Water Test

[fillthehole]

hi all

today i got up and all the fish was at the bottom of the tank so i tested the water and the Ammonia was high at 4.0 but all the other levals was ok.why?

PH 7.0
Ammonia 4.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

 

[waterdrop]

Why is an interesting question and the members may need to ask you a number of other questions to help get it answered...

But your immediate concern should be getting rid of that excess ammonia. I'd start with a 70% water change, using conditioner (to remove chlorine/chloramine from the replacement tap water) and rough temperature matching (your hand is good enough for this.) Test about an hour later and if the ammonia is still above 0.25ppm then perform another one just like the first... and so on.

I'm assuming you have a good liquid-reagent based test kit giving you those numbers.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fillthehole]

i have done that but runout of Ammonia test kit.

 

[OldMan47]

Watch the reaction of your fish. When you have done enough changes for the short term they will resume normal habits in the tank. Until then, a reading that high would typically take 3 or 4 of those 70% water changes to set things right. Start with at least 2 big changes and have a close look at how your fish are acting. If all is right with the world, you may have changed enough water but if they are still laying around as if they didn't feel well, do another.

 

[fillthehole]

I have been doing 2 to 3 big w/c and the Ammonia is at 1.0 now so that is better but still not at 0 so 2 more mite do it.

 

[waterdrop]

edit: (sorry, response was so slow that my posts got messed up!)

 

[fillthehole]

I have done two more big water change and the Ammonia is still at 0.25ppm. Would not cleaning the filter make the levals go up and keep high??

 

[arobinson1984]

If your filter flow is as powerful as it should be and it isnt reduced then your filter pads wont be mucky enough to have to worry about it. You should ideally clean your filter every 1-2 months (or when flow is reduced) in old tank water. If you have a large external cannister filter then some people only clean them every 6 months or when flow is reduced.

How long has your tank been running?
How did you cycle it?
what fish are in the tank?
have you added any fish to the tank lately? if so, which fish and how many?

Andy

 

[fillthehole]

I have been doing about 6 30 50, 70 80% w/c over the post week or so to get ride of my Ammonia but it is still at 0.25 and the Nitrate has gone up to 4.0. Tank has been set up for about 2 years now. And no new fish.


My mate tested his tap water and he said it has got Ammonia in it at 0.25

 

[waterdrop]

If your tap water comes in at 0.25ppm ammonia then clearly you are not going to get below that with water changes. Only a healthy population of Nitrosomonas is going to quickly take that down to zero.

Its still not clear to me we've figured out if or what the problem is with this tank.

~~waterdrop~~