ppate1977

Well my tank is a month old today (a month since I added my first fish that is). My ammonia is all the sudden at 2ppm. My other readings are: pH 7.6. nitrite 0ppm. nitrate 10ppm. Is this just a sign my tank is still not fully cycled? I have been doing 20% water changes every other day. Should I get ammo-lock? Or just keep up the water changes? I appreciate any imput and or suggestion.

funkman262

The fact that you have nitrate in there is odd. Without the nitrate, I'd say your cycle is still in the early stages of completion. Have you tested your source water for nitrate? And yes, I'd suggest getting something like Prime or AmQuel+ because that ammonia level is very toxic to the fish (in fact, any amount of ammonia is toxic to them).

Tigerfishy

Yes, good advice. water change every 24 hrs with Prime or AmQuel+ (they detoxify ammonia for a 24 hr period). If you retest the water make sure it is after 24 hrs as you can get false positive readings with either product. Keep up these daily changes until it's 0, 0 & under 20 (as you know).

If you recently added more fish or have a plant that is dying, it may be causing elevated ammonia levels...

ppate1977

I'm testing my tap water now. Why is it odd I have a nitrate reading?

harpua2002

A nitrate reading in and of itself isn't indicative of whether a tank has cycled. Nitrate is often present in tap water before you even add it to the tank. I suspect that your tank is cycling right now and would suggest keeping up on your water changes. If you're getting a reading of 2, I'd change at least 50% of the water to bring the level down to 1, then another 50% change later today to get it down to around .5 or less.

ppate1977

Ok, so my tap water does come out with a 0.25ppm ammonia reading. No other issues, pH of tap is 7.6 nitrite and nitrate are 0.

funkman262

Have you been testing your water throughout the cycle? Have you ever had readings of nitrite? If so, then your tank has probably finished cycling and you might want to look at Tigerfishy's last comment on his post. If you've never seen any nitrite in there, then the nitrate came from somewhere else and your tank is still cycling. It could take anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 months+ for a cycle to complete.

ppate1977

That is exactly what happens when I do a 25% water change harpua. I'm just wondering if I need to add anything or just stick with the water changes and patience. I prefer to add as few things to the water as possible (besides API conditioner of course).

funkman262

Your tap water might be treated with chloramines instead of chlorine which is why you're tap water is showing ammonia. Whenever you do a water change, be sure to add chemicals like stated earlier to detoxify the ammonia in your tap whenever doing water changess.

ppate1977

I've tested the whole time every other day (till I get my readings where I want). I had a HUGE nitrite spike a few weeks ago, and now it's always 0. I used to get an almost 0 nitrate level, which is now always 10-20. Thanks everyone. More info and opinions would be great.

funkman262

I use Kordon's AmQuel+ which jsut detoxifies the ammonia (by turning it into ammonium which is less toxic to fish) so it's completely safe for the fish and your beneficial bacteria (the bacteria will still use the ammonium as a food source). Either way, you should still be doing your partial water changes, but the AmQuel+ may help to relieve some of the stress.

funkman262

Have you added fish recently?

ppate1977

I added 2 female guppies to go with my male about 10 days ago. I do use water conditioner (as stated above api) to remove chlorine and break the chlorimide bond (spelling may be off. Lol).

ppate1977

I also added a argentine sword last week, hoping to eventually help with my ammonia.

funkman262

The reason I mentioned the chloramine is because when the conditioner breaks the chloramine bond, it releases ammonia which is why you would need something like AmQuel+ to detoxify that ammonia while you do water changes. The conditioner you use doesn't detoxify the ammonia. It only removes chlorine and detoxifies heavy metals.

ppate1977

Ahhh, I was not aware breaking the bond releases ammonia.... interesting, that explains a lot. So the consensus is AmQuel+ rather than ammo-lock.

funkman262

2 guppies wouldn't affect your water a week later (your bacteria would have cought up by now). Is your argentine sword healthy? If it's dying, it would actually do more harm than good because it would release waste (ammonia) as it rots.

funkman262

No. I personally use AmQuel+ and never used another brand. Others have used Prime with great success. Ammo-lock would probably be fine as well.

Shawnie

ammo lock does NOTHING for nitrites though.....remember that when you get to that phase after the ammonia breaks down

funkman262

Here's my final reccomendation as I'm sure others will chime in to add their own suggestions:

Do some water changes to get the ammonia level down (I guess you can do multiple throughout the day but I'm not sure if that would stress the fish too much, although I'm sure it would be less stressful than the toxic ammonia), get some sort of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate detoxifying chemical (through personal experience, I'd suggest AmQuel+ but you have other options), and use a bit of that WITH your API conditioner to get full treatment of your tap water.

I hope I was able to offer you a glimpse of help and I wish you and your fish the best of luck

ppate1977

My plant is doing great, no dead leaves or anything. Its actually quite perky and already reaching towards the light.

On a side note: one. Of my female guppies is pregnant and the guy a trust most at my LFS said she could have the fry any day now. Could she be holding out due to the ammonia levels?

funkman262

Do you use something else that you can recommend? As I've stated, I've only used AmQuel+ and can't speak highly for anything else.

ppate1977

My nitrites have already spiked, and dropped back to zero though.... that's why I'm a little confused about the ammonia reading still being at 1 or 2 consistantly. Thanks for your input funkman as well as everyone else.

funkman262

Yea I'm fresh out of ideas about that. Hopefully someone with more experience than me (which there are plenty of them here) can offer you further help.

Shawnie

usually used prime in the past but with our major power outtages last week, couldnt find it anywhere...since last week ive been using amquel+ ....but those are the ONLY 2 that will take care of ammonia/nitrites that I know of...ammo lock is great for ammonia but a waste of money IMO because when theres ammonia, theres going to eventually be nitrites ...

ppate1977

Amquel+ or prime it is then. I'll go get some tonight. Any ideas about the pregnant guppy I refered to two posts ago?

Shawnie

guppies will give birth in a puddle i swear...so no i dont think shes holding out ...they get really squared off in their belly area...and their gravid spot gets really dark when they get close...if shes still rounded, shes got some time ...if shes squared off, she will spawn whenever she feels the urge ....my livebearer tank went through a huge mini cycle recently and my fems spawned throughout...good luck with things!