Water Test

[petertr]

Called in to my lfs today to pick up some pellets for my catfish and was having chat to the owner and he mentioned that because i changed from gravel to sand that it might have caused an ammonia spike because i removed the good stuff when getting rid of the gravel

He seems to know what he is talken about but thought i would ask here anyways

Very very unlikely.

The bacteria in the gravel will probably be less than 5% of that in the filter.

 

[Bojangles]

Not to worry i will just keep up with water changes

 

[Bojangles]

update on my water stats

Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrite - . 0 ppm
Nitrate - looks to be between 0. ppm - 5.0 ppm
PH - 7.6

No change from yesterday and did two 30% yesterday one in morning then on in evening

Think i am going to take sample of water down to LFS just for a 2nd opinion incase im doing something wrong in the test (which i highly doubt i am)

 

[Corleone]

Changing the substrate could have caused the ammonia spike, but not so much from removing stuff as from releasing stuff that may have worked its way deep into the substrate. The bacteria on your substrate, as said, are a fraction of what's in your filter, and you can lose a good chunk of biofiltration without getting an ammonia spike most of the time.

In fact, there's a bit of discussion on different types of bacteria - check out the thread on Stress Zyme in Tropical Discussion. Most of the bacteria living in the substrate are mineralizers, not nitrifiers. Losing them would actually slightly decrease your ammonia production as less fish poop would be getting broken down.

From those levels, it does look like a mini-cycle, not a full on disaster. Keep up the water changes, hopefully you'll see a difference in a few more days.

 

[Bojangles]

After four 30% water changes

Ammonia - 0.25 ppm
Nitrate - 5.0 ppm
Nitrite -0 ppm
PH - 7.6

Only thing i can think of is there is something wrong with my ammonia test

Bit of a long shot here but i have been mixing warm water with cold to get right temp for tank could this be a cuse of high ammonia?

 

[petertr]

Temp matching won't cause it.

The good thing is that is seems nitrite is being remove, as nitrate is present.

Its only a 60L tank, so replacing a bucket or 2 of water every day should be really easy to do for a few days.

 

[Bojangles]

Is there ammonia in tap water?

 

[rhostog]

You could well have a small amount of ammonia in your tap water - it's permitted to contain up to 0.5 mg/l. A few people posting on this forum have similar problems. Long term, it's not a problem as your filter will deal with it, but it can make it very difficult to tell what's going on when you're cycling or suspect you might be.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah people do have ammonia in their tap water sometimes.

for now it just changes your target parameters, instead of aiming to keep ammonia below 0.25ppm, you just aim to keep it at whatever level it comes out of your tap as water changes won't get it any lower.

 

[Bojangles]

Is there nothing i can add to break up ammonia in bucket before adding it to tank?

EDIT

Not to worry i found some stuff that also removes Chloamine

Filled my bucket added some of this and tested water again and Ammonia is now 0 ppm before going in to tank

 

[Schmill]

Not that I know of, other than running ANOTHER fully cycled filter in the bucket to 'munch' on the ammonia beforehand, but thats not very practical.
Just put it in and allow your filter to work on it

I guess this could be a case for AmmoLock by API, but I've never used it so can't vouch for it's effectiveness.

 

[Schmill]

Is there nothing i can add to break up ammonia in bucket before adding it to tank?

EDIT

Not to worry i found some stuff that also removes Chloamine

Filled my bucket added some of this and tested water again and Ammonia is now 0 ppm before going in to tank

Can I ask what it is?
Just wondering as I usualyl use API Stress Coat, which deals with chlorine, chloramines, and heavy metals. According to most posts on here the way that chloramine is normally dealt with is the break teh bond beween the chlor- (chlorine), and -amine (ammonia) parts of it, leaving a small amount of ammonia in the water for the filter to deal with.
However when I bought my most recent bottle it's changed to "API Stress Coat+", which now claims to also deal with the ammonia. (Not sure if they've just added some of their ammolock product to it tbh!).

Anyhoo, I'm interested in what you used.

Presumably something that does this could be both good and bad?
GOOD if you are doing a water change to remove Ammonia levels when you have fish in.
BAD if you are doing a fishless cycle and something OTHER THAN your maturing filter is removing the ammonia?

 

[Bojangles]

The stuff i used is King British Safe Guard

Also did another test using some other stuff called Aqua plus and my readings where still ammonia 0.25 ppm yet on the bottle it claims to remove Chloramine


This thread might be abit more useful (forgot i posted it)

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...p;#entry2171064

 

[petertr]

Not that I know of, other than running ANOTHER fully cycled filter in the bucket to 'munch' on the ammonia beforehand, but thats not very practical.
Just put it in and allow your filter to work on it

I guess this could be a case for AmmoLock by API, but I've never used it so can't vouch for it's effectiveness.

I use AmmoLock as my dechlor - I was told to use it to remove chlorine when I got my very first tank, and I've been working through a massive bottle of the stuff.

Seems to be about the same concentration for dechlor as any other produce, so its not a bad product to use for all water changes - and its a big bonus if you think there may be ammonia in the tank.

I beleive the A-Bac can still feed off the compound that is created, so it causes no harm to the cycle, whilst protecting the fish from Ammonia damage.



Admittedly, I'll be buying some pond dechlor when I run out of the stuff!

 

[Bojangles]

yeah people do have ammonia in their tap water sometimes.

for now it just changes your target parameters, instead of aiming to keep ammonia below 0.25ppm, you just aim to keep it at whatever level it comes out of your tap as water changes won't get it any lower.

Wont the ammonia in the water damge the fish i have in there?

Dont know why but the ammonia will not budge from 0.25ppm at all


Tests for today

Results as of today

Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10 ppm
PH 7.6

The water is actually coming out of my tap at 0.25ppm but i use King British Safe Guard that removes Chloramine and my water is always 0 ppm ammonia before i put it in my tank

Edit
Sorry for been such a pain