Newbie With An Ammonia Question

[ScrappaDeeDooDa]

Hello Everyone!

I come to appreciate and value this board and the information I have gleaned more as each day passes. My son (our family) was given a new aquarium for Christmas and it has become a new obsession of mine. It is a 20 gallon (tall) and we (unfortunately) began a fish in cycle on December 28th. We have 3 zebra danios and 3 black neon tetras in the tank now.
Since beginning the cycle we have bought our test kit and have been testing and doing the daily water changes necessary to keep the fish alive. But here is the rub...
Our ammonia levels have remained @0.25 ppm and our Nitrite are always 0. We do a daily water change of about 25% to try and get those ammonia levels lower.. sometimes twice a day. Well yesterday, after reading the board a bit, I decided to test our tap water and it came out that our tap water reads at .5 ppm of ammonia .

So, my question is... Am I doing the fish any good by diluting their .25ppm ammonia water with my .5ppm ammonia water? Or should I let the tank cycle and only do a water change if it gets to .5 ppm or above?

I am off to search whether or not tap water ammonia is different than tank ammonia... but I hope that you all can help me. I enjoy the practical experience and knowledge that I get from you all.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi there,

0.5ppm of ammonia is fairly common, not everyone ahs it but plenty of people do and keep fish without any problems.

ammonia is ammonia is ammonia, the stuff from the tap is the same as the fish produce, or at least the effects of it on the fish are the same, so you are quite right to question the water changes in this case. adding water witha higher ammonia content than whats in teh tank will obviously not dilute things so no point doing it.

for the cycle it's slightly awkward as there's really nothing you can do to get it down, you just need to keep monitoring and stop doing water changes. if ammonia rises up to above 0.5ppm then of course do a water change to bring it down.

don't panic about long term fishkeeping though, once the filter is mature it will easily suck up this little bit of ammonia after a water change however you may find it's better to do two small water changes a week instead of one large one just so you're not adding in too much ammonia at any time.

people with ammonia in they're tap water have often reported sucess using 'prime' as a dechlorinator so if you can get hold of some of this then by all means do. it's also worth doing a little experiment by testing some tap water before and after adding dechlor to see if it makes any difference. if the dechlor removes the ammonia from the tap water (possible) then obviously you can do water changes to try and reduce the 0.25ppm in the tank.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi and to TFF,

You seem to have a reasonable grasp on what you are trying to achieve here, so i'll keep this short for now.

Tap ammonia is the same as tank ammonia. If the tap has 0.5ppm, then you are making things worse doing water changes when the tank is reading 0.25.

Only do a water change if the tank level goes above the tap level (0.5).

In your particular case, it may be worth buying some API Ammo Lock. It is a dechlorinator and also detoxifies ammonia. This would ease the pressure on the fish somewhat until the filter is cycled.

Any more questions, don't be afraid to ask. We're a friendly bunch.

BTT

EDIT: Beat me to it, Wiggly.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fastest fingers in the west

 

[ScrappaDeeDooDa]

Thank you! I knew you all could help!