capekate

good morning all!
I have been testing my water with the API master tester since the 25th when I bought it. at that point my readings were.
Ammonia: 2.0
nitrAte:0
nitrIte:0
Ph: 6.4
Did a 20% water change as scheduled. On the 28th I bought API ammo Loc and used that in my water change. The new readings are:
Ammonia: 4.0
nitrAte: 5.0
nitrIte: .25
PH: 6.0
Did a immediate 60% water change, did not add the ammo loc, as Im wondering if this somehow caused the raise in the ammo reading? My PH has always been steady at 6.4 and I know that because of the low PH my ammonia has converted to ammonium which isnt as toxic. My lowered PH could be the result of adding live plants? After the 60% water change yesterday, I tested the ammonia level this am and got a reading of: close to 2.0. I really thought with that much of a water change the ammonia level would have gone down considerabily but this is not the case. Why is my tank still showing such a spike in ammonia? I have been doing water changes continually.. adding prime to the new water and some cycle as well. The fish are all doing fine with no signs of stress. The tank has been cycling for 37 days now. any suggestions on what I can do or buy to lower the ammonia level? Thanks for any help I can get!
~ kate

bbfeckawitts

You are definatly doing the right thing. I think of water changes this way: You had 4.0 ammonia, a 50% water change would half it, so that brings it down to 2.0, you did 60%, do that would bring it to a little below 2.0. I do not think that live plants can bring your pH down. Because your ammonia is at 2 still, another 50% water change is in order. Perhaps twice a day if needed. I would aim to keep it under 1.0. I have not heard good things about AmmoLock. I have heard good about Amquel Plus (make sure its plus), it will make it so that your ammonia is NOT toxic. It will still show up on your readings. It makes it so that the bacteria can still use it, but it cannot hurt your fish. You will not have to do water changes except for NitrItes until the cycle is over with that product. Good luck. Brianna

capekate

Hi Brianna,
thank you for the good advice! I will pick up some of the amquel plus asap. and use that. I was wondering if by using the ammo loc like I did, did I cause the ammonia from being converted to ammonium? I will do another 50% water change today. I am striving for that low ammonia reading and dread to see any dark green in the tube. A sigh of relief will be when it is yellow.. or at least for now I would settle on the lime green ( .25 or .50)
Thanks for the help!

bbfeckawitts

I had it recommended for my ammonia, but it also does NitrItes and NitrAtes.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/produ...ext=amquel&N=2

capekate

Thanks for the link, I checked it out. I buy all my products including the fish at petsmart. I really like the service I get there and the folks are great.
I recently bought the master test kit there an they charged me 29.99 plus tx. I found it in their online store for 20.99. big difference. I emailed them inquiring about the difference in price for the same item. I hope I get a positive response from them. Im wondering if this particular item is also cheaper online, since I drive 45 miles round trip to get to the store.
Thanks for the help, I will definitly get it and will probubly just drive down there today or tomorrow.
~ kate

Luniyn

You don't need to get the Amquel+ as you already have Prime and it does the same thing. One or the other is fine but you don't need both. Also don't use the Ammolock either since the Prime already does everything that Ammolock is doing and more. You can stop using Prime and switch to Ammolock if you like, but it isn't needed especially since Prime deals with the nitrite and nitrate as well.

As for the ammonia/ammonium thing, as I've said in other posts forget it. You either have ammonia or you don't, and if you are detoxifying it using Prime then it doesn't matter. Yes it will still show up in tests but it is a bound up chemical that will only feed the good bacteria and won't hurt your fish. Yes keep up the water changes to lessen the amount in the tank, however, it's not really going to go away as quickly as you would like. Especially since the fish will keep producing it. Also any time you feed them produces it unless you clean out every last uneaten bite. And if you have live plants, then decaying plant matter will produce it as well. So there are a lot of reasons why it would rise at this point of the cycle. What's important is that... it's ok. You will get these spikes, and as long as you do water changes to help get it down quicker plus are detoxifying it then you are doing exactly what you need to. Just keep up the water changes and add the required amount of Prime to each new batch of water and you will be fine. Keep up the good work!

capekate

Hi luniyn~
thank you for the advice. I just changed another 50% with hubbys help! whew.. those buckets are heavy! I also added the last of my prime to the water. Im wondering if the amequel plus is a better product than the prime that I have been using? Reason is that my LPS ordered the amequell for me today and they will have it tomorrow afternoon. Kept that water at the same temp* and all is well, the fish are doing fine.
thanks for the encouragement!

Luniyn

As far as I can tell they are about the same as far as what they can do. I like the Prime for a couple of reasons though, one it's a few bucks cheaper then the Amquel+ and also the Kordon people (the ones that make Amquel+) like to make you spend more on their products by taking some of the good things that they could easily put into Amquel+ and they put it into their product NovAqua+ (things like heavy metal treatment, slime coat enhancement, vitamins, etc.) They of course sell the combo of Amquel+/NovAqua+ in a combo pack at a small discout then buying both separately. However, from what I've read from both product pages is that Prime already does what both Amquel+ and NovAqua+ do (except for the vitamins that NovAqua+ provides, but I dont' know how well fish absorb vitamins from the water anyway). So that's why I went with the Prime and didn't lose any fish during my cycle with fish. Also I like a lot of the Seachem products (they make Prime) so even though Prime is a bit harder to find compaired to Amquel+ I still went with Prime. That being said, however, Amquel+ is a very good product and you won't go wrong by using it if your pet store has already ordered some for you.

capekate

thanks... I like that slime coat enhancement too. hmmm wonder if amquell has it in its product? Sounds like Prime is the way to go here tho. thanks.. will talk with the LPS and see if I can forget that order and go with the prime. Not sure if i saw it at that store or not. I guess if i did, i would have picked it up.So another trip to petsmart for me asap!
~ kate

Luniyn

The Petsmart's where I live is where I buy it locally, though I try to wait until I am placing a large order online and just buy a large bottle. But Petsmart should have it. Yes the Kordon products do have the slimecoat enhancement, but only in it's NovAqua+ product hence why they made the combo pack... sneaky, sneaky

capekate

sneaky sneaky is right! thanks for the tip... I will stay with the prime!

gilly2402

hi capekate just a quick one try looking at my thread "levels for new tank its got everything on it about when i was cycling my tank its got a couple of pages and every test i did so it may help.... good luck gilly2402

capekate

Thanks for the help gilly! I will check your post out.

capekate

Did another 50% water change yesterday as posted and this am tested the water. Here are the update readings.
29g tank:
Ammonia: 1.0
NitrAte: 5.0
NitrIte: 0
PH: 6.0
Fish are all fine and swimming around, water is nice and crystal clear. So guess will now keep up the water changes, but thinking of going to about a 25% change next time around. Or should I keep up the 50% change?
Going to go and check out the betta's 10g tank and see how the readings are there. going to have to do a vacumn in there as well as water change.
have a great morning all!

justhelping

I myself live a long distance from a LFS, being a 45 min. drive just one way. I recently ordered the API Master Test Kit on line from Big Al's for $15.99 plus $7.45 for shipping. I put the link below for the page you would need to order this kit.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...wType=Category

capekate

Well I just spent time in the art room with the betta. * I dont spend as much time with him there, I just havent been doing any painting lately. So im glad for the time that I just sit and watch and interact with him. O still havent named him yet. I just cant think of a good name, and will have to watch him for awhile and see his personality in play. He now comes to my finger against the glass and follows it. And when i put some betta food in the tank he comes right up to my hand. during the day I leave the canopy and light off. I have two open windows in there facing south and west, so plenty of sunlight when its there. He has a much more openess feeling to the tank with the natural light coming down on top of the water. Ive even forgotten to turn the light on in there at dusk til around 9pm a few times and felt bad about it. But thought he is in a much better natural schedule this way. When we have a full moon he can bask in the moonlight lol...
I have signed up for Youtube and will take some videos of him for all you betta lovers~ *
10g betta tank
ammonia: 1.0
nitrIte: 0<--->0.25 ( inbetween at around 50%)
nitrAte: closer to 0 than 5.0
PH:6.0
temp* 80
going to do some vacumning in his tank now and 'clean up his room" for company! lol.. *8)

capekate

Wow that is a great price. Tho Im confused at some of the packaging for the API master kit. The ones that are priced in the lower range have a different cover. It is a greenish background with fish on the right side of the label. On the ones that are more expensive, Ive found are the ones with the label that shows the fish on the left side and smaller and slightly different lettering and background color. I wonder why this is? Are the cheaper ones outdated? Maybe Im too suspicious, but when you get it I would just check the expiration date, if anything, outta curiousity. Would you let me know what it says?

capekate

Well I came home from bingo last nite and found one of the male red wag platy floating at the top of the tank dead. Had him for almost a month. Wasnt the one that I brought back into the 29g from the betta tank. Now Yang one of the dalmation mollies is laying around on the bottom feeling lathargic. The other molly Yin is very actively swimming all over the place and comes down and tries to get Yang to swim. Im afraid Im going to loose Yang now. And Yin is going to be very sad to loose its buddy. I think that Yang is a male, and Yin is female, as Yin is very round and alot larger than Yang.
Anyway.. guess the water conditions have taken their toll on another platy. I lost three so far, spaced apart by at least a week or so. they were the smallest of the group.
The tetras are doing fine tho. Can the water be too warm at 80*?