What To Do?

[KellyT1203]

So I just got my API master test kit today. I was only able to test for ammonia for a while but had my LFS test it.

My readings:
pH: 7.5
Ammo: .50
NitrIte: .25
NitrAte: 0

Tank has been set up for 4 weeks. I am not overstocked but stocked too quickly.

Tank mates:
3 scissor tail rasboras (i know they are schooling fish, will get more DOWN the not so immediate road)
3 platys
4 mollies

I have been fortunate, well.........kinda. I did have ich and treated it, but one of my mollies died of ich. Other than that, no other deaths. Except my betta RIP miss betta. She died of natural fish causes in my 10 gallon tank. She lived a good life. I had her for 3 years.

Anyways, I tested my tap water for ammonia and it's reading is .50. Any advice on what I can do to get my parameters a little better? I know I should do water changes, and am doing them regulary (every other day, 9 gallons). Oh it's a 40 gallon tank.

I don't want the expense of buying distilled water. What can I do about the ammonia in my tap water??? Any other suggestions?

Please be kind, I am well aware I stocked my fish tank too much too soon. Oh, I do have my 10 gallon that I haven't done a gravel vac on in a while if it would help with my 40 gallon tank. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi KellyT,

Usually i would recommend water changes, but with your tap water having the same ammonia level as in your tank, theres not much point.

It may be the case that your water co use chloramine which is a bond of chlorine and ammonia. Try using Seachem Prime as a dechlorinator. This will break the chloramine bond and detoxify both ammonia and chlorine, although the ammonia will still show up on your test, but it will be in its less toxic form, ammonium.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi Kelly,

Firstly we need to know if you’re cycling with fish in or if you fishless cycled the tank before adding fish. I think it looks like fish in but I’d just like to be sure.

The ammonia in the tap water is more of a short term problem than a long term one, while it will always be there, a cycled tank will be able to handle the extra ammonia with only a v small amount of modification from a regular maintenance schedule.

The filter bacteria when they are cycled will grow to a level where they can consume all the ammonia that is produced in the tank, in most cases this is just the ammonia produced by the fish, for you there will also be extra ammonia from the tap water. In practical terms in a cycled tank it would mean that when you do a water change you’d then see a rise in ammonia levels which the bacteria fairly quickly deal with, you shouldn’t have ammonia present all the time, it’ll just be like a little weekly blip. What I would advise doing is instead of one weekly water change of around 30% (standard recommendation) do two water changes a week of 15% each. This means that the ammonia level will never have a significant blip and it won’t be much extra for the bacteria to cope with. I would suggest that you don’t feed the fish, or only feed them a little bit the day before you do your water changes, so their natural ammonia production will be less, therefore the filter bacteria will not be overloaded by the extra ammonia. Pretty simple to manage and won’t cause long term problems. Only time you need to be careful is if you need to do a large water change for some reason.

However that doesn’t help you out much in the short term, because the filter is not fully cycled it can’t handle the ammonia from the fish let alone the extra from the water, and while you should usually do lots of water changes in this situation to dilute the water, you doing a water change is not in fact diluting it.

Looking at it from a practical standpoint, if the ammonia rises above 0.5ppm in the tank, then a water change will not do any harm, if you replace water with 1ppm of ammonia with water of 0.5ppm of ammonia it’s not perfect but it is still an improvement. Conversely if the ammonia in the tank is below 0.5 then replacing it with water from your tap will make the situation worse. So look at the tank levels to decide if you should do water changes each day.

The products like prime which dechlorinate and say that they remove ammonia will not be much help. What they refer to is chloramine. Chloramine is in a lot of water supplies, it’s a chemical made up of ammonia and chlorine, when you remove the chlorine you break that bond and that means you are left with ammonia, products like prime remove this excess ammonia. They will not remove any more ammonia in the tank they’re fairly mild. So while you do need to use dechlor and a good one like prime will help, it won’t reduce your tap water ammonia or the levels in the tank.

Ultimately the best thing you can do for the tank now is to get it cycled asap, so if you can get your hands on any mature filter media then that is by far the best course of action. If that’s not possible then I would recommend you use an ammonia removing product like ammo-lock on the water before you add it to the tank. What this does is converts ammonia to ammonium; this is less toxic to fish but the filter bacteria can still live from it. So it won’t halt the cycle but will reduce the toxicity of the water for the fish. The only real problem with this is that it screws up your ammonia test readings, I can’t remember exactly how but because the ammonia is converted to ammonium you don’t get a true reading from an ammonia test kit. So you then have to rely on the nitrite reading to know when the tank is cycled.

Hope that helps!

 

[KellyT1203]

So I have been feeding my fish every other day because I know that by doing that it will decrease the ammonia. I did a water change this morning of 9g but have yet to check my parameters.

I have my 10g I can get filter media from. It is completely cycled, it has been established for about 6 months. The only problem is I don't know how to get the "filter media". I did a gravel vac and put 1 gallon of that in my 40g tank. Is that ok to do?

Oh and it is a fish in cycle. I didn't add all of those fish in at one time. They were added over the course of the few weeks since I have had the tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the 10gal will probably be your savior here, what sort of filter do you have on it. essentially the filter will have some media in it, be it bio balls, sponge, carbon, floss etc..... basically whatever is inside the filter housing, take some of this and put it inside the filter housing on the new tank. that's all you need to do, make sure it doesn't dry out, take no more than 50% of the media from the 10gal.

 

[KellyT1203]

I can do that. The carbon filter isn't that old though. Maybe 2 weeks. Do I just lay it on top of my carbon filter in my 40 gallon?

If having a tank cycled is all in a disposable filter (in my case carbon), then wouldnt the tank cycle every time the filter is changed?

My water readings today:

pH 7.4
ammo .25
nitrIte .25
nitrAte .25

 

[Miss Wiggle]

does the filter just have carbon in, no sponge or anything else?

generally the carbon filter should be a supplement to the biological media.

if you remove all the filter media regularly then yes the tank will cycle again, but there should be something in addition to the carbon that doesn't get changed.