Newbie Help Re Ammonia

[weezebegs]

I am in the process of adding fish to my 48l tank.

I finished my fish in cycle with 4 Danios. Now have added 4 Guppy's. I expected my restults to change so have been testing water daily and doing water changes.

Todays readings are

Ph - 7.6 static
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia- 0.5 / 1

Is this Ammonia dangerously high, and what does it mean that everything else is 0 but not the Ammonia.

I also am still confused about how much food and this cold be compounding the issue.How much flaked food should I feed my 8 fish

 

[K_Hedin]

The tank was cycled for the 4 Danios. Adding fish will up the ammonia because new fish are creating more waste. It will however catch up very quickly. Do a 20% water change. And test again in the morning. As for how much food to feed them, don't feed them more than they can eat in 2-3 minutes.

 

[Newbie_87]

Any value of ammonia over 0ppm is dangerous for your fish, I suggest a large water change asap to bring it down. Also, you should only feed your fish what they will eat in 1-2minutes to avoid overfeeding and waste which in turn increase ammonia levels. I'd suggest feeding every other day for now as your tank is still cycling

 

[weezebegs]

How many times a day, some resources say 3 times a day very small amounts, and others say once a day for 2 minutes feed.
If I feed them a minimum amount they feed so quickly they all don't get feed...feeding fish is turning out to be as stressful as feeding babies !!

 

[Newbie_87]

You need to do a larger water change of about 50% to reduce current ammonia levels, not 20%

They'll be fine fed daily or once every other day whilst your cycling. products will say to feed more as you'll need to buy more fish food when you've run out, making them money. A hungry fish is a healthy fish as long as they aren't starving

 

[weezebegs]

You need to do a larger water change of about 50% to reduce current ammonia levels, not 20%

I would say that the water change I have just done was about 40 - 50 as I was worried about the ammonia.
I didn't re-test it after the water change, should I have done so / would you ?

 

[Newbie_87]

It would definitely be worth testing again. Anything between 0 - 0.25ppm is acceptable till tomorrow as this will not cause any significant damage to the fish in the short term. Ideally should always be kept at 0ppm for nitrite and ammonia so be prepared for daily water changes if needed till levels stay stable for consecutive days

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with the good advice from Newbie_87. Any amount of ammonia or nitrite begins to cause gill and nerve damage but the test results you are shooting for are to get the reading down so close to zero ppm that you will have time to go about your day before finding that the level has risen again to 0.25ppm or above and thus that you have to perform another water changes (0.25ppm is the maximum exposure of either toxin, ammonia or nitrite(NO2) that you ever want to allow to happen if possible.)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Harlequins]

I dont think you're fully cycled due to the fact theres no nitrate showing....

How long has the tank been set up for?

 

[Gvilleguy]

I dont think you're fully cycled due to the fact theres no nitrate showing....

How long has the tank been set up for?

I had the same thought - does not seem cycled yet if nitrates are zero. But nitrites are zero, so that is something. Curious how long the danios were in the tank.

 

[Newbie_87]

When testing the nitrate make sure you shake the 2nd bottle vigorously - if you don't follow instructions it can lead to a falsely low reading. Of course this is only relevant if your using the API freshwater kit lol!

 

[Skins]

When testing the nitrate make sure you shake the 2nd bottle vigorously - if you don't follow instructions it can lead to a falsely low reading. Of course this is only relevant if your using the API freshwater kit lol!

+1, give bottle 2 several taps on a hard surface as well.

Keith.

 

[weezebegs]

When testing the nitrate make sure you shake the 2nd bottle vigorously - if you don't follow instructions it can lead to a falsely low reading. Of course this is only relevant if your using the API freshwater kit lol!

+1, give bottle 2 several taps on a hard surface as well.

Keith.

Well I have been doing daily water changes and the ammonia is still at .50, both nitrate and nitrite are still 0.
I thought that I was aiming for 0 on both !! this is getting confusing.

Having been shaking 2ns bottle so will retest now...

Tank has been going for 3 weeks, took water to lfs last sunday and said that cycle was complete so added 4 guppies to Danios'.
Now this morning I have noticed that on the original Danio that I had in a previous tank, looks like it has fin rot...

Just about to google to fin rot picutures to see.....I do appreciate all this help....

 

[Harlequins]

I would do another waterchange to reduce that ammonia,unfortunately your filter hasn't cycled yet and adding the 4 guppies has pushed the ammonia up...

Fin rot can be caused by poor water quality,has they have been going through your fish in cycle.

 

[weezebegs]

When testing the nitrate make sure you shake the 2nd bottle vigorously - if you don't follow instructions it can lead to a falsely low reading. Of course this is only relevant if your using the API freshwater kit lol!

+1, give bottle 2 several taps on a hard surface as well.

Keith.

Well I have been doing daily water changes and the ammonia is still at .50, both nitrate and nitrite are still 0.
I thought that I was aiming for 0 on both !! this is getting confusing.

Having been shaking 2ns bottle so will retest now...

Tank has been going for 3 weeks, took water to lfs last sunday and said that cycle was complete so added 4 guppies to Danios'.
Now this morning I have noticed that on the original Danio that I had in a previous tank, looks like it has fin rot...

Just about to google to fin rot picutures to see.....I do appreciate all this help....

OK just retested nitrate and it is inbetween the 0 - 5.0, I am using the API test kit, so in novice terms, it's not yellow it's not orange a golden colour inbetween....

Will try an pload photo of fin rot to see if you think it is, tail looks cloudy