any Ammonia Experts

Kimix · Aug 23, 2008

I have a major problem.

Ive been using our homes well water in all my tanks for about 10yrs now.. Then about 4 or 5 months ago I started having problems with ammonia in my tanks.

Eventually I traced it to the source, our well water.. For the last four or five months its been testing study at 1.0 ammonia, so at this point, I have to assume its not going away.

I have a combined total of 210 gallons, so its not really feasible to be buying bottled water. I've been skating by the last few months by driving 40mins to my grandmas house and filling empty jugs when i can

Does anyone know if ammo-lock could be safely used on a continual basis to remove the ammonia from our well water? Products like ammo-lock are supposed to convert ammonia to ammonium. And I know my standard test kit will kept testing positive.

If I convert all the Ammonia to ammonium, it still turns into nitrite though right? So will it be possible for my tank to even handle the load of nitrite if I were to use Ammo-lock continuously.

Or perhaps if I used 50% ammo-lock treated water, and 50% water from my grandmas house?

If all works to plan I should be buying my own house within the next 5-8 months. So I just need to find a way to hang on, and keep everyone alive

Any suggestions on what to do would be wonderful. I've already lost my African Mudskipper from this crap, as well as some of my fancy plecos. I don't want to lose everyone or give them away when I'm so close to getting my own house.

oscarluvr · Aug 23, 2008

Do you use prime? get some prime and treat your water with it you should be alright

Kimix · Aug 23, 2008

Just looked up Prime, it says it converts ammonia to a non toxic form, which I assume is again the ammonium, which then still has to be converted to nitrite by the bio system.

It does also say "detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing the biofilter to more efficiently remove them"

But still more things my bio system must remove... Should it in theory be able to handle all that?

zennzzo · Aug 23, 2008

Maybe you could set up a water barrel and a inexpensive gravity fed bio filter. You could seed it from your currrent filter...
at 1ppm ammonia, that would be enough to feed a bio-filter...
when it reaches 0ppm, use it or store it and refill the water barrel...it might be a hassle to set-up but it's got to be easier than driving and fetching water elsewhere...

Miles · Aug 23, 2008

You're best off using Prime - as some ammonia detoxifiers do not allow ammonia to be removed from the biofilter, thus making it more of a 'masking' agent and more detrimental to your fish. Better off to neutralize it and then allow the bio-filter to remove it. You will just need tons of surface area/turnover and a well established bio-filter.

You might look into basing your tank setup on your water quality. You would be best off doing a live planted tank, especially one with something like a floating plant or surface plants, such as Elodea/Hornwart or Water Lettuce or Lilys on the top. Rather then performing large frequent water changes, or large water changes at all, you would do a series of very small water changes. The ammonia will be a great food source for the live plants, just still need a good biofilter.

You could also use something like a RO/DI unit to strip all the nasty stuff out of your water, but then you will have to pre-treat it and re-buffer it.. Might as well go Saltwater or Brackish if your going to do all that work.

cassharper · Aug 23, 2008

I wouldn't consider myself an ammonia expert, but I do convert a good deal of the to urea (I know, lame-sauce)

brianp · Aug 23, 2008

First, given your circumstances, I am in complete agreement with those who have advocated using Prime to detoxify the ammonia. This is the cheapest and most efficient remedy at your disposal. With regard to the second issue, which is the processing of this detoxified ammonia by the biofilter, I can tell you the following:

Knowing that the ammonia forms a covalent bond with the sulfur component of Prime, I did not see how it could then be reduced by the bacteria...so I called up Seachem and had a fairly lengthy discussion with them. Unfortunately, their tech rep was not a chemist, so there were limitations to the "depth" (and credibility) of her explanation. Nonetheless, she confirmed (more or less) that the bacteria will split off the Prime and then reduce the ammonia. The free Prime is also apparently eventually metabolized by the bacteria. Frankly, if I had the interest, I would investigate this further, but right now I am satisfied with the empirical observation that my use of Prime appears to have had no effect upon my biofilter. However, after this jug of Prime is used up, I intend to return to using Amquel. For your situation, I would use the Prime.

Kimix · Aug 23, 2008

zennzzo;2108736; said:
Maybe you could set up a water barrel and a inexpensive gravity fed bio filter....

This is one idea I had been toying with, But I have no clear notion of how fast, say a 50gallon garbage can of water, with a seeded filter would take to clear out 1.0 ammonia. few days? a week? two weeks?

Miles;2108767; said:
You might look into basing your tank setup on your water quality. You would be best off doing a live planted ...

I have never in my life managed to keep a plant alive, and I don't think this is a good time to try again. I also have fish that like to destroy plants in two of the four tanks.

And I'm not looking to get any new fish, or setup any new tanks, I'm simply trying to find a way to let my current fish survive until until I can move out.

brianp;2109162; said:
First, given your circumstances, I am in complete agreement with those who have advocated using Prime to detoxify the ammonia....

....I intend to return to using Amquel. For your situation, I would use the Prime

It was actully Amquel that I started adding to my tanks once I became aware I had a problem, I don't know why I said ammo-lock, my brain isn't working.

Anyway, thanx for the advice. I'll pick up a bottle of Prime in the morning, and give this a shot.

- Oh and can someone suggest a test kit that will test ammonia properly when used in conjunction with Prime.

andyjs · Aug 23, 2008

Kimix;2109688; said:
This is one idea I had been toying with, But I have no clear notion of how fast, say a 50gallon garbage can of water, with a seeded filter would take to clear out 1.0 ammonia. few days? a week? two weeks?

When it's fully cycled, it should be able to take care of 1 ppm of ammonia in a few hours, not days

Mattyou · Aug 23, 2008

Prime works. You shouldn't over analyze it so long as your tank is healthy and the ammonia levels are down, givin time the Bio Filter will break the ammonia down anyhow, you just need to give it a chance to catch up after water changes, that is where the Prime comes in.


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