What Is An Acceptable Level Of Ammonia?

[tropicalgirl2007]

What is an acceptable level of ammonia? is there one?

 

[geo7x]

0

 

[tropicalgirl2007]

0

Well I read this....

"It should be remembered that the aim of this management is to reduce the ammonia to an acceptable level – not zero levels, as a continuous supply of ammonia is needed to encourage the growth of nitrifying bacteria!"

Surely there is always going to be Sh1t in the tank?



Becks

 

[The-Wolf]

the bottom line is comercially available testing kits are not sensative enough to find traces below .5ppm
so would give a reading of zero

fish create ammonia through respitory and diegestory methods
(approx 80% gills 20% waste matter), so there will always be trace amounts in aquaria
we just can't find it with the equipment available to us.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup well put wolfy

as far as our tests kits go it should be 0

 

[andywg]

While one should always aim for 0, there is a balance between ammonia (harmful to fish) and ammonium (not so bad). At a lower pH the balance tips further towards ammonium rather than ammonia. This relationship is also affected by temperature.

A table by Bignose gives a more detailed example here:

Of course having a constant presence of ammonia in the tank (as tropicalgirl2007 mentiones in her quote) is not the same as having a constant supply of ammonia that is dealt with by the bacteria aas it is produced.

--edited as noted below

 

[Underwurlde]

I just know you meant 'At a lower pH the balance tips further towards ammonium rather than ammonia'

That table should've been an instant pin. More people should be made aware of the ammonia / ammonium balance, instead of basing there assement on the levels of toxins in the tank on the combined NH3/4 test results.

Andy

 

[Fate2006]

the best level of ammonia is 0, 0-0.25 is safe for fish, however anything above 0.25 is considered toxic and may kill off your fish.

 

[Underwurlde]

Hmmm,

actually a level of toxic ammonia > 0.02ppm is considered lethal.

Like I said, a pin on this subject to avoid such confusion is required....

Andy