Plastic Plants & Ammonia

[richard76]

Hello everyone,

hoping somone can just see if this is correct, im quite new to the fish tank scene and just decided to give the tank a good clean, put all my stuff out of the tank, like plastic plants and some ornamounts, plastic as well, filled a bucket of hot water and left to soak for a long time while i got ready.

just out of interest i checked the water ammonia, i like to keep this low, and both bukets are reading 0.50pm levels in them, the water was from the tap, hot, and left to cool down, ive checked the hot water seperate and the test is ok, 0pm, is it possible that plastic can give off the ammonia, i know it might sound daft but i dont want to put items back in the tank once ive started to clean it and risk have ammania in the tank, each bucket holds 20 litres of water

anyone have any clues?

 

[bronzecat]

Hi
I wouldn't know if plastic can give off ammonia?? Wouldn't have thought so though.
Could it be that the items you put in the buckets had debris from the tank on them??

You said that you liked to keep the ammonia low, ammonia should be kept at zero. Even small amounts are harmful to aquatic life.

 

[Esfa]

tap water can contain ammonia.

 

[aaronnorth]

No, the plastic will be 100% safe (or 99.9%!) although i am not dure if it was boiling red hot that it might lek something out but i highly doubt it will be NH3

 

[richard76]

Interesting, the stuff was rinsed well under water then put into a bucket, so i wouldnt think that anything from the tank would got there, but you never know i suppose, I know the tank has had a ammonia spike in it, is it possible that the ammonia has got into the plastic and now releasing?

Whats the best way to wash plastic plants?

 

[aaronnorth]

when i had them, i used to scrub them with a scourer with the tank water.

 

[Gilli]

I wouldnt wash them in hot water - water that comes from a hot water storage tank may contain copper!

You say you like to keep the ammonia readings low - ammonia should be 0 at all times and if its not then you should be doing water changes every day until it is. If your tank is cycled properly then it should be 0 anyway and you must be overfeeding.

I would get yourself some natural plants - not only do they look much better but they will also use up nitrates.

 

[loachman]

Does your water source use chloramine to treat the water? Ammonia can be used as a raw material to make it.