HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

42 posts • Page 4 of 5

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

AND I removed 3 fish from the large tank into the smaller one...theory is to reduce the bio load??? Yes? No?


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

This is one of my filters:
http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/04/67 ... 00X500.jpg

I can't find the other one, will have to see about snapping a picture!


Okiimiru
 
Posts: 275
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by Okiimiru

"AND I removed 3 fish from the large tank into the smaller one...theory is to reduce the bio load??? Yes? No?"
The amount of food you add to the tank is the source of the bioload, not the number of fish in the tank. Fish do eat food, yes, and more fish eat more food, but this is just what statisticians like to call 'confounding'. The idea behind confounding is this: It looks like one thing is the cause when actually the cause is a second thing that is directly related to the first thing. In this case it looks like fish in the tank is the cause of the ammonia load when actually it's the amount of food added (which is directly related to the number of fish) which is the cause. They used to think coffee drinking caused lung cancer, but really it's just that statistically smokers drink more coffee. Confounding is a really interesting thing to consider when determining the cause of an effect.

"I also have ammonia reducer chips in the carbon bag (per directions on package) and use 2 ammonia reducing cartridges on the tops of my undergravel filter."
Ammonia reducer chips, not an increase in the population of nitrosomonas bacteria, could be why the ammonia decreased in the past. We might have been interpreting the drop in ammonia as being a sign that the bacteria were increasing in number, when really the ammonia was going down because it was being used up in a chemical reaction involving these ammonia reducer chips. This could mean that there are actually very few nitrosomonas bacteria present. If there was no ammonia to be food for the bacteria, then their numbers would not have increased. The ammonia reducer chips were in direct competition with the bacteria. From the vendor's perspective, the people who are trying to sell you the chips, they don't care if the bacteria never increase to the number of population they would need for your tank to be fully cycled. They don't care because they stay in business. When your chips run out of oomph you go back to them and buy more. It's a great system for them because they have created a dependent, inelastic consumer. But from the consumer's point of view the vendor is a jerk. Not only do you have to spend money that you otherwise wouldn't have to spend, but if you don't then the ammonia goes up and fish die. It's like the vendor is holding your fish's lives as ransom. If you don't buy more chips and pay them, the ammonia spike will happen and your fish will suffer. They might even die. Ammonia chips are a form of extortion, plain and simple.

If it were me at this point I'd treat the tank like it was a day 0 tank on slide 8 of the powerpoint http://www.ag.auburn.edu/~davisda/class ... Design.pdf
Keep doing water changes to keep the ammonia as low as possible. Aim for less than 1 ppm. As long as there is some ammonia present the bacteria will continue to increase in number in your filter sponges. It doesn't matter to the bacteria if the ammonia is at 0.5 ppm or 5 ppm; either way there's still food available to them. But your fish do care; 5 ppm will kill them dead while 0.5 ppm has a much smaller risk of them dying. So keep up on the water changes. And don't buy any more ammonia chips. Forty days from now your tank should be fully cycled.
You've got some nitrate present in your water so the number of bacteria present isn't zero. That means, good news, it should take less than forty days. How much less is hard to predict, but I really doubt it'll be the full forty.


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

Well, fudge. LOL!!

I will keep up with the water changes-darn them chips anyhow. :(

Should I add the fish that I took out today back in?? Or just wait until it is fully cycled??

Thanks again!!

And buy some more water testers, lol!! I think I will get a large master kit this time instead of the 5 way strips.. I like my API ammonia tester, so I'll keep using it.


Okiimiru
 
Posts: 275
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by Okiimiru

"Should I add the fish that I took out today back in?? Or just wait until it is fully cycled??"
If there were somewhere they could go where they wouldn't be exposed to ammonia, I would keep them there. Keep adding fish flakes to the uncycled tank every day as if there were fish in it and it'll cycle just as if there were.


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

Ok, Thank you so much!!


natalie265
Site Admin
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by natalie265

Is your quarantine tank fully cycled? If so, you could borrow some of the filter media from that tank to jump start this one.


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

Ok, thinking the tank has cycled...although my ammonia is 1.0

Here are the numbers as of today...read and then PLEASE tell me what to do now!

These numbers are before my water change.

PH 6.2 (LOW)
Alkilinity 0-40 (In between but looks very low)
Hardness 300 (!!!! This is the first time it has ever moved!!!)
Nitrite 0-.5 (LOW, YAY!!)
Nitrate 20 (also much lower)
Ammonia 1.0

Should I begin to regulate the PH with an inducer, what should I do about the low alkilinity??
Going to change water to see if the ammonia comes down. (But relieved it isn't off the chart green!!)

Thanks all!


Okiimiru
 
Posts: 275
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:19 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by Okiimiru

"Ok, thinking the tank has cycled...although my ammonia is 1.0"
The definition of a cycled tank is that ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite it 0 ppm, and nitrate is steadily increasing. Your tank's 1 ppm ammonia makes it by definition still uncycled.


jessikaye01
 
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2012 1:21 pm

Re: HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

by jessikaye01

Why would I have everything rise and fall like that one after another in sequence-and even the Nitrates falling to almost zero...but the ammonia still be a bit high like that?

And do I worry about the PH and alkilinity??

HELP!! I CANNOT get my ammonia levels down!

42 posts • Page 4 of 5

12345
Display posts from previous: Sort by: