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Ammonia in my planted tank.

3K views 26 replies 6 participants last post by  FuelingFire 
#1 ·
ok i been keeping an eye on my tank. still adding plants it's getting full but not full enough for me. So i been keeping an eye on my ammonia levels and its keeps reading between .25 and 1.0 but i have a ton of green algae, I did get some Otto's the other day. one died sometime last night. but the other 2 seem to be fine. I did a 40% water change Sunday. My loache's, snail and cory's seem to be fine. I know my tap as .25 ammonia. (but that's because of the chlorine isn't it?)

Anyway my tank is about 60% planted. i got duckweed coming to me. to help with shade and because research says they are a great floating plant to have. and i use to have them in my pond until the gold fish ate them.

So am just wondering should i be worried. my ammonia say 1.0 as i tested it 20 min ago. i got 10 gallons of tap and 11 gallons of bottled set up to do another water change.

I am just worried.
 
#2 ·
A bit more data on this tank will help others. [For the record, this thread arises from a PM from the OP to me.] Size, fish in it, date set up, water change schedule.

Chlorine and ammonia are not connected, but if chloramine is being added to your water, then yes, ammonia is in that.
 
#3 ·
Tank is 55 gallon. the fish is in my signature. my tanks been running for 4 weeks, fish was added last week, Not sure if water has chloramine but know it has chlorine, been treating water as both. water change schedule is every Sundays, I use 10 gallons of bottled water and 10-12 of tap. beings bottle water is expensive every week. i do a 50/50 bottle and tap on water change.
 
#6 ·
I would agree. And I would also recommend using a conditioner that detoxifies ammonia at each water change until this is resolved. Cover the top with floating plants, I think duckweed was mentioned that is a good ammonia sink too.
 
#9 ·
Most conditioners that treat chlorine do not detoxify ammonia. Seachem Prime is the only conditioner I know of that treats chlorine/chlorimine as well as detoxifies ammonia, nitrites and nitrates AND heavy metals. The detoxification lasts 24-48 hours giving the established tank (beneficial bacteria) time to process the ammonia.
Using Prime, you could reduce or eliminate the need for your 50/50 mix with bottled water. This would especially be true if you add sufficient plants and perhaps reduce the volume of your weekly water change (perhaps switch to two water changes spread out each week for 5-10g each).
As for the algae, floating plants 'should' out compete for light and food, but you may need to slightly reduce lighting duration.

Good luck. Keep us posted.
 
#8 ·
Anyway my tank is about 60% planted. i got duckweed coming to me. to help with shade and because research says they are a great floating plant to have. and i use to have them in my pond until the gold fish ate them.

So am just wondering should i be worried. my ammonia say 1.0 as i tested it 20 min ago. i got 10 gallons of tap and 11 gallons of bottled set up to do another water change.

I am just worried.
What is does "60% planted" mean? and what would 100% be? Perhaps it's just not enough plants to handle the load.

If your tap water has ammonia I'd recommend dropping some plants in your change water the day before using it and put it in some sunlight if you can... if it starts at .25ppm then you will never get your water in the tank near zero with water changes alone. Using a detoxifier will help initially and may provide enough time for plants to do their thing in the tank before the ammonia reverts back but it would be nice to have zero going in.

Jeff.

Jeff.
 
#10 ·
Hey JDM i'm going for a heavely planted tank, I have alot of plants in their but not enough to my liking so i say 60% to the mass of the inside tank.

And i agree with both of you as far as the ammonia, but the reason i do a 50/50 water change is to also keep my pH lower then the tap. but i did a water change last night of 10g.

But as soon as my floating plants come in that will help. i also turned my light timer back. to 6 hours. I will keep everyone posted. thanks for the help.

I guess my tank never really cycled before i put fish in, even tho i had been checking it.

So Abbeysdad do you think i should get the prime, or just do the split water changes?
 
#11 ·
I also use seachem prime which detoxifies both nitrates and nitrites it is amazing since you have hair algaes so soon it could me high nitrates which are not harmful to fish the seachem prime can be used for problems five times the regular dose I had hair algae from overfeeding in my aquariium and high nitrates i added more prime a few times the first week which brought my nitrates down with high ammonia levels its best to test how each your nitrite and nitrate levels are then deal with them I never had nitrite issues when I started my planted tank but did with my non planted tank before it was cycled I had plants in my planted before I put fish in it also Excel will help get rid of hair algae and like posted before the brown is from having a new set up
 
#12 ·
Yeah i been keeping an eye on everything and my ammonia has gone, my nitrate levels are low. and most of the algae has ether died or been ate by my otto's and cory's. i leave the algae on my back glass and driftwood. but it has gotten a lot better in just a weeks time. i did 2, 10 gallon water changes after i posted this, and i noticed a drastic change. But i will be getting the prime this week. before my next water change.
 
#13 ·
I guess i better update. Yesterday i did a water chage of 25% and tested the water. and my ammonia was between .25ppm and 0. ppm and my Nitrite was low. and my nitrate was low as well. this morning after i had commented on here. i checked the levels again. and my Ammonia is the same as yesterday. but my Nitrite is 5.0 ppm or higher. and my nitrate is 10ppm. so i immediately did another water change. but it did not drop the levels at all. my fish seem fine, but what else can i do?
 
#14 ·
Sounds like you are cycling. I think that all you can do is to change the water frequently now until it settles down. I don't think there is any other way to reduce nitrites.

What are you using for testing?

Jeff.
 
#15 ·
I'm using the master test kit by API the liquid form. and i just tested it now actually to see if it reduced and according to the results it has it's down to 1.0 ppm. i think also in the morning the plants haven't started photosynthesis so it could be higher in the mornings, but i did also do another water change. so i guess i will keep an eye out.

the down side is, i been useing 50/50 tap and bottle for water changes. and i can't afford to keep buying bottled water. my ph is steady at 7.4 if i use my tap it is 7.6- 7.8 with gh and kh at 177. If i use tap water without the bottle will it raise my pH. or will it stay steady!
 
#16 ·
I wouldn't be too concerned about your pH. Unless your straight tap water is a huge difference. If you want to test it put some in a container and shake it for a couple of minutes to remove some of the CO2 first, then test it. I doubt it's much higher. If you'd rather not use the more expensive bottle then you will have to switch sometime.

The reason I asked about your test is that the sticks probably test higher than true, it would be a pain if it turned out you were getting a false high reading.

I am not certain if the plants shut down at night with regards to the ammonia uptake, I doubt it though. If it is then upping the light time would be a benefit, even if you ended up with more algae. I am on a 12 to 13 hour light cycle, the plants love it and no adverse signs of unwanted growth yet.

Can you post a pic of your setup?

Jeff.
 
#17 ·
Yeah I will post a pic as soon as i transfer them to my computer from my phone. i'll do that after i comment here. Um my tap water out the tap the pH is 7.6-7.8 roughly by reading the card. I had tested it before i even set the tank up and test it once a month beings its city water they change up sometimes so it's good to know what it is. I know my plants are growing, for the simple fact that i been watching my hornwort and it grows and inch a night because the have now reach the top of the water and all my plants have new growth. i turned my light cycle down from 12 to 8 but leave my bedroom light on for another 2 hours after it goes off. (more for fish sake then any)
 
#18 ·
How many individual plants do you have in there now? That's more what I was curious about the picture for... Although I'd like to see your setup, I am a little envious of someone with a bigger tank than mine. :shock:

Jeff.
 
#20 ·
That's very nice. Good work.:nicefish:

Can you get some floating plants? Water Sprite if you can find it locally, or Pennywort allowed to float. Even duckweed. Floating plants are ammonia sinks as they term it.

I'm skeptical about 5ppm nitrite, as fish would be dead in that. Keep an eye on them.

Byron.
 
#23 ·
Thank you, I am slowly adding plants. long process. I just figured i check it again. and the nitrite is 1.0 ppm but none of the fish seem bothered the loaches i finaly got to take good look they aren't gasping but i am not sure how pink the gills should be i have noticed some pink around the gills of the only one i could see that stayed still long enough and aint sifting sand. but as far as i can tell its a little pink but not bad. the otto's aren't gasping and are steady eating and having fun. and my cory's seem to be fine as well. so i am not sure? if I do another water change it have to be with tap water and the pH in my tap is .2 -.4 higher then my tank.
 
#24 ·
...if I do another water change it have to be with tap water and the pH in my tap is .2 -.4 higher then my tank.
I hadn't looked at the profiles for the fish that you have in the tank until now... well, the highest pH fish is 7.5, the Oto Catfish... and even that is the high end of their range. I'm honestly not sure how much of a factor that is but I am sure that it has long term implications, just not sure how much of a problem a 0.4pH shift is if you are already out of range, although I know for certain it is less of a concern than the ammonia and nitrite are.

You might want to consider lowering the tank temp to maybe 76F... the cory's are probably not great in the 79 range long term. With your fish mix, 76F is about optimal to try to keep everyone happy... even a tad low for the loaches at that. This is one of the may reasons I went with the catfish I've chosen, higher temperature range fish overall. Cory's were too restricting for me.

Jeff.
 
#25 ·
yeah i lowered my temp to 77. they seem happier. the whole reason i was doing bottled was to lower my pH, but it only lowered it to 7.4. from what i have researched is that i am at the limit of my pH. Thats why i haven't wanted to do full tap water. but i am going to research some more. on pH levels again. beings it's been a few months and i done forgot have of what i research. (short term memory).

Also one update I did go and buy the prime and put it in the tank. So hopefully that will help.
 
#26 ·
The Prime will detoxify the nitrite for up to 48 hours. Again, keep an eye on the fish.

The fluctuation in nitrite from 0 to 5 down to 1 within a few hours does suggest the "5" test may have been out for some reason. Perhaps an additional drop of regent got in without you noticing?
 
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