Jump to content

Can someone talk me off the ledge please?


Rita
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone!

so I’m in a bit of a panic… I have a tank I’m fish in cycling (I set it up with an established sponge filter but I am getting slightly elevated nitrites) so I changed 50% of the water, then on a whim I decided to re-test post change… and I noticed slight ammonia reading. Soo I tested my tap water and it’s 0.5 ammonia!!!! We moved to this place in April and I tested it then with no ammonia…. Am I poisoning my fish trying to change water because of nitrites???

A618DC71-E2F4-4848-9783-91132ADF3CA6.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 What conditioner do you use?  Prime, safe, amquel and fritz will render the ammonia non toxix by converting it to ammonium for 24 hours. The toxicity of ammonia depends on your ph. The higher the ph the more toxic it is.  These conditioners treat 1ppm ammonia at the recommended dose. Prime and safe are safe to use at higher doses I cannot remember off the top of my head if amquel   And fritz are safe at higher doses. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's not great but not terrible. It is a low amount. Of I've learned anything from the ACO YouTube's, add some plants, or more plants that will gobble that up.

A year or so ago, before I know much about much I had a 5 year old lace by itself in a tank with fake decor, a pet smart HOB, and never did water changes because algae didn't grow so it was fine. Even when testing It was always 8.0+ ammonia and I just never did anything because the fish was fine. This went on for almost a year. Eventually it did die, and that's probably why but in conclusion you dont need to panic outright. You have time to research methods of removing it, planning, talking to your water supplier, etc. Not ideal but not necessarily crashing.

In that past time I tried that Ammonia Neutralizer by API or tetramin or whatever and all it did was make my house smell like sulfur for a couple days and not lower the ammonia, so wouldn't recommend.

Edited by Blaha
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/5/2022 at 8:19 PM, Guppysnail said:

 What conditioner do you use?  Prime, safe, amquel and fritz will render the ammonia non toxix by converting it to ammonium for 24 hours. The toxicity of ammonia depends on your ph. The higher the ph the more toxic it is.  These conditioners treat 1ppm ammonia at the recommended dose. Prime and safe are safe to use at higher doses I cannot remember off the top of my head if amquel   And fritz are safe at higher doses. 

I use prime, and I have 8.2 pH out of the tap. I have some Java ferns and anubias in a 5 gal. I’m planning on getting a better light for the tank, then I can add some floating plants. Do you think I should just dose prime? Even if my nitrites start to creep up?

467AA61F-B6F9-4C3D-A0D6-81F516ED1B76.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/5/2022 at 11:04 PM, Rita said:

I use prime, and I have 8.2 pH out of the tap. I have some Java ferns and anubias in a 5 gal. I’m planning on getting a better light for the tank, then I can add some floating plants. Do you think I should just dose prime? Even if my nitrites start to creep up?

467AA61F-B6F9-4C3D-A0D6-81F516ED1B76.jpeg

Can you get any stem plants? A fast growing plant will suck that bit of ammonia right up. Nitrites are more toxic and that is the one to watch imo. if it was me I would do water changes to control nitrites, using prime to control the ammonia.

Maybe bump up your photo period to allow the plants more time to consume the ammonia? Another option I would try.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8.2 makes even a bit of ammonia more toxic. I don’t understand the chemical relationships between prime and nitrite. But it says it detoxifies those as well. I would not let them get too high. 1ppm max nitrite but that’s just my opinion. Definitely dose for the ammonia. The instructions say add ammonia Ppm and nitrite ppm and dose for the combined amount daily. Eventually your filtration will catch up and consume the ammonia but I would dose normal to remove chlorine/chloramineand add a dose to counter the ammonia. You are not at a panic level though so remain calm and monitor. 

Edited by Guppysnail
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

On 1/5/2022 at 10:04 PM, Rita said:

Do you think I should just dose prime? Even if my nitrites start to creep up?

@Rita if either ammonia or nitrites go above 1.0 definitely water change for a fish in cycle. 

With 8.2 pH (I have a couple tanks at this pH), both the nitrites and the ammonia will cause gill burns.

16415173352575585612110758958855.jpg.4467b308dbcee0298f8a6e6ef055aeab.jpg

If you look at the zebra danio, you can see the red tint to the gills from a nitrite spike before I got them. It didn't kill them, but it does mean they are more vulnerable now to gill issues. I made it worse, treating for gill flukes that it turned out they didn't have. 

Prime removes chlorine and chloramine from tap water, as well as neutralizing ammonia and nitrites in our tank. Appropriate dosage is 2 drops/gallon. Because I know our tap water has nitrates and ammonia (chloramine) at fairly high levels, I treat water *before* I add to the tank, at 4 drops/ gallon, let it sit for 15 - 20 minutes, then add the water to the tank.

For a fish in cycle, Prime can be dosed every 36 to 48 hours, at that 2 drops/ gallon of water in the tank, even if your water tests that it doesn't need a water change. Cheaper, and fewer chemicals to use option, is to put some pothos in your tank to eat up the ammonia and nitrites.

There's an entire thread by @dasaltemelosguy on the effectieffectiveness of various stem plants removing ammonia, nitrites, and even nitrates from the water. I even have a rose stem doing its part in one of my grow out tanks:

16415180106493382084381611948931.jpg.59cb0d60e0d43800afeb28e4a6c33630.jpg

I do use Stability and/or Fritz Zyme 7 to help establish healthy bacteria colonies as quickly as possible. I dose the sponge filter directly, every day, until I no longer detect ammonia or nitrites.

Hope this helps!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

do smaller water changes, 25-30%. especially in a new tank that is getting established. a second water change can always be done tomorrow, but a big water change can cause its own set of problems. you will likely have some ammonia in your tank, its part of the process, and it will read as ammonia even though it has been treated with prime. watch the fish for any adverse reactions, but with the water being treated it is most likely youre reading what the prime actually has neutralized.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think @Guppysnail and @Torreymake good points about the high PH exacerbating the danger of Ammonia to your fish. Even with a good cycled filter and lots of plants you’re still be exposing your fish to toxins every time you change water. I think I’d want to do do water changes with Reverse Osmosis  or distilled water until you have a solid cycle established. After that you could pack the tank with plants and shoot for a balanced tank that needs very few water changes. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

An idea I rarely see implemented is a "pre-sump" or a scrap plant tank that you fill from the tap then use it's water in your fish tanks. To strip the tap water ammonia.

Potentially outgas the chlorine too.

Edited by darkG
  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/6/2022 at 7:11 PM, darkG said:

An idea I rarely see implemented is a "pre-sump" or a scrap plant tank that you fill from the tap then use it's water in your fish tanks. To strip the tap water ammonia.

Potentially outgas the chlorine too.

This is what I do from spring through fall: I have a 25 gallon tub on the porch, full of plants and snails. Primarily I select riparian phytoremediation plants (reeds, cattails, pothos, duckweed, etc) that can tolerate the shade of my porch (only gets 1 hour of direct sunlight until May) and still do the job. Sufficient for water changes on the pico tanks.

Another option is to run all tap water through a carbon filter. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You could age your water in 35 or 50 g Rubbermaid trash barrel put a 300 w heater in and an airstone, put your dechlorinator in and let it off gas for 48-72 hours and usually this will also soften your water. You could even cheat a bit and put some botanicals - Indian almond leaves, oak or maple leaves, etc- in the water to add tannins and bring down the pH and soften it a bit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/6/2022 at 7:39 PM, Patrick_G said:

Great idea! Those aren’t to expensive and can be installed under the sink. 

We have a filter installed in our refrigerator water dispenser… I imagine this has a carbon filter… maybe I can use this for the time being… especially considering it’s only a 5 gal… 25% of 5 is only a little over a gallon. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/6/2022 at 7:57 PM, Rita said:

We have a filter installed in our refrigerator water dispenser… I imagine this has a carbon filter… maybe I can use this for the time being… especially considering it’s only a 5 gal… 25% of 5 is only a little over a gallon. 

That sounds like a great solution for a five gallon!

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/6/2022 at 8:57 PM, Rita said:

We have a filter installed in our refrigerator water dispenser… I imagine this has a carbon filter… maybe I can use this for the time being… especially considering it’s only a 5 gal… 25% of 5 is only a little over a gallon. 

That sounds good, remember to let the water warm up (I have actually boil purified water and added to filtered water to bring up the temp) before adding to the tank. 

Some fish will be triggered to breed by colder water, others go into shock, clamp their fins, and develop an opportunistic disease 48 to 72 hours later. 

Neither option sounds good in a tiny tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Filters used in the RV inline water treatments do remove chlorine and chloramine, as well as some other contaminants (depending on type of filter).

You can buy 2 or 3 of these at a time. We used to use 2:

Hose source==>filter A==> filter B ==> aquarium 

Before each fill, we would test water from filter A. If chlorine or ammonia was detectable, we would throw away filter A, move filter B into filter A's place, and put a brand new filter where filter B was.

https://www.water-filter.com/waterdrop-inline-water-filter-rvs (low end option, I can't find the one we used)

I still treat with Prime (2 drops/ gallon)  Even after going through 2 filters, we still had TDS of calcium sufficient for shrimp... I'm not lying when I say we have liquid rock.

Now that we are in an apartment, I use a Pūr filter in the sink faucet to fill gallon jugs for water changes, test TDS, and add 4 drops Prime/gallon.

https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/7-4-2-activated-carbon/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...