What Is The Impact Of Various Ammonia Levels?

[PaulQ]

I understand that you want no ammonia but what is considered deadly for the fish? If you have 0.25, should you panic and change out all of the water?

Just want a sense of what these levels mean.

Thank you!

 

[Wills]

anything above 0 is basically bad - .25 is bad and anything above it is even worse. Even at .25 it can still cause ammonia burning to the fishes gills and fins and prolong exposure will burn scales a bit though worse at higher levels.

You dont want to do 100% water changes for .25 but around 50% will be fine, 100% water changes can shock fish too much.

Ammonia in a new tank is an issue but as the tank ages your ammonia level will just disappear as long as the filter is working.

Wills

 

[arobinson1984]

Agree with what wills has said,

Any amounts above 0 really are bad for your fish, each species of fish will react differently to ammonia presence, obviously some will be more tolerant than others hence the 'hardy' tag some fish get.

Ammonia damages the gills, whereas nitrite damages the nervous system, at levels of around 0.25ppm, prolonged exposure would slowly cause permanent damage, whereas from what I've read in the past it seems that levels as low as just 1.0ppm CAN cause permanent damage in as little as 1 hour, note I said can and not will.

You can see how important it is to keep the levels as low as possible during a fish-in cycle, and in a fully cycled tank the levels should always be 0 anyway, if they are not then that indicates a problem somewhere.


Andy

 

[backtotropical]

I agree with the above, that any amount of ammonia is bad and should be removed as quickly as possible.

Just another point that the toxicity of ammonia depends on the pH and the temperature of the water.

The lower the pH, the lower the ratio of ammonia (very toxic) to ammonium (not so toxic), so a low pH is a blessing if you are experiencing ammonia issues.

The toxicity is also less if the temperature is low, rather than high.

That said, tampering with the pH or temp because you have an ammonia issue isn't recommended, just change lots of water. Keep ammonia levels as low as possible. Even small amounts can have serious long-term consequences for the fish.

Regards

BTT

 

[waterdrop]

I agree. Every one of the above posts is excellent. The water changing is important, the gill damage can be real and yet a single instance of 0.25ppm is not the sort of panic crisis that should make you feel your fish have been immediately hurt or that you need to change 100%. I agree with the idea that you should change 50 or 70% and of course step up your monitoring. If good technique (conditioning and temp matching) is used, the water change should be less shock than the ammonia.

~~waterdrop~~