Ammonia 1ppm, are my fish safe for now???

[primsloaches16]

So update to my bad losses after the Texas snowstorm. My 29 fish were in a 20 gal for emergency for the last 4 days (were in a 10 gal for 3 days prior) The water just came on allowing me to set up the tank. I had the filter from the 65 running on the 20 gal while they were in there to get the bacteria up and running again. (Added an insane amount of Turbostart to help the colony) Since my 65 was still water for 4 days, with 3 days prior with dead fish in it (total of a WEEK with no movement or aeration) the water was bubbly and foamy and had around 6ppm ammonia along with an insane amount of nitrates and nitrites, I ended up doing a 100% wc. My fish were struggling in the 20 gal so I moved them into the 65 when I got it running, along with adding more Turbostart. My reading is currently 1ppm, about an hour into it running again. I hate to do a fish-in cycle but I had no choice. Will my fish be okay while the bacteria adjusts? I will check again tomorrow and see what the levels are. Please let me know yalls thoughts!

 

[Colin_T]

The filter bacteria should recover pretty quickly. A lot of the good bacteria on the gravel and plants will help to colonise the filter and get things going faster.

In the mean time, reduce feeding to once every couple of days and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm.

If your pH is below 7.0, then 1ppm of ammonia is not a big issue due to it being converted in the less toxic ammonium in acid water. However, you still want to try and keep it at 0ppm.

 

[mark4785]

The only experience I have of 1 ppm of ammonia is with my carp when I add an inadequately-sized filtration system. Their symptoms involved not eating thanks to me, out of habit, routinely adding a dechlorinator that contained aloe-vera.

I highly recommend you prioritise getting the ammonia to 0 ppm in your context as a higher temperature makes ammonia more toxic.

If you can’t get it to 0 ppm due to issues with water I recommend adding a product containing aloe vera and to also slowly lower the water temperature and pH to the least acceptable-level which will reduce the un-ionised toxic form of ammonia.

 

[primsloaches16]

The only experience I have of 1 ppm of ammonia is with my carp when I add an inadequately-sized filtration system. Their symptoms involved not eating thanks to me, out of habit, routinely adding a dechlorinator that contained aloe-vera.

I highly recommend you prioritise getting the ammonia to 0 ppm in your context as a higher temperature makes ammonia more toxic.

If you can’t get it to 0 ppm due to issues with water I recommend adding a product containing aloe vera and to also slowly lower the water temperature and pH to the least acceptable-level which will reduce the un-ionised toxic form of ammonia.

In my water change I double dosed Stress Coat as advised to help their slime coat from moving, I'm doing a 75% change tomorrow to help.

 

[primsloaches16]

The filter bacteria should recover pretty quickly. A lot of the good bacteria on the gravel and plants will help to colonise the filter and get things going faster.

In the mean time, reduce feeding to once every couple of days and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm.

If your pH is below 7.0, then 1ppm of ammonia is not a big issue due to it being converted in the less toxic ammonium in acid water. However, you still want to try and keep it at 0ppm.

Will follow this advice! Thanks so much for the advice I have been freaking out for the past week with all the fish problems lol. Will do the 75% change tomorrow!

 

[Slaphppy7]

You don't need to be throwing all of those different chemicals into the tank, large WC with Prime is all you need....

 

[primsloaches16]

You don't need to be throwing all of those different chemicals into the tank, large WC with Prime is all you need....

Stress coat is my water conditioner and the only other thing I used was beneficial bacteria lol

 

[Slaphppy7]

Stress coat is my water conditioner and the only other thing I used was beneficial bacteria lol

Understood about the StressCoat, but IMO, bottled bacteria is unneeded, and a waste of $

 

[mark4785]

In my water change I double dosed Stress Coat as advised to help their slime coat from moving, I'm doing a 75% change tomorrow to help.

Stress coat looks like a good product. I can see it has the aloe vera in it. But don’t let the manufacturer trick you into thinking the “enzymes” in the product will reduce ammonia and nitrite as it isn’t effective, a long-term solution or a quick solution.

For removing ammonia, lots of water changes and the addition of zeolite filter media are effective for this. Zeolite filters out ammonia and exchanges it with sodium so dont use it if you have cory’s or fish that do not like salt. For nitrite removal, the water changes are effective.

 

[Naughts]

Another reason for avoiding zeolite is that it will not allow the beneficial bacteria to (re) establish due to it removing ammonia (BB food).

 

[primsloaches16]

The filter bacteria should recover pretty quickly. A lot of the good bacteria on the gravel and plants will help to colonise the filter and get things going faster.

In the mean time, reduce feeding to once every couple of days and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm.

If your pH is below 7.0, then 1ppm of ammonia is not a big issue due to it being converted in the less toxic ammonium in acid water. However, you still want to try and keep it at 0ppm.

UPDATE! After a night of running it is now at .25ppm. Will still do a water change after I settle down from work but I feel a whole lot better!

 

[ClownLurch]

Well done.
This whole Texas thing over the last couple of weeks has been an eye opener. I’m sure Im not the only person to have bought a battery bubbler this week. Memo to self: buy two more today.

BTW Our water is 0.25 when it leaves the tap. It’s always been like that. No point in us trying to dilute it away. Mrs Lurch has her own teat kit and our water reads the same using her kit.

Best of luck to all of you and your fish over there.

 

[primsloaches16]

Well done.
This whole Texas thing over the last couple of weeks has been an eye opener. I’m sure Im not the only person to have bought a battery bubbler this week. Memo to self: buy two more today.

BTW Our water is 0.25 when it leaves the tap. It’s always been like that. No point in us trying to dilute it away. Mrs Lurch has her own teat kit and our water reads the same using her kit.

Best of luck to all of you and your fish over there.

Thank you. It was honestly very devastating and sad, I lost about 60 fish that I loved dearly. But I did all I could and saved more than I expected, they're all happily swimming back and forth because they missed the big tank XD. In a week or so I'm getting two angelfish to add to it so I'm trying to look forward to that instead of beating myself up about the losses. (Getting 2 juveniles to grow up in the tank, it's a 65 tall) Thank you for the good wishes <3