High Level of Ammonia

Essjay said:

Leave the zeolite in until the ammonia is zero, then remove it and test every day for ammonia. Do a water change whenever you have a reading above zero.
I suggest you also test for nitrite and do a water change whenever that reads above zero as well.

The water chnages need to be big enough to get ammonia & nitrite down to zero, you'll need to do a lot more than 25%.


Zeolite should not be used permanently, only for emergencies. It removes ammonia and starves the ammonia eating bacteria.




You don't mention how long the tank has been running.
If it's a new tank and there are fish in the tank, you are doing a fish-in cycle. This involves daily testing for ammonia and nitrite and water changes whenever either are above zero. This could well mean daily water changes or even more than one water change a day if there are a lot of fish.

If it's not a new tank, something has happened to damage your bacteria colonies. Again, test the water every day and do water changes whenever ammonia and/or nitrite are above zero. And work out what happened to kill the bacteria.

Zeolite will help get ammonia down now, but once it is down, use water changes to keep it down.

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Essjay said:

You are at the beginning of a fish-in cycle.

Ammonia is building up in the water because the fish are making it (it's their version of urine). Soon, the ammonia eating bacteria will turn the ammonia into nitrite, then you'll get nitrite showing up. The nitrite eaters can then start to grow, and they'll turn the nitrite into nitrate.
Until the bacteria in the Stability settle in and get to work, it is the fish keeper's job to keep the fish safe by doing water changes to keep ammonia and later nitrite low.
Some people will argue that water changes will remove the food for the bacteria, but fish-in cycling is a balancing act between having a lot of ammonia/nitrite to grow the bacteria, and having low ammonia/nitrite to keep the fish safe. I prefer to keep the fish safe.

Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite for around 24 to 36 hours; after that they become toxic again. Using Prime at a water change protects the fish for 24 to 36 hours. If the levels have gone up again next day, another water change should be done, and the Prime in the new water will protect the fish till the next day's water change.


So the way forward is to test for ammonia and nitrite every day, and do a water change if either of them is above zero. The tank will be cycled when you have 7 days with ammonia and nitrite at zero without doing any water changes. Then you can start doing weekly 50%+ maintenance water changes.

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