I Have Gained Control Of My Ammoina Levels Now What

[mdk2424]

Advice from you all regarding my ammonia levels to high.
I have done water changes daily as suggested and I have gotton control of the ammonia level in my tank it going from 0.25 to 0.50 back down to 0.25 with 5 to 7 gals w/c daily its been 3 days now still holding between 0.25 & 0.50 alot better than the 3.0 / 4.0 i had.

OK now i am on the 5th week of this cycle and i did have Nitrites & nitrates levels on the 3rd week but with all the daily water changes both levels are 0.
4 Days ago i was able to get filter media from established tank and still no reading from nitrites.
5th week
ammonia between 0.25 / 0.50
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
PH 6.8 / 7.0
Temp 81 ( to promote bacteria )
? Now what? how long before i get a spike in the 2nd stage.
FISH look good does not apper to have any problems with them.

 

[Colin_T]

you shouldn't have any ammonia at all by now. Did you change or wash the filter out under tap water during the last 5 weeks? If so then that could be why you have an ammonia reading. You might have ammonia in the tap water (chloramine). Or there could be lots of rotting food in the tank that needs to be gravel cleaned and sucked out.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with Colin.

Dechlor a gallon of your tap water in a jar and do an ammonia reading on it. Maybe you're bringing in ammonia with the water changes.

If not, I hate to say it but you need to have the ammonia reading in the tank bounce between zero ppm and 0.25ppm, not higher than 0.25ppm.

Your temp needs to be the best temp for your fish, don't worry about the bacteria. A fish-in cycle is a compromise, its not an ideal cycling situation.

In a fish-in cycling you may have a hard time seeing "phases" of the cycle. In the end you'll get a day with ammonia and nitrite both reading zero. If the filter can keep that up for two days running then you can consider yourself cycled and just test and watch it for a week to confirm.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[RushingChamp28]

I would agree i would leave the water at the temperature that is ideal for the fish, no need to stress them by bringing them out of their preferred temperature range (as well as the stress from ammonia). If ammonia is still present in sizeable quantities like .25-.5 perhaps the tank has some sort of decaying plant/animal/food that needs to be removed.

 

[mdk2424]

Ok well went out and got a 29 gallon tank & stocked the tank with 20 tropical fish and down to 17 fish left. I made alot of mistake and trying to correct them this is why i joined this group.
This is most likely why i had ammonia problems. I have done a thorough cleaning of the gravel.
OK what is a good temp to keep for tropicals 76 or 78 or what.
And no on the ? did i wash out the filter media in tap water NO.

 

[Colin_T]

75-79F is fine for most tropical fish. I prefer to keep them at the lower end 75F but 76-78 is fine.

 

[waterdrop]

ok mdk2424,

Sounds like you are making a good effort to correct the problems.

Just a question regarding your ammonia: Do you think the range you are giving (0.25ppm to 0.50ppm) is a result of the test color just having a range like that? Or does the color really seem to be above 0.25 if you had to guess. With the API master kit that many of us use, its pretty easy to see if it seems a little below 0.25 or a little above, which is trying to get at, but it can be different with different test kits that break things into different ranges.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mdk2424]

Ya waterdrop i am using the API test kit and it does seem to be going from 0.25 to.050ppm,
still doing water changes just not cleaning the gravel now that i am down from 3.0 / 4.0ppms.

Any idea why my nitrites and nitrates disapeared which i had in the third week? is it do to all the water changes and cleaning the gravel to get rid of the ammonia.

as of today readings
Temp 81
amonnia inbetween 0.25 & 0.50 did do a 10 gal w/c not retested yet
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
PH 7.0
Its been 5 days now that i have added the new filter media from a estabished tank.
?is the ammonia to low to move on to the next stage.

 

[waterdrop]

Don't worry about the ammonia being too low for the bacteria, worry about the ammonia being too high for the fish!

There's plenty of ammonia there for the cycle to move forward. Don't forget that after a filter is cycled and the aquarium is considered "mature" there will be ammonia being created by the waste and ammonia enough to feed the large mature bacterial colony and yet your tank ammonia reading if tested will read zero. So a zero reading doesn't mean there isn't ammonia flowing from the waste to the bacteria.

On the flip side, since we now know you're using and API ammonia test and its really looking above 0.25, it becomes more important than ever for you to do the "jar" experiement I mentioned above and let's see if your tap water is coming in with zero ammonia. If your tap water is coming in with 0.25 ammonia, then that's the best a water change is going to be able to do for your tank, but it your tap water has zero ammonia, then you should be able to get your tank ammonia level below 0.25 via water changes. You can do another water change as soon as an hour after a previous one.

Also, just like above where we said not to worry about there beiing enough ammonia for the bacteria, the same goes for the termperature. Your fish would probably prefer 76 degrees rather than 81 degrees F.

Its unusual for the water changes to have taken the nitrite and nitrate down to zero but left the ammonia up at 0.50ppm, but its not impossible and of course we still could find that ammonia is coming in via the tap water. But yes, the answer to your question is that water changes are the reason nitrite and nitrate are at zero readings.

The hard thing about a Fish-In cycle is the physical work of water changes and water testing. The easy thing is that your goal is simple: levels above 0.25, then do a water change... measure again and repeat if necessary... keep doing about a month (or less if mature media) and if you get two days of zero and don't need water changes then your done and can just watch/verify for a week, then you are free to add a few fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[mdk2424]

WATERDROP was again you have taken your time and did answer my ?'s SO THANK YOU.
I will test the tap water in the morning and already in the process of lowering the temp by 2 degrees i will lower it another 2 degrees tomaro and get it down to 76.

 

[waterdrop]

nice, good job mdk!