PH & Ammonia Correlation- HELP!

aunt kymmie

Newbie, Newbie, Newbie!

What I did:

I put a few danios in my existing 10gl as I’m getting my new 100gl ready for cycling.
Also in the 10gl are my pictus, upside down cat & pleco (2 ½” each)

I performed a water change (50%) yesterday morning @ 9am (using distilled).
I checked the parameters last night @ 9pm and they were:
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Ammonia 1.0
PH 6.4

I wasn’t sure what to do so I treated w/ Amquel plus.
Last night when I purchased the Amquel my choices were $13.00 bucks for bottle or $40.00 for a gallon.
Overkill or will I ever use that much with my 100gl?

This morning @ 9am the readings were: (API liquid, not strips)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 1.0
PH 6.0 The color looked off as compared to 6.0 (last color to choose from on the card so it’s off the chart??)
If PH affects ammonia do I adjust for PH (adding the API PH up drops??)

Please help!!
Thanks- Kym

Busgod

I would do a 25% water change: don't add chemicals to water:

the lower your ph the more toxic the ammonia is your spike in ammonia is more than likely from the new fish and you bacteria has not caught up yet:

just do water changes and test ph amm nitrites don't worry about the nitrates they will work them self out with water changes

I'm not sure what the ph requirements are for your fish:

aunt kymmie

Thank you, thank you. I don't want to say I was freaking out about it but my Pictus hasn't eaten in two days but everyone else in the tank is happy & behaving totally normal. Of course, the Pictus (Loki) is my favorite and I don't want to lose him to my inexperience.

How often should I do the water changes? Is it okay to do it daily, or is that too often? I'm happy to do it daily if that would be best.
I did a 50% water change last night...way too much, I guess.
I have a tendency to go overboard :)

Amquel is considered a chemical??...I thought it was a natural.
(There is a reason I flunked out of chemistry after only one week!)
IYO, what is the best de-chorinator to use?

Once again, thank you!!

Flashygrrl

Lots of people use Prime. I guess that removes ammonia too, I don't recall hearing about false readings with it but I could be wrong. I use API's water conditioner just because I bought it one day and it seems to have lasted me a long time and works decent enough. Doesn't remove ammonia but that's fine with me.

okiemavis

Amquel is good, it's a reputable water conditioner. I think busgod just meant not to do anything to mess with your ph.

This is important though- lower ph means ammonia is LESS toxic not more. A pH under 6.0 converts the ammonia into a form that is 100 times less dangerous than the other form.

This next bit you can credit my father-in-law for, as he's a biochemist and happens to be in town visiting and sitting next to me right now. Ammonia in neutral or acidic water is in the form of NH3. It's the stuff one generally worries about in aquariums. When the pH goes below 6.0 the ammonia converts to a different form, NH4+, also known as ammonium. Your water test kit will give you the same readings for both of these are they are both forms of NH. I can get into this more about how pH and NH are related, but I'll just let you research it yourself or PM me if you really wanna know.

Busgod

yeah okie is right im backwards sorry :D