How Should I Cope With Ammonia

[zain611]

I have a build up of ammonia in my tank which i may need help on, on how to keep it low or get rid of it.

Im starting to take out 50% of water, refill the tank and take out another 50% 3 times when i do a water change

ammonia is rising by 0.25ppm a day

Is there any way to stop it rising? I had 5 goldfishes in my tank before i rehomed them and bought tropical fish. Its the 4th week now i had the tank set up for tropical fish. Before i bought the tropical fish i had high nitrite readings in the filter as the goldfishes were in there before and on the 2nd week with tropical fish i took out 80% of water out and refilled it and took it out again which gave me no nitrite readings but ammonia and nitrates are rising. Has nitrites stopped rising as theres alot of bacteria which turns it into nitrate and nitrifying bacteria has to establish to stop ammonia rises

 

[OldMan47]

When doing a fish-in cycle, as it seems that you are, you must do enough large enough water changes to always keep nitrites and ammonia at less than 0.25 ppm. It is always easier to do large water changes than to simply limit yourself to tiny 80% or 90% water changes. I drain my tank until my fish barely can find a puddle where they can keep themselves upright, then I refill with temperature matched dechlorinated water. When I do that, the fish recover rapidly and always look better after as little as an hour.

 

[mhancock]

Similar principle, I drain the tank syphoning out of the window, then when it is less than half full start adding same temp water from a hose so that it fills and empties at the same time so all water fresh. Then make sure dechlorinator added before filter turned back on!

 

[zain611]

Should i clean the filter? It is the third day now im not able to change the water as my dad is doing painting on the wall so i may smug it when i bring the bucket to but the water in. Also what ways will restart the cycle just incase doing large water changes may be some of them also should i not do water changes every day so the nitrifing bacteria gets a chance to catch up and should i add api stress zyme in which ive been using since i got tropical fish

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Stress Zyme doesn't do that much, it's the wrong type of bacteria as I understand it.

 

[fluttermoth]

The only thing you can do in a fish-in cycle is lots and lots of water changes, unless you can get hold of some already cycled media from another tank or a helpful LFS. Water changes will not affect your cycle; it's the filter you're cycling, not the tank or the water.

Do not, under any circumstances, skimp on water changes to let the bacteria 'catch up'; that will just lead to build ups of ammonia and nitrite that will hurt your fish.

 

[CezzaXV]

Sound advice so far. Fluttermoth is right - you don't need to let the bacteria catch up. The bacteria will carry on feeding and growing with levels of ammonia/nitrite our test kits won't even detect. Also don't forget that even if you did somehow magically get your levels down to perfect zero, fish are constantly producing ammonia.

 

[OldMan47]

Painting complicates things. Paint contains volatile components that can harm your fish. You know the volatile components are present because you can smell the paint. If the paint has dried so much that you can no longer smell it, it is no longer producing volatiles in significant amounts.
If I ever paint a room with a tank in it I shut off the air pump, if any, and cover the tank with a damp, not wet, towel to keep those volatiles out of the water. Since the volatile chemicals end up dissolved in the moisture on the towel, they do not end up in my tank water.