Ammonia High

[fluttermoth]

Personally, I'd being doing the water change now...before I went to bed. Every second those fish are in that water, it's damaging their gills, affecting their ability to absorb oxygen, and significantly shortening their lifespan. It's probably, very, very uncomfortable for them too.

I know it's late, but with livestock involved, sometimes you can't just leave things 'til the next day, sometimes you have to deal with things now. If your dog had a broken leg, you wouldn't leave it 'til the morning, would you? It's kind of the same situation here, those fish are in trouble, and they need your help before things get any worse.

 

[Lewiscouse]

I would love to change it now but I'm at work

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh! Apologies! I forgot about nightshifts, how silly of me

 

[Lewiscouse]

Anyone other ideas?
Do I need a need to keep some ammonia in the tank to feed the bacteria

 

[Lewiscouse]

I have done a 25L water change and I have got the ammonia down to 4ppm and the tiger barbs have moved to the bottom and instantly seem happier but now what to do?
How do I drop this down, more large water changes today?

 

[OldMan47]

OK at 4 ppm of ammonia it should only take one more change of 90% or more to bring ammonia down to a level where your fish can tolerate it. Time to get busy.

 

[Xraymark]

You could add some plants and they will help take some of the ammonia.

 

[CezzaXV]

The bacteria will be able to feed and reproduce with levels of ammonia our test kits won't even detect, so you don't need to worry about leaving some in there. Don't forget that fish are constantly producing ammonia through their waste, as well as any decomposing food and plants that might be in there, so even if you did magically get rid of ALL the ammonia, there'd be some there again pretty soon (hence the need to be testing daily and removing it via water changes where necessary).

4ppm, while better than 8ppm, is still too high. You need to get it below 0.25ppm and keep it there. Eventually you'll reach a point where the bacteria are eating it at the same rate as it's being produced, and then it will constantly be at zero.

 

[phoenixgsd]

yes more water changes are essential, my fish in cycle with large daily changes stayed at 0.25ppm and i was (still am) using prime, i only lost one fish, my tank is heavily planted though

 

[Lewiscouse]

My tank is heavily planted aswell

 

[CezzaXV]

For plants to make a significant difference to the ammonia, your tank has to be pretty much jam packed full of them.

They can help the problem but they're not going to solve it.

 

[Lewiscouse]

Right I have done a 40L water change and the ammonia is still around 4ppm? Need help

Right I have done a 45L water change and the ammonia is still around 4ppm? Need help

 

[CezzaXV]

There's not always a lot of difference between the colours for 4ppm and 8ppm so it may be higher than you thought it was. Just keep doing the water changes and it will come down.

Might be worth testing your tap water as well to see whether it has any ammonia in.

 

[Lewiscouse]

I've tested tap water and it's 0, when can I do another water change?

 

[fluttermoth]

Straight away. As long as the new water is temperature matched and dechlorinated, there's no harm in doing multiple, large water changes consecutively.