healthy, colours are bright especially in the tetras, apetite is up, have them feeding from the hand, this is reducing left over foods.

 

[mwood2]

Found the cuse. You should never replace filter media at all. doing so will only remove your filters bacteria causing a new cycle. You should rinse off the media in a bucket of tank water (dont use tap). Hope that might shed some light on the situation.

 

[Bignose]

You should increase water changes to 50% per day because ammonia and nitrite over 0.25 ppm are *very* toxic to fish. You should make sure the water is warm and dechlorinated.

Did you cycle the tank?

You can't just say "0.25 ppm" is very toxic. How toxic it is is very highly dependent on pH and weakly dependent on temperature.

See http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/154313-of-toxic-ammonia-charts/

But, I do heartily endorse water changes

See http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/226664-why-water-changes-during-cycling-are-good/

 

[Proxo]

I used to use NUTRAFIN CYCLE and found my ammonia readings to be higher then normal, i stopped using it and it did drop!
- not sure if NUTRAFIN CYCLE was the cause of it or not though..?

 

[anon02]

You need a reliable liquid reagent test kit, the test strips can be very inaccurate