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Ammonia spike


Neha
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I have a question: It’s been 3 weeks (almost) since I set up my tank (10 gal) added 1 betta fish. I have gotten 0 ammonia until now. I test every other day. 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. I do have live plants and they are starting to grow. Yesterday I added 3 root tabs and 1ml of easy green fertilizer since my tank was reading 0 nitrate and I have a cryptocoryne which needed root tabs. Today I had 0.5 ppm ammonia. I changed 30% of my water. Do I do more water changes or do I leave it at that? If I do more water changes will it not delay the cycle? If I don’t, aren’t these ammonia levels harmful for fish? I am inclined towards setting up a quarantine for Frodo and leave my tank to cycle, is this a better idea? Are the root tabs causing ammonia spike?

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I’m guessing that it’s just starting to cycle. Since you have a Betta you can do a fish in cycle. It sounds like you know what you’re looking for, Ammonia will rise and then fall as Nitrite rises, then both will fall to zero as Nitrate rises. You can do water changes to keep the fish safe as the tank cycles. 

Edited by Patrick_G
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0.5 ppm ammonia is not enough to be toxic to fish, and I assume you decreased that reading by 30% when you did your water change. You should keep testing. Once you know you have an ammonia issue, you should test more often to make sure it is not getting worse.

If you are using the API test kit, it measures total ammonia. Some portion of that total ammonia is free ammonia, which is the toxic kind. The higher your pH, the more free ammonia you have. So the higher your pH, the more important it is to stay on top of the ammonia issue.

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On 8/13/2021 at 12:22 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’m guessing that it’s just starting to cycle. Since you have a Betta you can do a fish in cycle. It sounds like you know what you’re looking for, Ammonia will rise and then fall as Nitrite rises, then both will fall to zero as Nitrate rises. You can do water changes to keep the fish safe as the tank cycles. 

Great! So at what levels of ammonia should I do water changes?

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What I still don’t understand is, why and how do I have 0 nitrates when I added a pump of easy green just yesterday? Did my plants eat it all? I do have one of those cartridges in my filter which probably contain carbon. Could that be removing nitrates? 

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The carbon does not remove nitrates. I don't know what the explanation is for zero nitrates. With one betta in a 10-gallon tank the fish and fish food are probably not creating much ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. I am not sure if a pump of Easy Green causes an immediate rise in the nitrate level or not. As you pointed out, the plants are consuming some.

3 weeks is not very long. Until the tank is better established, things can be unpredictable. It is best to have patience, keep testing, and do what you need to do to protect the fish. The rest will come with time.

One thing I failed to mention before - when you are having an ammonia problem, it might be a good idea to skip feeding for a day or two. Uneaten fish food and fish poop create ammonia. But with one fish, maybe a little food is not such a big deal. It just depends on what your testing tells you.

Good luck!

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One possible explanation for a reading of zero nitrates is that sometimes people do not do the API nitrate test correctly.

The API nitrate test is a little tricky. You need to make sure you follow the directions exactly. Put in the 10 drops from bottle number one, invert the test tube two or three times to mix the drops in the water. Shake bottle number two for 30 seconds before putting 10 drops into the test tube. Then shake the test tube for 60 seconds.

The underlined part is sometimes overlooked, and can result in a false zero reading.

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