Ammonia still detectable!

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princessearrings

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 18, 2010
37
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Florida
Hi all! My tank has been cycling for over a month now, and yet there is still ammonia in the water. There is only a little bit of ammonia (below 0.25), but I know this is still not safe for fish (or is it?). I just did a 25% water change, and it seems as though the ammonia went up! I DO have ammonia in my well water, so I use R/O water from my LFS. Right now, all I have in my tank are three mystery snails. Will my snails be okay? Is it safe to add fish yet? What should I do about the ammonia?
Thank you!
 
What are all your other parameters?
Nitrate? Nitrite? pH? kH?

It could be that your water is soft.
 
Here are all of my parameters:
Ammonia: less than 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5.0
Ph: 8.3 (a little high, I know)
kH: about 80ppm
GH: about 60ppm

Also, I am going to order a suppliment for the R/O water, but for right now HOPEFULLY the well water that I used before had enough hardness in it to keep everything stable.
 
Ammonia can be hard to test for. I still haven't an ammonia test kit that I trust. I bought an expensive LaMotte kit and it gives me false positives. The instructions did say that the test would read slightly high in freshwater but the readings were way high. I end up just observing my fish and smelling the water.

Anyway, RO water can still have ammonia if the source water has chloramine. If the RO filter doesn't have enough carbon filtration for the flow rate, chlorine or chloramine will get through. If the DI is exhausted or is otherwise insufficient for the flow rate, ammonia will get through.

The ammonia half of chloramine is not filtered by carbon or the RO membrane so adequate DI is a must.

LFSes often don't have well maintained or thought out RO systems. If you put a booster pump on an RO filter, you increase the flow rate such that you need to have a lot more carbon canisters--more than I've seen on any RO filter sold.

I would just let the aquarium run for 1-2 weeks and see if the readings go down. If they don't then your test kit is faulty or your aquarium isn't cycled yet.

You might have to store your well water and run it with a biological filter until the ammonia is taken care of then use it for a water change.
 
Maybe it is the R/O water... Thank you for telling me that!
Anyhow, I guess I am going to have to use my friends city water (and treat it for chlorine), because the R/O water is too soft (and too expensive) to use. But for now, will my mystery snails be okay? They seem fine, they are eating and everything, should I just leave them alone and keep a close eye on them?
I will wait another week or so to get fish, just to be safe.
Thank you for replying!
 
^^ Good stuff Squint...


princessearrings;4090194; said:
Ph: 8.3 (a little high, I know)
kH: about 80ppm
GH: about 60ppm
Click to expand...

Those parameters seem sorta high for RO water doesn't it? Which is even more reason so suspect the RO water you are getting from the store isn't up to par.
 
Yes, the ph is very high, however the reason for the KH and GH showing up is because I had added my VERY hard well water to the tank in the beginning, before I knew about the ammonia in it. I have not done that many water changes yet, so the hardness has not gone down completely. By the way, I just tested the R/O water that I have been buying: everything is perfect. My test kit may be faulty, but I have no other way of testing it. So I guess I will just keep using the R/O unless there is another reason not to. I am planning on buying a mineral suppliment for the water by the way. I found one on Foster and Smith Aquatics. Is online the only way to buy this stuff, or can I get it at a chain pet store (my lfs doesn't carry it).
 
Also, any ideas on what is affecting the ph? I already tested the substrate by placing it in a container with the R/O water (neutral ph), and it did hardly anything. I think it may have raised it about .1 or .2, but not up to 8.3!
 
At that pH ammonia can be quite toxic.

After a quick search I have found that keeping mystery snails in a pH above 7 is ideal however I think it might be worth keeping it below 8 as well

What do you have in the tank regarding rocks and substrate? Other then your well water - which is probably stagnate and not aerated (not so good) there could be items raising the hardness

Rocks, coral and some substrate can all raise the hardness - let us know what is in the tank
 
Okay, here is what is in my tank:
Pool filter sand (pure silica) that I already tested
Two large pieces of drift wood
Ummm... a heater...
And I have two Marineland Emperor 400 filters on it (its a 75 gallon in case I didn't already say that)
Also, I thought it could be that the CO2 was being taken out of the water from the oxygen created by the filters, which I have read can raise the ph. Not sure how much it would raise it: actually I'm not positive it actually is raising it. I shut off one filters for a few days, and the ph stayed EXACTLY the same.
Also, when I first got the tank and filled it up with well water, I did have a large clam shell in the tank with no substrate. I was quite ignorant and did not know that the clam shell would raise the ph, again I am not sure how much it really would. However, when I tested the ph with my test strips (that I don't use anymore) it was showing up way high off the charts! Like above 9.0! So then I added the pool filter sand and remove the clam shell. Then I did a 100% water change, and refilled the tank with well water. My well waters ph, by the way, is about 7.3. Then I added two large pieces of driftwood, and it seemed as though those may have lowered it quite a bit, BUT THEN IT WENT BACK UP AGAIN!!! Not sure how that happened, and again I was at the time using those dumb test strips, but they must have had some truth to them! The only other thing I had in the tank that I just removed was some waterfall ornament (that I later found being sold at petsmart) that came with the tank when I bought it. So, I have no idea what is raising the ph. It is not any of the obvious things, so what could it be?
Thank you!
 
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