I Cannot Get Rid Of A Trace / 0.25 Ammonia

[Jeynesey]

Hi everyone. I'm at my wits end with this one. I have a constant trace of ammonia in my tank that's been fishless cycled then up and running for months. It always comes out (on API liquid) as just under 0.25.

When I leave the test sample in the tube, after about 2 hours it's down to zero, so I believe that means there's enough bacteria in the water even, to deal with the ammonia, so it must be constantly being produced in quite high quantities. I never have any nitrites.

It's a 125l tank. I have 21 small fish (6 forktail rainbowfish, 8 spotted blue eyes and 7 celestial pearl danios). I have a Fluval 206 external filter and another, small, 100l/h ish internal filter that I have pumping water from behind the 3D background into the main bit of the tank.

I thought it was coming from rotting plants. I have been really trying to keep on top of the plants. I use easy carbo, love fish ferts and FlorinMulti. Despite this, the plants don't look great. This is largely because I used King British General Tonic to try and sort out some fish constipation / flashing. This in itself might have been caused by my trace of ammonia but adding this didn't do the plants any good, so it's possibly a viscious cycle.

I'm now treating for internal parasites, because the tonic did no good and their poo is white and stringy and a couple of my fish look bloated.

I had two old white lights so I bought new ones. Since then it's got worse if anything as the new ones aren't as bright.

Anther possible cause is the 3D background and the placement of the big bit of wood in the middle not allowing enough water circulation.

Or perhaps flake food in the gravel. I got told to soak food for about a minute to help constipation before adding to the tank. I do that now but the flakes really disintigrate now in the tank. I do clean it obviously but maybe my cleaner isn't getting it all.

So any help would be much appreciated. I'll add some pics below.

Some black algae that appeared when I used the tonic, which contained salt.

 

[Zikofski]

okay this i think is a common issue with the test kit not your tank, with the API test kits especially ammonia you need to shake the living hell out of the bottles taking particular care with bottle number 2 i have this issue when i started out maybe the same with you give it 10 minutes for the colour to settle it can take 10 minutes, also try and get into better light, normal house lights are a tinge of yellow in colour so they will show ammonia up wrongly try natural light may help or white led lights, if all this dose not work and you still got ammonia, then we will haft to rethink hope this helps tho ,

P.S a picture of the colour may help us

nice and beautiful tank as well love how it looks

 

[daizeUK]

with the API test kits especially ammonia you need to shake the living hell out of the bottles taking particular care with bottle number 2

I think that's the nitrate test you're thinking of. For the ammonia test a quick 5 sec shake of the test tube to mix fluids together should do.

Also he says ammonia levels drop to zero after two hours in the test tube which would seem to rule out most obvious problems with reading the kit.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's exactly right daize. But, the comment regarding natural light is also true. Another issue might be tannins in the water. If you have mopani or other wood, they leak tannins in the form of tannic acid which discolors the water to a slight yellowish brown, which can make it a bit harder to see a "zero" ammonia reading.


What's the pH of this tank? If its in the acidic zone, then even if the ammonia is there at 0.25ppm it won't be toxic to the fish as it takes on its less toxic form at lower pH.
Brief article regarding that & another with a graphic.

 

[Jeynesey]

ph is 7.8 unfortunately. Colour wise it's sometimes hard to tell but at other times, it's very nearly 0.25, so as much as I would like it to be a colour reading issue, I don't think it is. I may well get another testing kit though. I have Seachem Alert for free ammonia but that never shows anything other than "fine". I dunno... it's hard to trust something totally that never does anything but looking at the second article, it wouldn't show anything until my ammonia reading was ridiculously high, from the API test kit. Apparently my free ammonia would be 0.008085887446483302 at 0.25 total ammonia. It's just that when you have fish flashing and a trace of general ammonia, it's hard to believe that it's totally fine.

The wood is Sumatran redwood. It's a possibility that it's dyeing the water a bit, but again, it does get yellower the longer it's in the test tube. I just went and had a look at the test from earlier and it's very clearly a 0 now - bright yellow.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you look at the graph, I think that you are still in the "trace" level zone. I don't think its an issue. If you are looking for a new kit, try the Salifert test kit. Some believe that Salifert is actually a better kit than the API.

 

[plectastic]

Actually the Api master test kits, or at least the latest ones, do have 2 bottles for ammonia test. And nitrate. Ammonia 0 is more green tinge than bright yellow though yes.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes, there are two bottles for both the ammonia and nitrate tests, but the shaking/mixing issues are with the nitrate test, not the ammonia. The ammonia is very easy by comparison.

 

[phoenixgsd]

i had a similar issue, some said it was the prime giving a false reading some said to look at it in a different light some suggested to test the tap water for comparison, but then i was cycling and was over analysing, testing every 5mins and the faintest hint i paniked, now im more relaxed and dont see whats not really there

 

[benzenering]

Try testing the water out of your tap. It could be that you are starting with trace amounts of ammonia, and, if you are doing proper water changes, your levels won't fall below what your tap water shows. It is a pretty common problem in some areas.

 

[welshviking]

When it rains heavily around my area my ammonia level from my tap water always rises to 0.25 and when it dires up a few days later it will be down to zero again

 

[Jeynesey]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have a very clear yellow from tap water tests.

Anyone know what level the salifert goes down to? No point getting it unless you can tell the difference below the 0.25 mark. Thanks.

Just a general opinion from the pics, do you think the condition of the plants could possibly be causing the constant levels of ammonia at this level, irrespective of whether or not it's a problem level?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's a question best answered in the Planted Chit Chat section.

 

[DreamertK]

I doubt those plants would give off that much NH3. I have half eaten and melting plants that don't show any amount, though I do trim off the dead portions every few days or so.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Either way, a thorough cleaning of the tank might be a really good idea. Trim off the dead bits of plant, and do a thorough gravel cleaning... No sense guessing. If you can deal with the issue you believe may be responsible for your "problem", then its better to try to eliminate it. If that solves your problem, then you know. If it doesn't you can rule it out. ;-)