High Ammonia Help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Another downside of using straight rodi water is that it is very unstable with regards to ph. The minerals in tap water help to keep the aquarium ph stable and at a safe level. If you go straight back to all tap 2 things will happen. 1 your ph will change rapidly and most likely bounce around before settling on a certain point which will make your fish very unhappy to say the least and 2 as your ph rises, so will the Ammonia in your tank. At low ph, Ammonia starts to convert to ammonium for reasons unknown. Presumably witchcraft. Ammonium is not processed by your bio filter, but builds up all the same. As the ph rises, Ammonium converts back to Ammonia causing a spike that can kill your fish. So if you are already having issues with Ammonia, imagine what they will be like when your ph comes back up. In conclusion, fix current Ammonia problem, slowly add tap, monitor parameters, 50/50 tap to ro is a good mix to stick with. Lastly, keep us updated! I love nothing more than to actually see resolution to a problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MonsterFishCreeper, butchie and bacon
bacon said:
I believebelieve i have a bucketbucket or 2 of bio balls i could put into the sump.
Click to expand...

Bio balls have a fairly low surface area and are intended to be use with wet/Dry aka trickle filters. Lows sells 20lb bags of small lava rocks for less than 5 dollars. Lava rock is cheap, inert, and highly porous giving the bacteria plenty of space to live. Just be sure to put them in the flow of water. You want the water to flow through, not around.
 
  • Like
Reactions: butchie and bacon
Thank you so much Beetlebug515 Beetlebug515

I will let you guys know how it goes...Unfortunately, I've been battling this for a while, and was doing a water change every am and pm after work. But, my 3 cichlas all took it hard and lost the majority of their eyesite. Several months ago. But, they have no problem eating . I thought i had it under control, but was wrong and saw my 18 yr old gar start to show signs. So, I am willing to learn and do the best for the fish. I appreciate the helpfulness
 
Any time. I've found, when undertaking large or time consuming projects, log your actions and results here. It gives you something to look back on and gives others something to learn from.
 
Yeah good husbandry with a reef and a stocked fresh tank are really, really different. In your reef you are using your live rocks for the filtration and for buffering. You use rodi to keep your mineral level low, mainly phosphorus. In your fresh you have really nothing to buffer and you need massive amounts of filtration/surface area. Presumably in your reef there is no filtration besides the filter socks and a protien skimmer and presumably your bio load is very low. That was the strangest transition for me when i set up a reef (the lack of surface area with filtration). You are going the opposite way and like everyone said i would figure out how to increase your surface area for biologic filtration. one easy fix in the short term is to put sponge filters in the sump. I do love put scrubbies and lava rock. I have not had a k1 filter as was suggested but they sound very efficient. I would switch to tap very slowly and follow your ph carefully, although i suspect your ph levels have been very unstable using the rodi. Does that part make sense? Do you understand what i mean by the buffering? You're problems are pretty easily solved it seems like which is the good news.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bacon
I'll go get some lava rock this am, and get that going in the sump, and start adding a little bit of tap water as well. Anything else you guys suggest to do today? Hopefully the bacteria grows quickly in the rock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom