I was wondering, if you have high ammonia levels, will that prohibit or slow the growth of beneficial bacteria?
I know some ammonia is necessary, otherwise the bacteria won't have anything to feed on, but I didn't know if having too much ammonia was bad for cycling, too. I believe I read somewhere that it was, but I just wanted to check and make sure.
I have a fish-in cycle going (unfortunately, the poor things!) on, and I have been doing 50% water changes daily to effectively lower the ammonia level. My tank still has too much ammonia for the fish, but I'm still doing daily water changes and it should be back to a reasonable level in just a few more days.
The reason my ammonia got so high in the first place was that I went away for a couple days, and even though I expressly told them not to, my mom fed my fish once and my stepdad fed them daily (he never told my mom he fed them, so they probably were overfed twice in one day!). He never even told me, I knew that they'd been fed because the ammonia was sky-high, and there was a lot of fish food waste in the tank that I noticed when I did an emergency water change. And before anyone thinks I starve the fish, I don't! I feed them a small amount every other day just before I'm about to do a water change, so I can siphon out what they don't eat. I guess I neglected to tell my stepdad that, and he thought I was starving them.
So anyway, I understand the importance of getting the ammonia back to a reasonable level for the fish's sake, I just wondered how much damage was done to the cycling process, if any.
Potentially Relevant Information:
Ammonia: 3.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm (which is about what my tap water has in it)
PH: 7.5
20 gallon tank
3 not yet fully grown female guppies (currently about 1 inch long each and none are pregnant).
Will have been cycling exactly 5 weeks on Tuesday, July 23.
Chemicals I use are API Tap Water Conditioner, and, because of the huge ammonia spike, I've also been using API Ammo-Lock in small doses every other day.
I have also used Nutrafin Cycle and Nutrafin Stress Coat when I first started cycling, but I found Cycle unhelpful and I prefer the API brand for dechlorinating water; it's much more concentrated.
I have an API Master Test Kit
No live plants in my tank
If there's anything else you might need to know, just ask! Thanks for your time and help, your advice is much appreciated!!
I know some ammonia is necessary, otherwise the bacteria won't have anything to feed on, but I didn't know if having too much ammonia was bad for cycling, too. I believe I read somewhere that it was, but I just wanted to check and make sure.
I have a fish-in cycle going (unfortunately, the poor things!) on, and I have been doing 50% water changes daily to effectively lower the ammonia level. My tank still has too much ammonia for the fish, but I'm still doing daily water changes and it should be back to a reasonable level in just a few more days.
The reason my ammonia got so high in the first place was that I went away for a couple days, and even though I expressly told them not to, my mom fed my fish once and my stepdad fed them daily (he never told my mom he fed them, so they probably were overfed twice in one day!). He never even told me, I knew that they'd been fed because the ammonia was sky-high, and there was a lot of fish food waste in the tank that I noticed when I did an emergency water change. And before anyone thinks I starve the fish, I don't! I feed them a small amount every other day just before I'm about to do a water change, so I can siphon out what they don't eat. I guess I neglected to tell my stepdad that, and he thought I was starving them.
So anyway, I understand the importance of getting the ammonia back to a reasonable level for the fish's sake, I just wondered how much damage was done to the cycling process, if any.
Potentially Relevant Information:
Ammonia: 3.0 ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm (which is about what my tap water has in it)
PH: 7.5
20 gallon tank
3 not yet fully grown female guppies (currently about 1 inch long each and none are pregnant).
Will have been cycling exactly 5 weeks on Tuesday, July 23.
Chemicals I use are API Tap Water Conditioner, and, because of the huge ammonia spike, I've also been using API Ammo-Lock in small doses every other day.
I have also used Nutrafin Cycle and Nutrafin Stress Coat when I first started cycling, but I found Cycle unhelpful and I prefer the API brand for dechlorinating water; it's much more concentrated.
I have an API Master Test Kit
No live plants in my tank
If there's anything else you might need to know, just ask! Thanks for your time and help, your advice is much appreciated!!
