Ammonia Levels

[IovaykInD]

Is this possible? My ammonia always stays at .25ppm, even though my turtle has been in it for over 2 weeks. What could be the cause of this? Does chlorine or chloramine affect this?

30 Gallon Tank
HOB Filter
Gravel
Artificial Plants
One RES turtle

Water Conditions:
Temp- 72 degrees.
Ammonia- .25ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 0ppm
pH- 7

Isaac

 

[WILDER]

how many fish and which type.

 

[IovaykInD]

No fish, there used to be five leopard danios, that brought the ammonia to .25ppm, but that is it.

 

[WILDER]

How long has the tank been set up.

 

[rdd1952]

The turtle probably isn't producing enough waste to cycle the tank. Even if the ammonia drops to 0 and then the nitrite rises and drops back to 0, you will still only have a tank cycled for 1 turtle. And yes, chlorine and chlorimine will kill off any bacteria that try to form so the tank will never cycle.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You should be using a complete tank filter, dechlorinator and regular small water changes to cycle a tank- without any one of these and it won't work or you'll have issues with it.

 

[IovaykInD]

Ok,
I will dechlorinate the water first, and then let it cycle. Are you saying that I should put more turtles in it, so that it will cycle with a larger load?

I am using a power filter(Aquatech), and it is doing great. The tank has been set up for around 2 weeks now.

Isaac

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No leave the turtle alone in the tank as it is, anymore and the filter may not be able to handle the waste load; make sure all water in the tank is fully dechlorinated in the tank and the filter is working properly and is of adequete size for the tank.
Whenever you see ammonia in the tank do a small water change(remembering to add dechlorinator) to help remove most of it as ammonia is dangerous to any water animal, there are some good easy to read articles on how cycling works in the pinned articles at the top of the beginners section and will help you understand what things are doing and why they are doing them in your tank and filter and i suggest you read them .
When it comes to cleaning the filter, do it in water from water changes from the tank and do not clean it sparkling clean as the filter sponge is where the good bacteria which helps break down/convert waste lives and washing the filter out in un-dechlorinated water or over-cleaning it will destroy it, which is a bad thing.
For most people, cleaning the filter out once every 2 weeks is adequete- you only want to remove the large gunky bits or dead plant matter or similar stuff and leave most of the sponge itself dirtier enough for the bacteria to feed off .

 

[IovaykInD]

Okay,
I think it might be the chlorine and chloramine the is preventing my tank from cycling. I will add dechlorinator and see how things go.

Isaac

 

[rdd1952]

Okay,
I think it might be the chlorine and chloramine the is preventing my tank from cycling. I will add dechlorinator and see how things go.

Isaac

That is definitely the problem. Chlorine kills all the bacteria before it can develop.

 

[IovaykInD]

And also,
Chlorine kills fish too right? So does chloramine. No wonder the 5 danios died within days. They were breathing really quickly, and chlorine/chloramine causes this, because it irritates the gills right?

Isaac

 

[gadazobe]

Yes, you're right, the chlorine/chloramine will irrate the gills and kill the fish very quickly.

 

[IovaykInD]

So chlorine and chloramine are a good bet on why my danios died right? They were breathing quickly, other than that, they were fine.

Isaac

 

[IovaykInD]

Will waiting a couple of weeks for the chlorine to disappear, make ammonia start to rise? Therefore starting the cycle?

Isaac

 

[rdd1952]

The only thing that will make the ammonia rise is adding pure ammonia (fishless cycle) or adding fish. The chlorine only affects teh development of bacteria, not the ammonia other than with chlroine in the water, the bacteria won't develop (or will develop very slowly) so the ammonia will never go down.