Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Ammonia truble

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  musho3210 
#1 ·
I notice on the 19th that I had an ammonia spike In my 55g tank(1 Black Moor, 2 Calico fan tails). On the 17/18 I had tested the water and it was fine. The spike seemed to appeared out of no where. My live ammonia detector was reading .10. I did a 50% water change and wanted to added amolock but I only had 2 capfulls left. My lfs recomended that I get Stress Coat and Wardley 3 in 1 Water Conditioner. So I did and treated the tanks. I had also put in aqua safe when I did the 50% water change. Then the live detector was reading .05. I used my liquid test kit(hagen) and it also detected ammonia 4.6. My Ph is 6.6. I found out that you are supposed to clean the bio bags once a week, I just put in new ones . I have a wisper 60 and yesterday got and setup a Penguin bio wheel 350. I have both running. I also got a diffrent ammonia test kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. With it I am detecting 4.0 ppm(md/L). The in tank monitor reads .05. Will the stuff I put in my tank keep my fish alive? What else can I do?
 
#2 ·
The best way to tackle ammonia problems during cycling is to do daily 10-15% water changes. You can overdose a bit, maybe double dosage of stress coat to keep the fishes mucus coat healthy. Dont add any chemicals to get rid of ammonia like amquel or amlock, this also includes not using zeolite. As for the filter, dont do anything to the bio-wheel, dont even touch it, in the wisper filter you can change the bag once a month as long as you dont touch the bio-wheel. The bio-wheel doesnt need to be cleaned ever, it might seem dirty, but that is just a beneficial bacteria growth which is good.
 
#3 ·
I have had the tank set up for over a month. Did I some how get in to another cycle? Why shouldnt I add stuff to neutralize ammonia? I just set up the penguin bio wheel 350 yesterday so its still looking new, I wont touch it when it looks dirty.
 
#4 ·
when you add the stuff that gets rid of ammonia, it starves the bacteria of it which in the end kills it all, with no ammonia eating bactria the nitrite eating bacteria dies, then you have to start the cycling process all over, either test, dose, use zeolite every day wasting money buying the stuff needed, choose that method, want a free healthy bacteria colony, choose the cycling method.
 
#8 ·
i think there is osmotic stress related deaths when adding chemicals, they
change all these things about the water, not just the what you want to change but the ph, hardness etc. The only acceptible chemicals in my book are medication, stress coat or something similar, de-chlorinater/de-chloriminer, fertilizer for plants. i never fiddle with the ammonia or nitrite, just stick to the old fashion way of getting that siphon out.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top