My tanks have recently become uncycled, and I happened to have been doing some research on the difference between ammonia/ammonium and I ran into some info that was new to me, and was wondering if someone could make sure this is right. My tanks usually take about 2 days to get any reading on ammonia, and according to the total ammonia nitrogen(TAN) the majority of the reading is actually ammonium(this is what I'm uncertain about). Here's a calculator a quick google search found to calculate how much ammonia(NH3) a tank has out of the total ammonia reading
http://www.petgoldfish.net/ammonia-calculator.html
According to this if I have 8 ppm's on my ammonia test kit(reads total ammonia, not just NH3) with my ph of 6.8, and my temp of about 18C, I should have less than .02 ppm's of NH3 which is the harmful toxin out of the two. From what I've read ammonia isn't considered harmful until it hits .02 ppm's.
First of all is this even right? It seems counter intuitive for the hobby to be refering to an ammonia reading, when it's really an ammonium reading.
Second, would it be harmful at all to stop doing water changes every other day like I've been doing, and cut it to the regular weekly water change? On the 2nd day theres a clear .25 ppm reading on my test kit, but according to the calculator that's a rediculously low ppm of NH3. I would be extremely surprised if it got up to 8 ppm's of total ammonia within a week, and even then it wouldn't be considered dangerous levels.
Just wanting to check my logic before I cut any water changes.
http://www.petgoldfish.net/ammonia-calculator.html
According to this if I have 8 ppm's on my ammonia test kit(reads total ammonia, not just NH3) with my ph of 6.8, and my temp of about 18C, I should have less than .02 ppm's of NH3 which is the harmful toxin out of the two. From what I've read ammonia isn't considered harmful until it hits .02 ppm's.
First of all is this even right? It seems counter intuitive for the hobby to be refering to an ammonia reading, when it's really an ammonium reading.
Second, would it be harmful at all to stop doing water changes every other day like I've been doing, and cut it to the regular weekly water change? On the 2nd day theres a clear .25 ppm reading on my test kit, but according to the calculator that's a rediculously low ppm of NH3. I would be extremely surprised if it got up to 8 ppm's of total ammonia within a week, and even then it wouldn't be considered dangerous levels.
Just wanting to check my logic before I cut any water changes.
