Alright, I've had my tank set up for a month and a half. I think its still going through the nitrogen cycle but im not sure. I have fish in there and the water is always cloudy and the ammonia is sky high, I use the API test kit at work and it read the ammonia at 8.0! and the ph was 7.8. Now, i've tried water changes, aquaclear zero carb, ammonia remover, i even put on another filtration unit; a marineland because of the bio-wheel. I've added API stress zyme and Nutrafin's Cycle for the beneifical bacteria and nothing has changed. My nitrates and nitirite are at 0. Now, my water source is from my basement sink, cuz of tired of the ammonia and the cloudiness, I decided to test the water from my kitchen sink. After the tests, the ammonia was .25, nitrate was 5.0, nitrite was .25 and the ph was 7.6-7.8 (I couldnt tell). So my question is, should I use the water from my kitchen or stay with the water from my basement?? Thanks
I need help making a decision
- Thread starter jeep07
- Start date
im not totally sure to be honest... i've never heard of an ammonia level that high - and the fact that fish in there are alive is amazing to me.. i really hope somebody has something better to tell you but it sounds like you've done most of the things correctly i just dont see how anything could possibly be alive with those levels
I know right. At work, if the ammonia was that high, fish would be dead. Thanks for your honesty about not knowing. I know that test kits can expire and that could be the reason for the high reading, but never the less, I test a lot of water and those test come out zero for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. Im seriously considering taking 10-20% of the water out of my tank each day for a week or two to get as much water out of my tank that came from my basement.
It may be the test kits are old or that your filter hasnt caught up with fish load. What type of filters do you have on your tank,how often do you change the water,how many fish do you have in the tank,how big is the tank.
I hope you changed the water after you got that high a reading!
I hope you changed the water after you got that high a reading!
Its a 46 gallon, I have a clownknive, silver arowana, lima shovelnose, and red tail catfish. I know the tank is to small, they will be going in a larger tank. I dont want to start anything with my tanksize cuz I know lol, the fish arent stressed and they're all eating and chill together so its all good lol. Now, I want to get rid of this ammonia!! I'll do a 20% water change once a week. One of my filtration sytems is an AquaClear, I have the filter, carbon, and zero carb in there now. The other filtration system is a marineland penquin 200 with two filters inside of it.
With an ammonia level that high, you would probably be able to smell it.. Does the water stink bad? An ammonia level that high would make sense with 0 nitrite and nitrate. Even an old test strip would probably have at least 1 of the 3 correct. Any of those 3 being correct would validate the readings of the other 2.
I think you might just be doing too much to try and condition the water though. Just add a dechlorinator to the tap water before you put it in the tank, i.e. Fill a 5 gallon bucket, add the dechlorinator and toss an air stone in for 20 minutes. Don't add any extra chemicals. The tank just needs time to cycle. Do your best to clean out detritus and do 10% water changes daily until you start seeng the Nitrite level climb and ammonia drop. A few days after that the nitrite should start dropping and nitrate will start going up.
I think you might just be doing too much to try and condition the water though. Just add a dechlorinator to the tap water before you put it in the tank, i.e. Fill a 5 gallon bucket, add the dechlorinator and toss an air stone in for 20 minutes. Don't add any extra chemicals. The tank just needs time to cycle. Do your best to clean out detritus and do 10% water changes daily until you start seeng the Nitrite level climb and ammonia drop. A few days after that the nitrite should start dropping and nitrate will start going up.
jeep07;4583806; said:
Holy bio-load batman.. before you start getting flamed.. even as babies all of those fish are HUGE waste producers. I hope you have a HUGE tank.. because thats what you will need for most of those fish. You should be doing a min of 40% WC Daily on that tank. No wonder your ammonia is so high. BTW the 40% daily should continue until they all outgrow that tank ( about 2 monthes tops, no joke...) And an aquaclear and penguin 200 are no where near the filtration you need on that tank. Ammo chips may help but they are a band-aid.. the problem is the stock.. even if they are all 3" they are dropping ammonia outta every pore.. and w/ your water already not ideal... You're going to start having major problems. I'm amazed that you don't see any signs of ammonia burn or haven't lost a fish yet. 20% once a week isn't even close to what these fish require. Both my silver arrow and TSN outgrew my 40Breeder in about 3 monthes. Running a emperor 400 a magnum HOT and doing approx 40% everyother day.