Presense Of Ammonia - How Much Harm Does It Do?

[jnms]

I currently have 0.1ppm of Ammonia in my tank. The tank is about 18months old, it has 2 Severum in it and 5 corys.

For filtration I run a Fluval 305 and a Fluval 405. The Fluval 405 is about 2 days old, and has not yet fully cycled - I seeded it with a small amount of media from the 305.

So two questions really:

1) How long will it take the 405 to fully cycle, keeping in mind that it has been seeded with mature media?

2) How much harm will the presense of 0.1ppm of Ammonia do to the fish?

I'm doing daily 20% water changes at the moment.

 

[ellena]

I think ammonia over 0.25ppm atarts to harm fish, so 0.1ppm with regular monitoring and necessary changes should be OK, unless your species are especially sensitive.

 

[Bignose]

The amount of ammonia that is immediately dangerous is a function of temperature and pH of the water. See my article posted previously: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/154313-of-toxic-ammonia-charts

"How much harm does it do?" is a much tougher question. First and foremost, it is going to be very species dependent, and in all likelihood even individual dependent. (By analogy, some people are more allergic to pollen than others, some individual fish are going to be more harmed by ammonia than others, even in the same species,)

Secondly, there is good evidence that exposure to even low-levels of ammonia can have deleterious effects. One article that I like to cite is "Low levels of environmental ammonia increase susceptibility to disease in Chinook salmon smolts " by Ackerman PA, Wicks BJ, Iwama GK, Randall DJ in PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ZOOLOGY volume 79 JUL-AUG 2006 where the authors showed that when fish were exposed to ammonia, their immune systems would not be as robust as the immune systems of fish not exposed to ammonia.

So, even low-levels of ammonia can cause some damage.

Frankly, if there is enough ammonia to register 0.1 ppm on the test, and there are fish in there, I think you should do a water change. A large one is fine, so long as the pH and temperature and hardness of the new water is the same as the old (and if it came from the same tap, you're fine). You can do a very large water change, 50%, 75% even 90% without disrupting the cycling process or anything like that. It is most important to allow your fish to have healthy immune systems.

 

[jnms]

Thanks for this Bignose - really helpful indeed.

Thing is, I've been misreading the API test kit readings. The 0.1ppm displays as such a faint tint of green, that I have always put it down to light, or my crappy eyes. In the end I tested some bottled water and compared the results with my tank water. There was a very slight difference.

This basically means that the 0.1ppm of Ammonia has been present in my tank for at least the past six months. Not good either way you look at it. But it is what prompted me to get the additional filter once I realised what had been going on.

 

[ellena]

jnms, I find a better way to read the API liquid kits is to look down the tube from the top. A definite 0ppm result is clearly golden yellow and you can see any trace of green. Difficult to say whether it's 0.25 or less still though.

 

[jnms]

Thanks ellena. I did another test today, and it seems the new filter has started to kick in as the result was a definate golden yellow. So good stuff.