Actual ammonia and nitrite levels

[esoxlucius]

As we are all too painfully aware nitrate is a very measurable substance in our systems. Our API charts clearly show where our tanks are at from water change to water change, and indeed it is our nitrate levels which determine all of our water change schedules.

However, ammonia and nitrite are a little different. They both show up (hopefully) as 0ppm on the API charts, bright yellow and sky blue. But, just because they show up as 0ppm on the chart doesn't mean they aren't there, because they are!! Our API charts are telling lies, though not in a bad way. It's simply because the levels of ammonia and nitrite are so low that the API method, plus other methods, aren't good enough to measure and give us a reading. To measure actual levels to the nearest 0.0001 or whatever ppm, we'd need a piece of kit similar to what they'd use in a water treatment facility. I'll bring duanes in here.

The common concensus in the hobby is that the safest levels of ammonia and nitrite are both 0ppm at all times. But we have already determined that neither are absolute zero at any given time.

We brush the long term effects of low levels of ammonia and nitrite under the carpet, we can't measure them accurately, we just understand them both to be 0ppm. It's always the long term effects of nitrate that fuels discussion.

So....typically, and if we did have a fancy pants detection method, how much ammonia and nitrite are actually present in a healthy system, and what's more, are we over emphasising the dangers of long term low level nitrate exposure, when what we should be blaming a myriad of health issues on is in fact our fishes continuous exposure to undetectable levels of catastrophically toxic ammonia and nitrite?

 

[duanes]

BecauseI worked in a water quality lab, I had access to a spectro-photometer for measuring ammonia that tested accurately down below 1ppm, it was able to read such tiny amounts,
because the unit cost more more than my truck, and required about the same schedule of regular maintenance.
There are now, much more accurate and sensitive tests and equipment available for general use, although, mostly used by saltwater reefers who think nothing about spending 10 K keeping up a 50 gal tank.

I kept a log book for years....the 3 columns are (from left after the date) alkalinity(average 90), pH @8, ammonia < 0.10, Conductivity average 1000mS etc.
Back then (2006) I was not as aware or concerned with the dangers of nitrate, as I am and have come to realize today.

I consider test kits like API, only ball park figures results at best.
The thing is......fish and other metabolic process are constantly producing ammonia, so low levels (on the spectrometer) are always detectable, and because my tap water was being treated with Chloramine ( a combination of @ 4 parts chlorine, and 1 part ammonia) there was always that trace residuals, especially right after a water change.
This is why when returning water to tanks after water changes, I always initially add it to my sumps, instead of directly to the tank, in this way, I gave the beneficial bacteria first crack at it.
And just as the fish are constantly producing ammonia as a waste product, our filters beneficial bacteria are producing nitrate as waste product. (less acutely toxic, but chronically toxic no less).

 

[esoxlucius]

View attachment 1454547
BecauseI worked in a water quality lab, I had access to a spectro-photometer for measuring ammonia that tested accurately down below 1ppm, it was able to read such tiny amounts,
because the unit cost more more than my truck, and required about the same schedule of regular maintenance.
There are now, much more accurate and sensitive tests and equipment available for general use, although, mostly used by saltwater reefers who think nothing about spending 10 K keeping up a 50 gal tank.

I kept a log book for years....the 3 columns are (from left after the date) alkalinity(average 90), pH @8, ammonia < 0.10, Conductivity average 1000mS etc.
Back then (2006) I was not as aware or concerned with the dangers of nitrate, as I am and have come to realize today.

I consider test kits like API, only ball park figures results at best.
The thing is......fish and other metabolic process are constantly producing ammonia, so low levels (on the spectrometer) are always detectable, and because my tap water was being treated with Chloramine ( a combination of @ 4 parts chlorine, and 1 part ammonia) there was always that trace residuals, especially right after a water change.
This is why when returning water to tanks after water changes, I always initially add it to my sumps, instead of directly to the tank, in this way, I gave the beneficial bacteria first crack at it.
And just as the fish are constantly producing ammonia as a waste product, our filters beneficial bacteria are producing nitrate as waste product. (less acutely toxic, but chronically toxic no less).

That makes complete sense to me. Ammonia is continuously released into the water column by various processes. But BB aren't in the water column, only on surfaces. So common sense tells us that the ammonia in the water column is never instantaneously processed, hence constant immeasurable levels (with our basic test kits anyway). It doesn't start to get processed properly until it passes the main BB populations in our filters.

But this is my point. Nitrate is the product getting the bad press, but these residual amounts of ammonia, and indeed the tiny levels of nitrite too, which are both many many times more toxic than nitrate, simply slip under the radar.

I'm not for one minute suggesting that nitrate is ok, because it's clearly not, though what I am saying is that the tiny levels of ammonia and nitrite are certainly playing a part in "bad" things that happen in our aquariums and the best of the bunch, the not so toxic nitrate, is the one which bears the brunt of everything bad, it's like the fall guy out of the three.

The average ammonia reading in your log book seems to be about 0.02ppm. Tiny yes, especially when only part of it is toxic ammonia. What is worse though, constant exposure to 0.02ppm ammonia or constant exposure to say 10ppm nitrate.

Can you see what i'm getting at?

 

[duanes]

The average ammonia reading in your log book seems to be about 0.02ppm. Tiny yes, especially when only part of it is toxic ammonia. What is worse though, constant exposure to 0.02ppm ammonia or constant exposure to say 10ppm nitrate.

Can you see what i'm getting at?

I do see it, but in average aquarium literature (and by a number of members even here), 20 ppm nitrate or even higher are often considered par, and/or simply acceptable.
I don't accept that, but not only simply the nitrate alone.

In the same way colifirm bacteria are used as possibly indicator of disease in drinking water......
I consider one of the most important benafits of nitrate testing, it is that it is an "indicator", .... a barometer of all the other negative components in the soup that is aquarium water, if nitrate is high, my assumption is that all the other things like growth inhibiting hormones, pheromones, even slight bumps in ammonia and other pollutants are also high, and call for a water change.

All fish are constantly giving off ammonia, hormones, pheromones, and many other metabolism by-products, so a small portion is always going to be inevitable.
Only if we responsibly stock, if we do lots of water changes, and choose species correct to our tap water are we able to ward off many of the normally acquired aquarium diseases.
This is one of the reasons I rag on about water changes, because they are almost the only thing we can easily do to correct the soup concentration of tank water in any substantial way.

I have not had a case of HLLE in my tanks for over 15 years, and I attribute this to my anal addiction to water changes, and not trying to force soft water fish into hard water, and more recently ...... to overdoing plant stocking compared to fish.
In fact the only diseases I've had to deal with, have been imported either from fish other people have provided (Columnaris in 2013), and some parasites brought in from wild caught species here in Panama.