Ammonia

[Mighty mags]

Ive got a problem i have high ammonia levels in my newish tank just lost my 1st fish and another one looks bad. Ive made regular water changes what else can i do.

 

[zain611]

Ive got a problem i have high ammonia levels in my newish tank just lost my 1st fish and another one looks bad. Ive made regular water changes what else can i do.

you can get the API ammo lock which makes ammonia non toxic for your fish

 

[fluttermoth]

How high is the ammonia and how big were your water changes?

Really, water changes are the only reliable and safe method of reducing ammonia. You could switch to a dechlorinater, like Seachem Prime, that detoxifies ammonia for a short time, but you still have to do the water changes to keep the rest of your fish safe.

As long as the new water is temperature matched and dechlorinated, your water changes can be as big and frequent as they need to be to keep the ammonia at a 'safe' level, which is under 0.25ppm (although really no amount of ammonia is truly 'safe').

How big is your tank, and how many of what kinds of fish do you have?

 

[Mighty mags]

Its a 60 gallon tank with a couple of albino cat fish and a few tetras the fish that died was a molly i have 1 molly left and it looks fine i chage about 20-30% of the water.i dont know tge exact ammonia level i got it checked at pets at home and they advised about the water changes.

 

[eggo]

may be a good idea to invest in a api test kit i payed £20 delivered of ebay

 

[phoenixgsd]

Its a 60 gallon tank with a couple of albino cat fish and a few tetras the fish that died was a molly i have 1 molly left and it looks fine i chage about 20-30% of the water.i dont know tge exact ammonia level i got it checked at pets at home and they advised about the water changes.

untill you have a liquid test kit of your own, assume as a fish died, that your level was high and still is, do another huge water change and continue to do so every day untill you know what levels your dealing with always err on the side of caution if your not sure

 

[fluttermoth]

Agree; I'd drain the tank down leaving just enough water for the fish to swim upright, then refill with warmed, dechlorinated water.

I know that's big job when you have a big tank, but as we don't know the exact level of ammonia, it's the only way to be safe.

As your tank's not very heavily stocked, you'll probably be safe to do 30 or 50% changes daily after that, until you can get a test kit of your own (or at least, get P@H to write the actual numbers down for you).

 

[Lufbramatt]

i got it checked at pets at home and they advised about the water changes.

Fair play to pets at home- good advice there rather than trying to sell expensive meds or "snake oil" tonics

 

[KISSfn]

Agree with 90% waterchange.