HELP! my fish tank ammonia is 8ppm!

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Sorry Bruce..I did it wrong and sent you convo instead

"Are nitrates safe for fish?"
You need to start your own thread for this.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

We have this problem often here. When I'm selecting wood it is most important that it is aged. I only use drift wood that has obviously been in the ocean for sometime and therefore has no sap content. I often see on this site pieces of wood being put into tanks that look fresh, be careful of those, it is the sap content of the wood that causes issues. Try and find wood that is completely void of life

I've gathered some really good pieces of driftwood from the local beach, but it just won't sink, in spite of being in water for a couple of months now. (I supposed that's why it's 'drift' wood).
Local fish shops had unlabelled 'Aquarium Wood' and 'Octopus Wood'...all bought in from abroad and all unprepared for the tank.
We used to be able to get 'Bogwood', which was wood pulled out of a bog. This was superb in that it had no air pockets and was very solid, having been preserved in a bog for years, if not decades.
I'm glad I acquired a stash of this on my travels, because it doesn't seem to be available any more.

 

[JazzyV]

Just boil your wood it will sink..eventually..plus kills unwanted

 

[dasaltemelosguy]

Just my 2C but there has to be something incorrect in the ammonia test. At 8ppm, I seriously doubt anything would be alive inside of a day. That's extremely high and toxic. I've seen just a 1ppm ammonia spike kill adult parrot fish overnight. As Byron said, your low PH is protecting you BUT that can change in a day and everything will be killed.

Did the PH rise when you did a large WC? And what PH do you read on your tap water? If your PH is 7 and you did a 50% WC with PH=8, do you read PH=7.5 (if tested right after the WC)? That's just an example but the PH reading sounds wrong as well because if there is a lot of ammonia, it's not cycled so it would likely, but not without exception, be more alkaline. But this means nothing if your tap is the same PH.

But it just can't be a correct ammonia reading if you still have live fish in there. If it's test strips, throw them out. They are very hard to see with any accuracy. If it's the API liquid test kit, it's 5ml of tank water, then 8 drops of 1, mix, then 8 drops of 2, then mix.

If you do have ammonia, your problem is well beyond live plants for a quick fix as part of your ecosystem, you have an emergency now. Your filtration is not cycled and poisonous ammonia and nitrite are serious threats.

You can add zeolite to the filter to absorb ammonia which is rechargable in an oven and it will do the job but it's too slow to save fish if your ammonia is that high, you must act immediately. Every day they sit in ammonia or nitrite at high (any is bad) levels is doing internal damage and shortening their lives. They'll be prone to illness, it's really an emergency.

The WC's above are imperative but you should seriously consider using a detox like Prime immediately to save your fish. It renders ammonia and nitrite mostly harmless for about 48 hours upon which you'd reapply it. This + the WCs are essential to prevent fish deaths. I would not stop WCs and detoxification until I test 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

 

[Rhys19]

Just my 2C but there has to be something incorrect in the ammonia test. At 8ppm, I seriously doubt anything would be alive inside of a day. That's extremely high and toxic. I've seen just a 1ppm ammonia spike kill adult parrot fish overnight. As Byron said, your low PH is protecting you BUT that can change in a day and everything will be killed.

Did the PH rise when you did a large WC? And what PH do you read on your tap water? If your PH is 7 and you did a 50% WC with PH=8, do you read PH=7.5 (if tested right after the WC)? That's just an example but the PH reading sounds wrong as well because if there is a lot of ammonia, it's not cycled so it would likely, but not without exception, be more alkaline. But this means nothing if your tap is the same PH.

But it just can't be a correct ammonia reading if you still have live fish in there. If it's test strips, throw them out. They are very hard to see with any accuracy. If it's the API liquid test kit, it's 5ml of tank water, then 8 drops of 1, mix, then 8 drops of 2, then mix.

If you do have ammonia, your problem is well beyond live plants for a quick fix as part of your ecosystem, you have an emergency now. Your filtration is not cycled and poisonous ammonia and nitrite are serious threats.

You can add zeolite to the filter to absorb ammonia which is rechargable in an oven and it will do the job but it's too slow to save fish if your ammonia is that high, you must act immediately. Every day they sit in ammonia or nitrite at high (any is bad) levels is doing internal damage and shortening their lives. They'll be prone to illness, it's really an emergency.

The WC's above are imperative but you should seriously consider using a detox like Prime immediately to save your fish. It renders ammonia and nitrite mostly harmless for about 48 hours upon which you'd reapply it. This + the WCs are essential to prevent fish deaths. I would not stop WCs and detoxification until I test 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite.

Not sure if you read any of the other comments but my ammonia is **0PPM** and nitrites in my tank were always 0PPM they had never gone above 0 and I've tested them for a few days and ammonia had stayed at 0 and ph went back to normal

 

[Rhys19]

well, I think we can consider this emergency solved .

 

[Myraan]

Not sure if you read any of the other comments but my ammonia is **0PPM** and nitrites in my tank were always 0PPM they had never gone above 0 and I've tested them for a few days and ammonia had stayed at 0 and ph went back to normal

after all these pages of posts - wouldn't it be hilarious if the original ammonia was simply a mistake and your water was fine along.....

 

[Rhys19]

after all these pages of posts - wouldn't it be hilarious if the original ammonia was simply a mistake and your water was fine along.....

could be I kind of accidentally overfed my tank.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

My large fish dig up any plants that are buried - or they eat them. They eat just about anything. I enjoy having some plants floating on top of the tank - many fish like the "shade" and a number of them like to sleep on them especially if they are thick and healthy. I had some plants I had to recently remove because they were constantly (I mean HOURLY) releasing some little round disks that would get sucked into the filter and it could not work as long as it was plugged up. I admit to having a certain amount of free time on my hands but removing the intake tube and cleaning it out every hour or two because of this plant was a serious drag. So any recommendations about a floating plant that does not make a mess in your filter? It was a worse problem with my huge DoJo loaches because they are so active they kept the plant stirred up but it was nearly as bad in my "quiet tank" of fish. I quickly learned to turn off the filter during feeding time but even that wasn't enough to prevent it from constantly clogging the filter.