Getting rid of ammonia

mza1979m · 07-20-2007, 08:43 PM

My ammonia level is currently about 0.25 ppm. My tank is about 1 week old with 11 fish in there (Tetras & Guppies). It's a 20 Gallon aquarium. Currently, to try to get rid of the ammonia, the first step I'm undertaking is doing a 10%-15% DAILY, as suggested on another site. I'm probably going as far as 20%. Anyways, My question is this. When pour the tap water inside a bucket, I dechlorinate it before pouring it inside the aquarium. Now I normally also use Bio-Clean and Bio-Support products for my tank, which go hand in hand to break down waste, eliminate toxins, etc. Now, when I do the daily 20% water change, does that not mean that I got rid of 20% of effectiveness of these products as well as some beneficial bacteria? Should I not pour more of these products into the bucket of tap water that I'm going to add to the tank?

gm333 · 07-20-2007, 09:33 PM

First you need to read this to understand how to cycle a tank. http://www.fishtankforums.com/fishtank/freshcycling
Read this thread it deals with all the problems you will face in cycling with fish. http://www.fishtankforums.com/5-fres...questions.html (Cycling/Miscellaneous Questions)

BJP · 07-21-2007, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Now, when I do the daily 20% water change, does that not mean that I got rid of 20% of effectiveness of these products as well as some beneficial bacteria?

I don't have any faith or see any real use for Bio-clean/support products. Initial bacterial suppliments may yield some benefit to a sterile tank but most of those are slow to show any results. Cleaning will remove some bacteria through agitation of the substrate but that bacteria will be leaving at some point anyway since you have to clean the tank eventually. Cleaning now just helps to keep the bacteria developing in places that will be permanent homes for them in the future.

Right now by having fish in the tank food is your enemy. You can't keep the ammonia level down and eventually the nitrite level if you feed the fish. The smart move is to return the fish and finish the tanks cycle using fish food or a clean pure ammonia. It saves you a lot of work/ water changes and saves the fish from a lot of stress that at best weakens them leaving them suseptible to disease outbreaks while existing on a sub par diet due to limiting feeding to keep the ammonia level and eventually nitrite levels from rising high enough to kill them outright. Most people ignore this option though and prefer to kill a few fish along the way or don't mind keeping pets that have long term health issues from the process. In that case limit feeding as much as possible. Give the tank as many water changes as it takes to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels low and the addition of some plain tablesalt predissolved at about 1/2 tablespoon per five gallons. The salt will lessen the impact of the nitrite suffocating them and will kill any ick that emerges and reproduces protecting against reinfestation. It can't stop the stress from having the ick outbreaks. It can only stop reinfestation. Ick can only be killed in the freeswimming stage. Hopefully in a month or so this will be behind you and some of your fish will still be around.

mza1979m · 07-21-2007, 10:15 AM

Thanks a lot for the replies. I think I'm going to ask my pet store if they'll hang on to my fish until the cycling process is over. Not sure if they offer this service or not.

smudge2uk · 07-21-2007, 02:03 PM

i have an ammonia pouch in my 05 cannister filter and since ive had that ive had no probs, well that with regular water changes as i have cichlids

Kuli_Loach · 07-21-2007, 06:09 PM

Use an ammonia detoxification item.

BJP · 07-22-2007, 08:56 AM

Quote:

i have an ammonia pouch in my 05 cannister filter

Removing all the ammonia by locking it into an ammonia chip filled baggie just delays the problem so the big spike occurs when the bag exhausts itself. In the meantime the fish are still expossed to low levels of ammonia as it passes from where the source settled into the substrate, through the water, to the filter intake.

Quote:

Use an ammonia detoxification item.

While it can help, it can also cause secondary problems like low oxygen levels and lead to cloudy water het blooms. It also would need readding continually throughout the first half the cycle since ammonia production would be fairly constant throughout the day from fish breathing and waste production. Constant water changes would still be needed to keep from overdosing the tank through the continual additions of the detox agent. It also does nothing to lessen the impact of the nitrite spike to come since all the ammonium will still get converted into nitrite once the bacteria get going.

Quote:

I think I'm going to ask my pet store if they'll hang on to my fish until the cycling process is over.

It never hurts to ask but I'm guessing that since they were the type of store that would sell you that many fish for an uncycled tank that they're going to smile at you while trying to sell you solutions like the one's mentioned above to keep the fish in the tank and probably wouldn't except anything short of you giving them the fish back for free. If you're lucky and they take them you might get a little store credit to use on dry goods or fish at a later date.

Use the cycling time while the tank is finishing up to research other retail sources in your area so you have some options for when the tank is ready, look at the fish and do a little research into what you really want to keep long term and what's compatible with it. No fish while you're cycling gives you time to learn and avoid many headaches that come from impulse purchases.