[Ammonia in plant only tank?]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:08 PM, Patrick_G said:

An acidic PH helps too. I’m not sure of the chemistry but I understand it makes the Ammonia less toxic. 

Thanks for another valuable tip. I added some Cappata leaves extract, but don't expect it will lower PH a lot.

[Ammonia in plant only tank?]

On 11/10/2021 at 6:52 PM, PineSong said:

I have never used Stability so I cannot say anything about it, but I have used Prime for this purpose twice. In each case, I added Prime every 24 hours until I was getting almost no nitrites and then discontinued adding it and did water changes daily til all readings were good.

Another thing that will provide a buffer is adding in more plants like pothos cuttings. They soak up the waste nutrients and unlike duckweed and hornwort, they don't make a mess and are not hard to get out of your tank when you don't need them any more. 

Thanks for sharing. One thing, though, I thought that Prime doesn't impact on ammo or nitrite readings.
Anyway, I will do a daily water change with Prime & Stability until I see good, stable numbers.
I have already put some frogbits just as you mentioned.

[Ammonia in plant only tank?]

On 11/10/2021 at 6:01 PM, PineSong said:

Did you also test your tap water without the Prime and Stability, and then tap water with both of those things but without the plants/substrate? Just to make sure you know where you are fighting those ammo and nitrites.

I ask because my tap water is sometimes higher in ammonia and nitrate than tank water for reasons at the water company that I do not understand. I spent a long time trying to water-change my tank out of reading for ammonia and it turned out my tap water without fish in it was reading higher than the tank I was changing.

Okay. Thanks for your advice very much. I will do it.

On 11/10/2021 at 6:19 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’d put in the cycled filter and let it run plus be ready to do some water changes and using Prime  if necessary. It should be ok unless you’re addding a high bioload. 

I am about to add 10 black neon tetra, 12 pygmy corydoras, 10 cherry shrimps, and some MTSes.
I hope Prime & Stability can manage this situation for a couple of days. 

[Ammonia in plant only tank?]

On 11/10/2021 at 5:17 PM, Guppysnail said:

If you are using API liquid test kit prime reacts with the test reagent causing an ever so slight hint of green on the test. 

Thanks for your response. But I know the difference between 0 and 0.25 ammonia on the API test kit.
It's definitely 0.25 and I also see nitrate.

[Ammonia in plant only tank?]

I have set up a new 20 gallon long tank couple of weeks ago with two different kinds of sand substrates - seachem flourite black sand at the bottom and imagitarium black sand on top.
And about a week later, I put some plants, some of which are root feeders, in it and aquarium co-op root tabs about 3 inches' grid.
(I am pretty sure I put them to the very bottom of 2-inches deep substrate.)

I know I should cycle my tank, and I chose to purchased a cycled filter at the same time when I ordered my fish to do the instant cycling.
Now I was waiting for both of them to arrive.
But things went little bit off. Fish will arrive couple of days before the cycled filter.

Then I thought like, 'it might be okay for a couple of days if I put some Seachem Prime and Seachem Stability at the same time'.
I guess most of you can understand what I was thinking.

So I did so. Now, something I never expected happen.
My water test done about 10 minutes later shows: 0.25ppm ammonia, 0.5ppm nitrate, 5ppm nitrate.

Prime and Stability might work together for couple of days to protect my new fish, but I am anxious about the fact that I don't understand
why this happened.  If it might be due to leech of root tabs, it might get worse even if I put the cycled filter and run it.

Can you share an idea and/or a suggestion about what I should do?

Thanks in advance.