Ammonia help

LaPrice

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Ok so, heavily planted tank, 3 goldfish im currently treating for parasites.

i also have tons of cherry chrimp, 2 nerite snails and 2 assassin snails to kill the malaysian trumpets.

im not loosing anything, as in all my inverts are doing great and are very active. but my ammonia is in the green, even after a god water change. is it possible the plants are taking the toxicity out of the water but initial ammonia components remain? or that its the plant fod kind? kinda stumped as everyones doing great aside from the goldfish (parasites and are scaleless)

so should i worry or no?
 

LaPrice

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
API master kit, and maybe a year old? all the tests have experations of 2016 or higher i believe
 

predatorkeeper87

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2014
4,293
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what PPM of ammonia are you reading? Green is what from .25 all way to 4 ppm? If you are on the lower side (.25-2 ppm) your fish will be "ok" for a while. I had a 55 crash on me and spiked to 4 ppm for a week, my bullhead never even showed signs of caring. your bioload is to heavy for your bio filter if you are doing water changes and still seeing no difference in levels. How many MTS are in the tank? Those things breed like rabbits and while spike your ammonia/nitrates in a hurry.

also, what size tank?
 

Gill Blue

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2011
4,072
118
81
michigan
have you tested your tap water? if your city uses chloramines you may need to add more dechlorinator.
are you adding fertilizer?
when are you testing? before a water change? after?
what kind of filtration are you running on what size tank? goldfish are waste machines and require good filtration. like PK says, your biofilter might not be up to the load.
what kind of lighting are you running? high growth plants that can keep up with goldfish will need bright light to do so.
 

LaPrice

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
the only change tank wise is that i recently changed from gravel to sand, before hand i had no problems. kept all my filter media, its the fluval hang on back 20-50 i believe. i use prime to condition the water and ive since stopped adding plant fertilizer as i know one of the plant foods i have does spike the ammonia

malaysian trumpets, probably like 30 tops? i had to add more as the assassins actually destroyed the problem i had, i had hundreds im sure of them at one point. theres less maybe, i see a ton of empty shells

i will say i know its too small and im looking to upgrade or move the goldies to a outdoor pond, but its a 20 gallon. lighting is just a basic marineland led set up.

plants are cryptos, anubias, java moss, java ferns and 2 sword plants, all are very large and flourishing

like i said though, the ammonia is as high as my test kit reads. levels like that should kill my cherry shrimp, being that inverts are so sensitive
 

LaPrice

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
also the goldies are still pretty small if that means anything, less than 3 inches
 

Gill Blue

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2011
4,072
118
81
michigan
sounds like your tank is just dirty. if you had enough food in the bottom of the tank to support hundreds of MTS, then eliminate the MTS, what do you have?
all that MTS food rotting in the bottom.
 

LaPrice

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
oh i changed out the tank, thats when i noticed i had no mts. i had to add some XD

i had no issues untill i switched from gravel to sand
 
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