Red1313

Friday night I moved Coolie over from a 2.5 gal fully cycled tank to a new 5.5 gal tank. Everything that was in the tank with him went over, fake plants, all his gravel (put it on top of the new gravel to make sure) his old filter, everything that was in with him.
There's two filters in his tank at the moment since his old one was only good up until 3 gal and the new hadn't had a chance to get established yet. His heater keeps the water up around 24-25 ish degrees (it's in the green I didn't read it really close). THe lights will raise it by a degree or two if I leave them on for awhile (evil incandecent bulbs). Yesterday he was swimming around flaring and very active. I was away for the night and I get back this evening and he's sitting in the bottom corner of his tank... goes up for air, swimms around a tiny bit then goes back to the bottom corner.

I'll keep an eye on him over night there's not much else I can do. I did a quick water test (NO2, NH3/NH4, and pH and they're what I'll call good.) (Since you guys will want to know the exact numbers here they are.)
NO2=0
NH3/NH4 = 1.2 mg/L (b/c of this I did a pH test and compared to the chart.)
pH = 7.6
According to the chart with the Ammonia and the ph reading I'm still in the green so I'm not going to get too worked up about it b/c the tank is only 48 hours old. but I'll test again tommorrow night and if they've gone up or are still that high I'll do a partial water change.

So what's the vote? Tired, bored since no one came to see him today, or am I being a worry wort and he's just still settling in?

Lucy

What test kit are you using?
If you're showing any ammonia, you should do a water change. Using Prime as your water conditioner will help detoxify the ammonia for 24 hrs.

I'd also up the temp a degree or 2. 76-77 is on the coolish side.

clinton1621

1.2 ppm ammonia is not "in the green"... ammonia is toxic at any level above 0, but 1.2 is definitely high enough to start stressing the fish and make him sick. You would definitely be wise to do a water change and get the levels as low as possible until the tank fully cycles.

Red1313

Clinton: I was looking at my test kit and couldn't figure out how it could say green when there was ammonia then I read the book again.
My kit doesn't distinguish between toxic ammonia, and non-toxic ammoniUM. that's why you need to look at the chart with the pH. To find the level of ammonia you need to divide the test result by 1.22. Therefore.... 1.2/1.22= 1 (approx.)

However I'm doing a water change anyway.

Thanks everyone.

Red1313

Lucy: I'm using A MINI MASTER TEST KIT from nutrafin.

I'm a little leary of upping the temp on the heater b/c of the incandecent bulbs that seem to do a very good job of cranking up the heat on they're own...

Lucy

How's Coolie doing?

Ok, I'm not familiar with that test kit. Good job on the water changes, keep them up.

Red1313

Still a bit lathatgic but I'm not sure y now.

Red1313

Hey I just thought that I'd let you guys know that coolie looks like he's coming back into his old self, I'll keep an eye on him for a day or two more but I think it must have just been either not enough activity in the room or a slight ammonia peak or something else.

Thanks for the concern

Lucy

I'm really glad to hear that.

clinton1621

Ammonia only converts to ammonium with a pH below 6.5, any pH levels above that and the readings are 99.9% ammonia, which is not good.

Red1313

I can't explain the kit. I'll try to scan what the books says for you guys to try and fiugre out.

clinton1621

I know what you're talking about, almost all test kits actually test for both ammonia and ammonium... because they are essentially the same exact thing. The only difference being ammonia is NH3 and ammonium is NH4... they are still the exact same compound as far as testing goes because the only difference is in the ion count (the 3 and the 4). Ammonia will not convert to ammonium however at a pH above 6.5, like I said it will be almost pure ammonia. I dont know what your pH level is, but if its above 6.5, you have very little to no ammonium in your water unless you are using Prime or Zeolite.