Beginner question about ammonia

[nraposa]

Got my first tank 3 Months ago 10. gal. Properly cycled it. had been using the dip strips to monitor water quality. Test came up pretty normal each time although there was no test for ammonia. just PH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Nitite and Nitrate.

I just purchased a master test kit with the drops and tubes and took readings of:

Ph - 7.5
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
Ammonia -4.0

How can ammonia be so high and nitrate and nitrite be so low from what i read they all played off each other am i right or wrong. I will be doing 20 % water change daily til ammonia is down.

I vacuum 2 times a week and usually change 25% of the water weekly.
I did just do a water change yesterday could this have affected it. if not is it my filter. what do you guys think. help please

[kimmers318]

How did you cycle the tank? Fishless cycle with some form of ammonia?
Depending on how you cycle will depend on what you may be looking at here....esp if you have added fish already.
Seeing an ammonia reading that high makes me think you did add fish, and too many at once, and it was way too much on the bioload way too fast. A cycled tank will have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, low nitrates.
The bacteria does follow a pattern....ammonia first, then nitrites, finally nitrates. Seeing low nitrates can be a sign that you have nitrates in your water.....have you tested your tap water?
Give us better details on how you cycled, what fish are in there, when, and how many you added.
For the immediate concern, a water change will help lower the ammonia levels if you do have fish, don't disturb the gravel just change out some of the water to dilute the ammonia. If you don't have fish read up on cycling and let it run it's course before adding any fish. Once we get more information we can give you better advice pertaining to your situation.

[Cichlid_Man]

Got my first tank 3 Months ago 10. gal. Properly cycled it. had been using the dip strips to monitor water quality. Test came up pretty normal each time although there was no test for ammonia. just PH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Nitite and Nitrate.

I just purchased a master test kit with the drops and tubes and took readings of:

Ph - 7.5
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5.0
Ammonia -4.0

How can ammonia be so high and nitrate and nitrite be so low from what i read they all played off each other am i right or wrong. I will be doing 20 % water change daily til ammonia is down.

I vacuum 2 times a week and usually change 25% of the water weekly.
I did just do a water change yesterday could this have affected it. if not is it my filter. what do you guys think. help please

I have seen this before. Hold off on the vacuuming until things settle down.
Your tank is still relatively new and your are probably removing a lot of good bacteria when vacuuming.

Do you have fish in there?
Whether or not you do, I would increase the water changes to 3 times a week if you are doing 25%, at least until the ammonia drops. Reduce feeding to once every other day.

Have you tested your tap water for ammonia. This is unlikely that there is ammonia in your tap water, but it will verify the accuracy of the test kit.

Also, when you take a water sample from the tank, make sure you get down in the tank about midway for a good test.
Your other numbers are perfect.

Lastly, If you can get your hands on some bio-spira, that will ensure your tank cycles rapidly..(like a day!)

If you cannot get that, add stress zyme according to directions.
Stress zyme will make the ammonia "less toxic" to fish.
4.0 is way high.
Good luck, and change that water :-)

[jeffs99dime]

make sure that if you do get bio spira that it was kept refrigerated, if not, don't buy it.

[nraposa]

Ok Got tank about 3 Month's ago 10 gal. set it up for a 2 days no fish just treated tap water and filter. Got 3 fish to start 2 swords and 1 white tetra per recommedation of store clerk. Did not come across this site yet and did not know about the fishless cycle. lost one sword the first week the other two were kept alone for two month's about 3 weeks ago added 2 glassfish and 1 spotted catfish and 1 danio. then las week added 2 more swords and one more cat. All the readings i was taking with the dip strips were telling me that everything was running smoothly but they did not test ammonia only nitrate Nitrite and ph.
I change water once a week. vacuum up to 3 times a week but i will stop this per chichild man recommedation.
I have changed the carbon filter 1 about a week ago. but have not replaced the sponge filter only rinsed it out in tank water during water changes to save the good bacteria. what i'm i doing wrong.
The Fish seem happy and are very active even though ammonia so high and i wonder how long it's been this high i'll never use those dip sticks again. did i add to many fish at one time.

[nraposa]

Cichild man and kiimmers went out and bought the stress zyme.

Did about a 25% water change then added the stress Zyme. waited about an hour then retested it. Ammonia did go done a little about 2.0 now it should be 0 but am feeling a little better. Do you think if I did a daily water change it would go quicker or should I just do it every other day, Should I add the stress zyme every water change or just once a week as directions say. Thank you for your suggestions i really appreciate it alot.

[jeffs99dime]

i would do a 50% or more, water change. that's just me though. whatever your ammo level is, it would be cut in half if not a little more.--jeff

[Nautilus29]

Im having the same problem as you only its becuase i didnt know to cycle my tank. So for the past 4 days i have done a 50% water change every day and i tested every day. so far my ammonia went from 3. or higher and now its down to around .5. the nitrites just started showing up since i didnt cycle my tank. for me its good that nitrites are there since that means the bacteria are starting to do there job. anyways so far water changes have helped out my situation alot.

[jman]

I have seen this before. Hold off on the vacuuming until things settle down.
Your tank is still relatively new and your are probably removing a lot of good bacteria when vacuuming.

Do you have fish in there?
Whether or not you do, I would increase the water changes to 3 times a week if you are doing 25%, at least until the ammonia drops. Reduce feeding to once every other day.

Have you tested your tap water for ammonia. This is unlikely that there is ammonia in your tap water, but it will verify the accuracy of the test kit.

Also, when you take a water sample from the tank, make sure you get down in the tank about midway for a good test.
Your other numbers are perfect.

Lastly, If you can get your hands on some bio-spira, that will ensure your tank cycles rapidly..(like a day!)

If you cannot get that, add stress zyme according to directions.
Stress zyme will make the ammonia "less toxic" to fish.
4.0 is way high.
Good luck, and change that water :-)

This is true if you follow this you should get good results iv'e heard this as well

[kimmers318]

Okay...when you cycle a tank using fish, you only end up with enough of the "good" bacteria to handle the load the fish put on the tank.....and no more than that. If that is what a person either chooses to do, or does because they don't know any different doesn't matter.....you only have enough good bacteria to eat up the ammonia created by existing fish. When you add more fish...you increase the ammonia load, and it takes time for the good bacteria to increase enough to keep up with the increase in ammonia (ie, fish waste, food waste). Since the ammonia eating bacteria are the slowest growers from everything I have learned, they are going to take the most time increasing their numbers to handle the added waste "bio" load. When you add several fish at once you multiply the amount of waste and the amount of time it takes for the bacteria to catch up. That could lead to excessive ammonia amounts, then when the ammonia eating bacteria have caught up you will see increased nitrite amounts until they catch up, and finally the end result will be the nitrate reading. Since the fish are there....either add the biospira mentioned which will have plenty of good bacteria to handle the new bioload, or keep up with water changes to dilute the toxins created by the ammonia (and soon to be nitrites) until things start to level out. During this time don't disturb/vacuum the gravel, or clean filter media if possible, as that is where most of your good bacteria is going to culture. You should see your numbers coming down and your fish will thank you. Other than the 1 fishless cycle I did (and that was to see how it worked) I have always been able to "clone" my tanks, and when I have done something that either damages my good bacteria or puts a larger load than previously handled and have see ammonia spikes they were always around the .25-.50 range and small daily water changes worked. If you know anyone who has an established tank ask if you can have some gravel or filter media to add to your tank to help.

[nraposa]

Should I water change daily it's down to 1.0. I have done two water changes since my first post i'm doing about 25 to 30 percent water change

[Lady Hobbs]

Let your ammonia reading tell you how much water you should change. If you have over a 1.0 in ammonia, I would do a 50% water change. If you have less, change out less water.....perhaps 30%.

With the gravel cleaning you were doing all this time, your tank never cycled but you didn't know that because you didn't have the kit to test for ammonia levels.

You should be testing ammonia and nitrites daily until you know it's cycled. You'll know when you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites readings.

Also, cut down on the food. Fish do not have to eat every day and especially during a cycle. The more they eat, the more they poop = more ammonia. Also food left in the bottom causes more ammonia as well.

Soon you'll see the ammonia dropping and then the nitrites will start to climb. Something else that kills fish so then you have to do small water changes still to keep that safer for them. Eventually it will all be fine when those two things, ammonia and nitrites give you that 0 reading.

[nraposa]

thank you guys for all your suggestion i have listened and ammonia has come way down .25 last time i checked. Going to do another change tonight hopefully it goes even more down. Unfortunetly a couple of my fish look a little unhealty. I posted under the sickness forum hopefully you guys can help me with that. Thank you guys very much

[kimmers318]

Be forewarned that all that you are doing will help to keep your levels down, thus keeping the fish healthy, but will also lower the amount of good bacteria that will culture. When you fishless cycle you create a situation where there is alot of ammonia, thus alot of bacteria grows to handle it, giving you loads of good bacteria. When you have fish in the tank and have to keep diluting the ammonia, you also create a situation where less good bacteria will grow. It is a necessary thing when you have fish in there, but be cautious when adding more fish in the future so that you don't go thru this again. It will also take longer to culture the amount of bacteria you need to keep up with the fish you have. Let's say as an example, 3 fish in the tank bring the am. levels up to 3 in 24 hours.....if it was left in there enough bacteria would grow to eat up that amount of am. Since these are dangerous levels for fish, you have to dilute the am. for the sake of the fish, so now there is an am. level of say 1....so, only enough bacteria will grow to eat up the amount that is in there now. Your fish will continue to create the same amounts of am. daily and it will just be a long slow process doing water changes and waiting for the bacteria to catch up so to speak. When everything finally catches up and levels out and you have consistent readings of 0 am. 0 nitrites without water changes, you should see nitrates, and start your weekly water changes to dilute those. Now, there is only enough bacteria in the water to handle the waste from those 3 fish. When you add more fish, you add more waste starting the pattern all over again. If you add slowly you shouldn't see any readings and will stay safe, but if you add too many at once you are going to do this all over again.
I hope this makes sense, and best of luck to you and your fish