I unfortunately had to switch my fish over to a newer tank before it was completely cycled. I went ahead and put the old filter, an old sponge, and a little bit of gravel to help speed it up a little bit but my ammonia levels are still around .5-1.0 My fish have been in there a few days and seem to be just fine but I still want to be careful. I bought some AMMOLock that will detoxify the ammonia (but not remove it). Can I use this so that my cycle still completes while keeping my fish safe?
Will I do more harm than good?
- Thread starter cartisdm
- Start date
I've found that using those kind of additives only prolongs the cycling of the tank. Try some bacteria that you can get from your local fish store. I can't think of any names off the top of my head, but I'm sure someone else can help with that.
In my experience, any Bio-Spira, or Stability, products are useless. The bacteria inside have been trapped with no oxygen, and youre basically just adding some dead bacteria, or some more waste, to your tank. Others have told me that, and as far as my personal use, I tried to use it to speed up a couple tank cycles and it never did, as far as I could tell. But, Ive heard other people love this stuff, so who knows.
I don't want them to start developing a problem, I've grown attached to these guys
Go to your nearest LFS and inquire on any cycled filters they dont need. Pay them well and come back with a cycled filter to help process the ammonia and save your fish.
I've actually done some experimenting with "Cycle", and it's helped me out tremendously.
To deal with your current ammonia levels...water change! Yay! That is the best way to deal with an ammonia crisis. I've never actually used any ammonia-removing products, but if Ammolock actually will detoxify the ammonia, I'd say give it a shot. It most likely works by actually altering the ammonia at a molecular level, so the fact that it doesn't remove anything from your tank shouldn't be a problem.
Fun Fact - while ammonia is toxic, ammonium isn't!
To deal with your current ammonia levels...water change! Yay! That is the best way to deal with an ammonia crisis. I've never actually used any ammonia-removing products, but if Ammolock actually will detoxify the ammonia, I'd say give it a shot. It most likely works by actually altering the ammonia at a molecular level, so the fact that it doesn't remove anything from your tank shouldn't be a problem.
Fun Fact - while ammonia is toxic, ammonium isn't!
Well, Ammonia is NH3 and Ammonium is NH4. They're both present in the water...usually an ammonia test will actually test for both. The problem with ammonium is that it's VERY quickly converted to ammonia in an aquarium, unless you have very cold water and/or very low pH.
