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Help!

Lunyone

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I have a 29 gallon community freshwater aquarium. The ammonia is testing high. The tank has cycled. My fish are still alive and thriving. Everything except for the ammonia is spot on. I cave a canister filter. I have done a partial clean, full water change you name it it has been done. What is the problem?!
 
Hello. Not sure how a cycled tank could show traces of ammonia. The bacteria colony takes care of this form of nitrogen. Anyway, you need to gradually increase the amount of water you change. I change half the water in my fish tanks every week, no excuses. If you're not doing this, then you need to gradually work up to it. Traces of nitrogen will eventually break down a fish's immune system and they'll be infected by whatever bad bacteria is living in your tank. All tanks have this bacteria, but healthy fish living in pure water conditions are essentially immune.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
 
Hello. Not sure how a cycled tank could show traces of ammonia. The bacteria colony takes care of this form of nitrogen. Anyway, you need to gradually increase the amount of water you change. I change half the water in my fish tanks every week, no excuses. If you're not doing this, then you need to gradually work up to it. Traces of nitrogen will eventually break down a fish's immune system and they'll be infected by whatever bad bacteria is living in your tank. All tanks have this bacteria, but healthy fish living in pure water conditions are essentially immune.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
I used to do a weekly complete full tank clean and had a sterile tank and water tests were perfect. Now I do a partial water change and ammonia is high. Water is crystal clear. I can't for the life of me get the ammonia down. What else can I do?
 
Reduce feeding

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Do not clean the filter until it is at least 6 weeks old. When you clean the filter, do not replace filter media/ materials and do not wash them under tap water because this can kill the good bacteria that keeps ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm.
If you have sponges, ceramic beads, etc, in the filter, wash them in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn.

If you have a white granulated substance in the filter, remove it and do not replace it. This is Zeolite and stops the filter from developing good bacteria.
 
I used to do a weekly complete full tank clean and had a sterile tank and water tests were perfect. Now I do a partial water change and ammonia is high. Water is crystal clear. I can't for the life of me get the ammonia down. What else can I do?
Welcome to TFF.

When you say a "full tank clean", what do you mean? Are you cleaning the filter(s) and media from the filter(s), as well? How are you cleaning them?

What kind of test kit and water conditioner are you using? Is your tap water treated with chlorine, or chloramine?

How long after a water change do you test the water?
 
What does "high ammonia" mean in terms of test numbers?
What is the pH?
Do you have live plants?
And as you are in the USA, is your water treated with chloramine, or chlorine?
 
I have a 29 gallon community freshwater aquarium. The ammonia is testing high. The tank has cycled. My fish are still alive and thriving. Everything except for the ammonia is spot on. I cave a canister filter. I have done a partial clean, full water change you name it it has been done. What is the problem?!
A few questions:
What is the ph? very low ph will effectively make ammonia nearly harmless.
How did you determine the ammonia and what was the value?
You can temporarily neutralize ammonia via some detox agents like sachem prime.
 
We need to know the actual test results for the following to before it is possible to make suggestions.

For one, it is not true that you need to do massive wqter changes for any ammonia reading. Whether this is needed or not dependts on knowing three numbers: Total Ammonia ( which is for what most hobby kits test) pH of the tank water amd the temperature of the tank water. A 4th number may be needed if you add salt to a tank and that number is salinity. However, for most FW keepers there is 0 salt involved.

Next. a nitrite reading of 20 ppm will be killing fish pretty fast if remedial actiom is not taking. For one it is also high enough to stall or kill cycle. The normal solution for nitrite in a tank with fish is to add chloride which blocks the nitrite from entering a fish. Salt is Sodium Chloride and will protect the fish until the nitrite is mo longer an issue in the water.

While it is advised ad nauseum that media should never be rinsed under tap water, this danger is highly exaggerated. The bacteria live in a biofilm which offers protection against both chloramine and chlorine. The danger is minimal to the bacteria. And unless the levels of the residual chlorine/chloramine in one's tap is unusually high, it will not be an issue for the bacteria. However, when the discussion is about using water to refill a tank after a water change, it is a different story. You must use dechlor. If you would like a detailed explanation about all of this, I am happy to provide it. It is based on actual science.

The greatest danger from residual chlorine or chloramine is to the fish when there is a lot of water involved as opposed to a small amount that might be left in media rinsed under ones tap and which is quickly diluted when it is returned to the filter/tank and detoxified when it is exposed to dechlor in the tank water.

Despite the above, it is still better not to take any chances unless you are very well grounded in all of this and you are also not going to make any mistakes. Sometimes water companies will push a larger does of disinfectant through the system. This can result in elevated levels for a short time. These levels may not harm humans, but they can harm fish. And then there is the fact that most dechlors also help with certain metals in water and they are a different thing than residual chlorine/chloramine. Unless one knows with certainty what is in their tap water, it is better to be safe than sorry.

I have well water and I never dechlor it. But I do bleach dip things and, when I do that, the next steps are a rinse under my tap and then a few minutes in a bucket with a large dose of dechlor in it.
 

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