TwoTankAmin said:
I am always amazed at how readily folks accept test results as being reliable and accurate. They do this when the results apparently fly in the face of common sense. This appears to be the case here. Let me explain why I say this. The key facts here are in the reports that the OP provided:
My ammonia level seems to be sitting at 1 ppm and i can't seem to get it down, i am doing 20% water changes every 2nd day.
and then
the tank has been set up for a month n a half now, I have 6 neon tetras and 3 panda corys in it, the tank was cycled before i put any fish in.
and then
i cannot seem to get this level down tho, my fish don't seem stressed in anyway they acting normal and eating fine.............
i have been doing water changes for the past 4 days and its not changing the readings at all.
Now I am going to ask readers a question. Suppose you have a tank, you can pick what state the tank is in, brand new and needing to be cycled, at some stage of the cycle (likely nearer the end or fully cycled. Now I a want you to do something to any of these tanks including ones which hold fish (remember this is theory here). I want you to devise a method that will produce a reading of 1 ppm of ammonia in any tank you oick every time you test. OnM onday morning its 1 ppm, at dinner monday its the same, and this applies to Tuesday, Wednesday, in fact all week long. Every time you tst the result must be 1 ppm. This is what the OP reports is haopoening in his tank, So all you have to do is come up with a way to make this happen. Oh yes, here comes the really tricky part. You also have to be able to do a water change of decent size and refill the tank with ammonia free tap water and when the tank is refilled, test again and get 1 ppm.
I am so confident that nobody without an advanced laboratory, complex testing equipment to monitor ammonia constantly and then a speci system which would react almost instantly you add ammonia or change a % of water to quickly lower levels to hold ammonia at a constant 1 ppm. But in this situation such a system is not in place, in fact most of us could not afford to create such a setup.
And this is how I see the current situation. The test results being reported are almost impossible to create having en expensive high tech system, so how in the heck is it possible that nature is creating such a tightly controlled set of readings? Rather than look for the source of ammonia causing the readings, I see them as not being possible in the first place.
If the ammonia bacs were dead, ammonia would go much higher, if there are live ammonia bacs, then in the face of more ammonia than they need, they will reporduce and be able to handle more ammonia.
If the ammonia reading were real, then the ammonia bacs should catch up but in that process there would be a nitrite reading also.
If the ammonia bacs were handling 2 ppm a day and there was a real reading of an excess of 1 pmm, that would imply the daily load is 3ppm. But then the bacteria reproduce to be able to handle 3 ppm a day. So to get a reading of 1 ppm there has to be 4 ppm a day being created. But then the ammonia bacs would reproduce to handle 4 ppm a day. This means the tank must now have 5 ppm created in a day to keep a 1 ppm reading showing up. What is creating these ever increasing amounts of ammonia?
When we start to dissect the implication of what is being reported here, it should be setting off alarm bells because the reported results absolutely defy both science and logic. Despite this folks are willing to accept the test readings as being correct. I am not. Something else is going on here and the one thing I know it is not is a constant reading of 1 ppm of ammonia and 0 for nitrite day after day in a tank the was cycled.
Finally, what about the report that the fish all seem fine? I realize that 1 ppm of ammonia at a pH of 7.2 only contains .0104 ppm of the toxic NH3 form of ammonia (assuming 80F temp.) so the fish are pretty safe. But what does this then say about the folks who are clamoring for big water changes? What about those who urge big water changes at .25 or .5 ppm regardless of the amount of NH3 involved? I they are correct, why aren't the fish in distress?But even if I were not correct in this assessment and that amount of ammonia were a threat? Then why are the fish not showing any indication of ammonia poisoning or burns? The only explanation that would make sense is the readings are not real.
Oh yes- i have investigated Quick Start, while it doesn't contain the nitrite bacs for the long term colonization in tanks, they will process nitrite before they are replaced with the proper ones. The ammonia bacs listed are nitrosomonas, but the strain/type is not identified, However, these too should still be able to handle ammonia even if they are not the low ammonia loving ones that will persist in established tanks. So the ones the OP added would have had to be dead to have no effect.
Given all of the above and it being my take on things, I would be very happy to have somebody explain where my assessment is off and explain how the reported readings could actually happen as reported. I would love to learn from such an explanation as it would teach me how wrong I am in my thinking here. And my take on how the stores get the same readings is that there is something else causing them. Perhaps iron in the water or cloudiness etc. Then there are the other chemicals which have been added as well.
I see it as a game of Clue but in an aquatic setting. Somehow I don't think it was Colonel Ammonia, in the filter with the ammonium chloride.............
Jesus now I'm REALLY confused, i don't think this is for me tbh, Thanks for all your help guys n girls but think I'm going to give this all up, as much as i love it i don't really know what I'm doing and going by the above comment it seems like I'm being made out to be a liar...
Once again thanks folks
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