ammonum...

Stonesy

what is it and where does it come from?

Thanks in advance.

funkman262

Ammonium is the ionized form of ammonia. It's less toxic than ammonia and is more prevalent at a lower pH. It enters the aquarium via fish food and is produced as a constituent in fish waste.

Nilet699

Ammonium is the ionized form of ammonia, which is occurs when the water is acidic. It is not as toxic to fish as ammonia

Nilet699

Wait what?? I was Sure it was lower PH.....

funkman262

Am I able to edit my posts? I just noticed my error regarding the pH. Nilet is correct, ammonia (NH3) increases in relation to ammonium (NH4+) as the pH increases. Below a pH of 9.23 (standard temperature and pressure), more ammonium is present than ammonia.

Byron

There is a time limit on editing posts (can't remember offhand what it is, sorry). But here to avoid confusion, I [as a moderator] changed it in the original post and left a comment to explain. B.

Nilet699

Thanks B.
I was a little confused funk as you clearly new what it was etc....made me doubt myself there

Stonesy

Can you test for it? How do plants play a part in this?

Boredomb

Plants will readily take up Ammonia/ammonium as a food source. Though only to a point. If there is high lvls of it it maybe hard for plants to use it all up. Fast growing plants like Stems and floating plants such as Water Sprite and Duckweed will help the most.
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funkman262

Plants and bacteria will readily consume either form. Salicylate based tests will read toxic unionized ammonia only, while Nessler test kits read total ammonia (both ionized and unionized). The former is more common these days because we typically only care about the more toxic form, especially when using water conditioners like Prime.