Are ammonia levels important?

[Marc25]

Is it ok if I only chek ph levels and not ammonia levels?
or should I get an ammonia test kit.

 

[endparenthesis]

Ammonia is probably a lot more important than pH.

 

[Drac39]

Ammonia can make or break your fishes health. Merry,and Pippin,my Shark Catfish died of high ammonia levels

 

[drobbins27]

Ammonia is sooo much more important than pH...unlessyou are keeping AC or SW fish. Have you read about the nitorgen cycle yet?

 

[Tropjunky]

ammonia is the biggest killer of fish, directly or in-directly.

evan if u have 0.25ppm ur fish will suffer. and they won't thank u for it.
so yah ammonia is more importaint but u shoud get a full set of tests

 

[CFC]

If you are new to fish keeping you should be regularly testing for ammonia nitrite and nitrate, pH is the least of your worries and only needs to be tested for every few weeks.

 

[G_Sharky]

Ph is important too guys Cause ammonia on various ph can be deadly or safe.... But you'll save money if you buy the whole test kit...

 

[petitericeball]

yeah i was kinda wondering on wut sharky said. can ammonia lets say o.12 be more toxic on a ph of 7.6 then a ph or 6.8

 

[MadCow]

I believe test kits for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates are the most important. I don't like to mess with the PH, and unless the PH of your tapwater is way out of whack it should be fine as I understand most fish can adapt to a rather wide range of PH. When you start adding chemicals to raise and lower the PH your water can get real unstable unless you really know what you are doing.

 

[CFC]

can ammonia lets say o.12 be more toxic on a ph of 7.6 then a ph or 6.8

Im no chemist but from what i understand in water with a pH below 6 ammonia is converted to the less toxic form of ammonium.

If your tapwater is below 7 in pH and has a low GH then you may need to regularly test the pH as soft acidic water is more prone to large swings in PH, if like most city water supplies your water is on the alkeline side and hard then you probably have no need to worry as this kind of water is very stable and hard to alter, so unless there is a huge ammount of organic waste rotting in your tank to affect the pH its not going to budge, but if this is the case then some regular maintainance is what is needed not regular testing.

 

[Bol]

CFC is mostly correct, from what I've learned. That is, in short, the same amount of ammonia is "deadlier" at higher pH.

But, it's KH that buffers against pH swings, not GH.

 

[pendragon]

That is, in short, the same amount of ammonia is "deadlier" at higher pH.

Bullseye. The same concentration of ammonia that is deadly at a pH of 7.8 or so is practically a non-factor at a pH of 6.5 or so. pH value has a *HUGE* effect on the toxicity of ammonia - so much so that, in my mind, it is ill-informed to talk about ammonia levels without talking about a pH value. When pH gets in 7.8 to 8.0 territory, you have deadly serious issues with even a very small amount of free ammonia. More info can be found here - just scroll down to the section called How Much Ammonia Is Too Much?

pendragon!

 

[noelberg]

Ammonia = bad and that's about all that needs to be said.

But pH can also be deadly if it is making wild changes, especially over short periods of time. pH should also be monitored more closely when making biggish changes to a tank: eg. new decorations such as rocks, gravel, plants, driftwood or bogwood, or when adding new media to your filter (or a new filter). Using different water or adding different chemicals like meds to your water can can also cause the pH to move.

 

[pete28]

ammonia is a fish nightmare!!!! and in my opinion much more important than ph. ammonia is easily controllablle but if allowed to getout of hand can destroy a tank