# Ammonia!!!!!!



## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

*Ammonia!!!!!! NEWWWWW*

So I have had an ammonia problem, the lfs told me I was doing to many water changes. They gave me some TLC water cycle excelerant. I put it in just as he told me waited five, did a full water test. It is still deathly high. So I'm sure this is going to bite me in the ass, but I went out and bought some ammonia remover for my filter. Does anyone know how this will effect my bio-cycle?
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 3. :chair: 
PH 7.7

OK so I know this is old but I'm hoping it will get looked at again. I finaly tried Bio-spiro, it worked great for my high ammonia, in 12 hours it was almost completly gone! Now in doing a complet weekly water test these are my readings-
PH 8+ high ph in this area, 
Nitrite .3
Ammonia 0 
I'm not sure whats going on, does this sound right?
Also some how even with the bad water levels I just found fry, I have no healthy tank to put them in


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## Buggy (Oct 17, 2006)

What fish do you have in the tank? How long have they been in there?
The stuff in a bottle doesn't really do any good at all, at best some of it will detoxify the ammonia and nitrites so they are less harmfull to the fish but there is only one way to get rid of it and thats to grow the bacterial colony...either by cycling or by introducing live bacteria into the tank and from what I've been told only the product Bio-Spira has the correct live bacteria to do this. It sounds like your tank is in the first stages of cycling so it will be a while before the colonies are large enough to bring the ammonia down. What kind of ammonia remover did you put in? The bacteria needs ammonia to live and grow. If you remove the ammonia it will starve and the tank won't cycle. 
Can anyone else add to this or give anymore info?


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

All of my tanks have seem to come down with this problem, so it involves every one that I have in my signature. The guy at the lfs said this stuff is better than Bio-Spira. but I don't know. I am afraid that if I don't get rid of atleast some of the ammonia, than I will loose all of my fish


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## Guest (Mar 4, 2007)

I can guarantee its not better than bio spira. Bio Spira is the actual live bacteria that your tank needs to get rid of ammonia and nitrites. It speeds up your cycle because you are instantly adding some of the bacteria to start the colony. "cycle excelerant" and other products like this are worthless.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

A real effective ammonia remover will set back your cycle by removing the food for the ammonia eaters. Ammonia "detoxifiers" such as Prime will leave it in the tank but make it less harmful to fish. Really high ammonia needs to be dealt with. It can kill the bacteria that eats it as well as the fish. I prefer water changes to ammonia remover but don't vacuum the gravel or change the filter media. I would rather have a slow cycle than a quick cycle with dead fish. I do recommend using a high dose of Prime during cycling, but not 
in lieu of water-changes, in addition. The Prime will help the fish survive a sudden spike in ammonia or nitrites.


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

2 Mollies dead this morning. So sad I went out and got prime right away. I followed the directions for an extreme cause of ammonia. I hope it works.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

I agree with water changes.....small water changes will prolong the cycle, sure, but they will dilute the ammonin or nitrite, and keep them from reaching toxic levels. I personally use no chemicals.


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

How small are we talking? Cause that is what I thought I had been doing, I was doing a 10% every day, is this wrong? And I now have had 5 dead fish in a week, not to mention I have had all of these tanks up for a min. of 6 weeks, and the 10gal has been up for a year. 
I was only doing a 20% water change about every 5-7 days on the 10gal.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Do you have chloramines in your water supply? Sometimes the city chloramine injectors miss fire and add the wrong amount of chemical to the water. i had this problem about a month ago. had ammonia spikes in 6 tanks after water change that stressed the fish overnight and lasted for 48 ours before the bio filter caught up.
Water company says they were not aware of an issue but would test. In 2005 there was 5 injector malfunctions in my part of town. 
It is advisable if you have chloramines in the water supply to add your conditioner and then check the ammonia levels before you do the water change on the tank. It is for this reason that I use either Ammo lock or Prime as a conditioner.
It gives a bit of protection from these horrible problems.
Water company engineer says there is an inverse relationship between chlorine and ammonia. if you can really smell chlorine in the tap water, there is too much and very little ammonia. If you cannot smell some chlorine, likely the ammonia added is too strong.
Better to check the tap water before water change and to add something to neutralize tha ammonia into ammonium. I have written to Ap about Ammo lock several times. They maintain it does not slow the cycling process down as it only changes the toxic ammonia into a non toxic form. It is still available to the bio filter.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The "don't change water during cycling" advise is crap. It will kill your fish. 90% of a fatal ammonia level is a fatal ammonia level. You have to control or dilute the ammonia if you cycle with fish. I agree with testing your tap water. I lost a lot of fish once upon a time when chloramine was first added to our water supply (without warning). Why don't you "seed" your new tank with filter medium or gravel from the 20 gallon?


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

Tested my tap water, everything was fine. But that doesn't mean everything was fine when the problem started. I was using Stress-Zyme and Stress-Coat for all water changes, but have since been informed that to have these products work you would have to use them 3-4 times the strengh the company recomends. So with that said I will be using Prime from now on. A few of the fish "seem" to be acting a bit more normal now, so I hope all will be well now.


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## Giddy012 (Feb 16, 2007)

Ok so the ammonia has gone down a bit in my 20gal. (1.5) but is still really high in the 10gal. (4-4.5). I took the 3 fish that looked as if it would only be hours until they died, and put them in a breeder net in the 20gal. (Silver Lyretail Molly, Pot Bellied Molly, and Dwarf Gourami). I sure hope this doesn't throw everything off, but I just couldn't look at them suffering anymore.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I would change 90-100% of the water in 10.


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## Kyoberr (Dec 6, 2006)

I agree with the above post, just start out fresh.


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## Moltenice (Mar 18, 2007)

I have been having a problem with the cycling of my 10gal. Such a small water mass is really a PIA to maintain. Anything you do causes drastic changes.

My ammonia was 6ppm Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0.... Looked like no bacteria just a healthy build up of resp/food/stool from the fish. They didnt seem to mind really, (jewels, red zebra).....
I changed about 30% of the water everyother day and added ammolock to keep the ammonia less harmful. I cant find bio spira so all I have been using is cycle. Two cap fulls of that and 5 fl oz of Ammo lock. I will test again tomorrow to make sure it is coming back down...
My tap was 0 so I know it's a good source.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

> Currently I have a 10 Gal tank setup with cichlids, 2 jewels and one red zebra. With a algae eater


This about right for your 60 gallon tank. Don't buy any more fish, cycle the 60 with this fish and keep the 10 as a quarrantine/hospital


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