Ammonia in my TAP water!! 😵‍💫

[Coolysd]

So here are todays stats. Yesterday I did a 25% wc. Added Prime, Stability and API Stress Coat. Today I did a 30% wc and added same. I then tested my tap water and almost cried. I know Prime makes it temporarily safe but the ammonia is still there. I'm so ugh!! How else can I do to treat the new water?

On another note... will ya look at them numbers??? Almost there folks!!

 

[Colin_T]

So is the ammonia in the tap water or in the fish tank?
If it's in the tap water, you have chloramine and someone at the water company added too much ammonia when adding chlorine. This leaves free ammonia in the tap water.

If you have ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the aquarium water, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until it is 0ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Big water changes dilute things much better than small water changes.
If you do a 25% water change, you leave 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change, you leave 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change, you leave 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Try eliminating the Stability which is useless, imo, and the Stress coat as well. I would not add Stress coat to any tank even if somebody offered to pay me to do so because it contains Aloe Vera.

BTW both prime and stress coat are decnlorinating products. So you must be overdosing them. If one has a cycled tank, there is no need to add bacteria regualrly. This is a way the companiues induce one to buy way more of a product that is needed. I use Dr. Tim's One And Only when I need to start my bio-farm. I have have to add it again once a tank or filter is cycled.

BTw the nitrifying bacteria we want in our tanks do not form spores. They divide by reproduction. Read what is in a bottle of Stability rather that what SeaChem claims it will do.

It was recently announced that a failsafe parachute had been invented. It is guaranteed to open on impact.

 

[Slaphppy7]

What kind of test kit are you using?

The Prime will detoxify ammonia (harmful) into ammonium (harmless), but certain test kits (the API Freshwater Master test kit, for example) will still register ammonium as a "positive" for ammonia; it doesn't distinguish between ammonia and ammonium.

This is why it is important to test your tank water 24 hours AFTER a WC; gives your beneficial bacteria time to consume the ammonium

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Opps I mistyped above. One dose of the Dr. Tim;s has always worked. I have never had to add more as long as I started with the proper amount. Sometimes I get cheap and buy halfe of what I need and do a mini-cycle to get it to double in the tank.

 

[Coolysd]

What kind of test kit are you using?

The Prime will detoxify ammonia (harmful) into ammonium (harmless), but certain test kits (the API Freshwater Master test kit, for example) will still register ammonium as a "positive" for ammonia; it doesn't distinguish between ammonia and ammonium.

This is why it is important to test your tank water 24 hours AFTER a WC; gives your beneficial bacteria time to consume the ammonium

I have the API test kit you mentioned. And I have been waiting 24 hours after the wc. I tested it tonight and amon is .25 nitrite 0 nitrate 5 ph 7.6 I also used an API test strip and the GH 180 KH 0. I had planned to do another wc tonight, however I don't have any other water conditioners except the ones I mentioned. My 75gal tank has been cycling since Aug 8 with 2 Dojo Loaches (pet store recommendation) and I "rescued" a third Dojo from Petco 5 days ago (I just couldn't leave him in there by himself). So besides the Dr Tim's, any others that you recommend? I appreciate you!!

 

[Coolysd]

Try eliminating the Stability which is useless, imo, and the Stress coat as well. I would not add Stress coat to any tank even if somebody offered to pay me to do so because it contains Aloe Vera.

BTW both prime and stress coat are decnlorinating products. So you must be overdosing them. If one has a cycled tank, there is no need to add bacteria regualrly. This is a way the companiues induce one to buy way more of a product that is needed. I use Dr. Tim's One And Only when I need to start my bio-farm. I have have to add it again once a tank or filter is cycled.

BTw the nitrifying bacteria we want in our tanks do not form spores. They divide by reproduction. Read what is in a bottle of Stability rather that what SeaChem claims it will do.

It was recently announced that a failsafe parachute had been invented. It is guaranteed to open on impact.

Hilarious!! My 75gal tank has been cycling since Aug 8 with 2 Dojo Loaches (pet store recommendation) and I "rescued" a third Dojo from Petco 5 days ago (I just couldn't leave him in there by himself). So besides the Dr Tim's, any others that you recommend?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Tetra Safe Start or Safe Star Plus. I contains the same strains as Dr. Tim's. He disocvered what strains of ammonia and nitrate bacteria are actually found in aquariums after first discovering they were not the ones science had though were there. Dr. Tim alonmg with marineland holds a patent on the method for dectecting and establishing the Nitrospira which process nitrite to nitrate. that opatent prevent other companies from using hose bacteria in a starter product. Dr. Hovanec (aka Dr. tim) used to run the amrineland labs. When Marineland was bought by a conglomerate for their pet division, they already had purchased Tetra. The conglomerate turned over the patent right to Tetra which is why the two products contain the same bacteria.

Both One and Only and Safe Start contain the needed love bacteria one should use to jump start a cycle. The rest either contain either of the two types liek Stability, or else they contain Nitrobacter rather than Nitrospira. The former is what is found in waste water treatment plants and are able to handle much higher levels of nitrite than can Nitrospira

But you do not need to buy live bacteria to get it. If you know somebody with a healthy tank a bit of substrate, a piece of media from their filter or even rinsing out their bio-media in your tank (or in a bucket of dechlored water in which the media has been rinsed) will provide you with the needed bacteria to give a cycle a boost.

It is important to understand that this changes how a cycle progresses as does either of the two products mentioned. In a normal fishless cycle the ammonia bacteria comes first and then the nitrite ones follow. But when one seeds bacteria in either of the above mentioned ways, they are adding both the ammonia and nitrite bacteria together. Whatever amount of ammonia the amount of seeding one added can turn to nitrite, there will be enough of the nitrite converting ones ready to handle it. So you will see much less nitrite or even none at all as a result. A cycled tank, by definition, has enough of both ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria to turn ammonia to nitrate as it is produced. This applies to seeding whether it comes from a cycled tank or the bacteria in One and Only or Safe Start. It also applies the the bacteria living on aquatic plants.

Finally, there is one more option to get a new tank cycled fast- you can look to buy cycled filters.
https://angelsplus.com/products/active-sponge-filter

 

[Coolysd]

Tetra Safe Start or Safe Star Plus. I contains the same strains as Dr. Tim's. He disocvered what strains of ammonia and nitrate bacteria are actually found in aquariums after first discovering they were not the ones science had though were there. Dr. Tim alonmg with marineland holds a patent on the method for dectecting and establishing the Nitrospira which process nitrite to nitrate. that opatent prevent other companies from using hose bacteria in a starter product. Dr. Hovanec (aka Dr. tim) used to run the amrineland labs. When Marineland was bought by a conglomerate for their pet division, they already had purchased Tetra. The conglomerate turned over the patent right to Tetra which is why the two products contain the same bacteria.

Both One and Only and Safe Start contain the needed love bacteria one should use to jump start a cycle. The rest either contain either of the two types liek Stability, or else they contain Nitrobacter rather than Nitrospira. The former is what is found in waste water treatment plants and are able to handle much higher levels of nitrite than can Nitrospira

But you do not need to buy live bacteria to get it. If you know somebody with a healthy tank a bit of substrate, a piece of media from their filter or even rinsing out their bio-media in your tank (or in a bucket of dechlored water in which the media has been rinsed) will provide you with the needed bacteria to give a cycle a boost.

It is important to understand that this changes how a cycle progresses as does either of the two products mentioned. In a normal fishless cycle the ammonia bacteria comes first and then the nitrite ones follow. But when one seeds bacteria in either of the above mentioned ways, they are adding both the ammonia and nitrite bacteria together. Whatever amount of ammonia the amount of seeding one added can turn to nitrite, there will be enough of the nitrite converting ones ready to handle it. So you will see much less nitrite or even none at all as a result. A cycled tank, by definition, has enough of both ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria to turn ammonia to nitrate as it is produced. This applies to seeding whether it comes from a cycled tank or the bacteria in One and Only or Safe Start. It also applies the the bacteria living on aquatic plants.

Finally, there is one more option to get a new tank cycled fast- you can look to buy cycled filters.
https://angelsplus.com/products/active-sponge-filter

Thanks so much for this info. When I was in Petco a few days ago, they had some pieces of different deco items that were for sale and they were in several of their tanks. I was thinking of purchasing 1 maybe 2 pieces. What are your thoughts on this? Would they be helpful for my tank? Also, do you think I am getting a false ammonia reading for using the Prime, Stability and API Stress Coat? I appreciate you letting me pick your brain!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I would never put anything taken out of a PetCo tank and put it directly into one of mine. In addition to some desired bacteria, the odds are good some things we do not want may come along as well. Seeding from another tank means that you are seeding any diseases etc. which might be in the source tank.

I seed new tanks from my old tanks or by using Dr. Tim's product. I also almost always Q new fish from 1 to 3 months of being problem free before they can go into most of my tanks.

I think the only one of those three products you should be using is the Prime. The ammonia detoxification component of dechlors slows a cycle. You are adding two different dechlors at the same time. These are what is know as reducing agents which means they take oxygen from the water.

Also- Seachem sort of strings newbies along. The ammonia in tanks normally exists in two forms- NH3 (ammonia) and NH4 (ammonium). The bacteria prefer ammonia but can use ammonium much less efficiently. So dechlors can slow but not stop a cycle. Next, most hobby ammonia test kits measure Total Ammonia which is the sum of NH3 and NH4. NH3 is extremely toxic. NH4 is much less so. Therefore it is matter to fish which form is present in what amount. In some tanks .50 ppm of ammonia will harm or kill fish while in another 1 ppm will not. It all depends upon the pH and temperature of the water.

I would suggest the best thing you can do is to read the two rescuing a fish-in cycle gone wild articles. They will give you a much better understanding of what is going on in your tank:
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-i.433769/
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il.433778/