Lowering ammonia?

MXS

Hey everyone, just tested the water in my 10 gallon today. I am going to put a few dwarf puffers in it. The ammonia level said that it was 1.0ppm. My tank has been set up for about three weeks, I need the ammonia to be 0 before I can put the puffers in.

Will changing 25% of the water every other day do the trick? If so how long should I do that for?

I want to get the puffers asap. Thanks!

JohnnyD44

you're tank is still cycling.....what do you have in there right now as an ammonia source? Yes, daily water changes will take care of this, you will need to monitor your levels daily until the ammonia and nitrtes level off at zero....then do a significant water change to lower your nitrates will be off the roof

MXS

I have 2 guppies in the tank
The test I did yesterday said that the nitrites and nitrates were both fine

Byron

The nitrite and nitrate at "0" (I'm assuming this is what you mean by both being fine) inidcates the tank is not cycled. The ammonia at 1 is the first stage; it will drop down to "0" and during the drop the nitrite will rise and then drop to "0", and during that drop the nitrates will rise [simplification, but you get the idea]. All this takes from 2 to 8 weeks, and that depends upon other factors.

The guppies will maintain the ammonia, and the bacteria will appear and do their work as outlined above. Patience is a virtue in this, to avoid fish loss.

You can assist the process a bit by seeding the tank with bacteria from another well established (cycled) tank [such as the filter media], and by using a product like Stability or Cycle. But the biological cycle still has to establish itself. When you have readings of "0" for ammonia and nitrite for several consecutive days, the tank is cycled for the bioload it contains at that time. Then you can add fish, slowly at first to avoid crashing the cycle; in a 10g I would only add 2 or 3 fish, wait a few days, then again--again, this only when the tank is cycled.

MXS

Thanks!