New Tank And Slight Ammonia

[kevinjames]

i set up my new 500litre on saturday and added the filter on sunday with loads of mature media to take the initial stocking of the tank. fish went in on sunday morning. ive tested the water sunday and monday and there was a .25ppm ammonia. im gonna test again tonight and im curiuos what the reading will show. doesthe ammonia gently rise or steeply rise? or will my bacteria have dealt with it better by now? should i be doing a water change to dilute it down a bit???

 

[the biffster]

is there any fish in this tank
at the moment if there is you need to do
a water change straight away as
fish cannot tolerate ammonia

also could you please post
the rest of your test results

 

[kevinjames]

zero nitrite and didnt test nitrate. the ammonia isnt too high, ive tested lfs water with higher stats. im still gonna do a water change though as tuesday is fish day in my house.

 

[the biffster]

is there any fish in this
tank if there is any reading
of ammonia is to high if there is no fish
in the tank and you are doing a fish less
cycle then that is OK

 

[Athena]

Hi Kevin

How many fish did you put in there? And what percentage of mature filter media did you use in your new filter? (I presume you took it from an older tank?). If the amount of fish added was too many for the amount of mature media added, then you will get a alight ammonia reading but this should soon settle down as the bacteria multiply, accordingly. Yes, a small water change will help keep the fish happy.

Don't forget, also, that often tap water itself contains ammonia - you can do a test of the tap water (after adding your water conditioner) to see if it gives any reading at all.

Regards, Athena

 

[kevinjames]

Hi Kevin

How many fish did you put in there? And what percentage of mature filter media did you use in your new filter? (I presume you took it from an older tank?). If the amount of fish added was too many for the amount of mature media added, then you will get a alight ammonia reading but this should soon settle down as the bacteria multiply, accordingly. Yes, a small water change will help keep the fish happy.

Don't forget, also, that often tap water itself contains ammonia - you can do a test of the tap water (after adding your water conditioner) to see if it gives any reading at all.

Regards, Athena

the initial stocking ive put in is quite large but i put all the ceramic bio-rings from my mature 240litre filters in a brandnew dustbin filter (fluval fx5 lol). as for the bacteria multplying is this gradual or quite fast. i remember reading somewhere of them multiplying very rapidly, is this corresct. i just did another ammonia test and got .25ppm again.

another question, how come every test ive ever done for nitrite has came back as zero? are the nitrifying bacteria a faster growing bacteria?>??