cichlidlover

how much ammonia can my fish tolerate without stressing out or dieing? I'm, only keeping hardy fish( cardinals clowns golbys etc.)

Shawnie

they say .25 but IMO zero

Mike19

all levels of ammonia can effect the fish, if you cycle your tank then you shouldn't have any ammonia present to worry about.

Lucy

Any amount of ammonia will stress your fish. Some may tolerate lower levels better than others but it doesn't mean it doesn't do the same amount of harm to their immune system.
When fish are stressed they release hormones which enables them to fight whatever stress they're facing but it effects their immune system making it harding to ward of disease.

agabr123

this is a good link that was posted by a member recently, i'm not 100% sure about its accuracy as i really don't know very much about it (aside from the fact that ammonia=bad) but this might be helpful in figuring out how much toxic ammonia is in your tank

http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquariu...ml#ammonia3ppm

cichlidlover

well, to try to get the cycle going on my tank I added food. now the ammonia has gone up and then I discovered that my tank had cycled. I have thought about just buying ammonia removing crystals to put in the filter. Got any advice on which one to get?

Lucy

The best way to control the ammonia is to do daily water changes of about 50% until the tank is cycled. Using prime will detox the amminia for 24hrs berween changes.

CHoffman

IF you have fish in the tank, you dont need to add food to get the cycle going..The fish's waste is producing ammonia so adding food will only make more ammonia which is harmful for the fish...If you do have fish in the tank, Lucy gave you some great advice..Daily waterchanges of 50% using Prime or Stress Coat plus will detoxify the ammonia but will allow it to be available for the cycle...You'll know your tank is cycled when you have 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite and some Nitrates..Good luck.

AlyeskaGirl

My 2 cents is that any ammonia level is not good! I had tragedy lastnight/today lost some fish because the water quality was bad; ammonia .25-.50 Just took a few weeks, creepin up on them for my fish to get sick, bacteria infection that hit really fast!

cichlidlover

I'll try the water changes and see what it does. so prime will remove the ammonia? I'll try that too.

Nick G

Prime won't remove the Ammonia, it'll just detoxify it for 24 hrs whilst still making it availible to the bacteria.

cichlidlover

ohhhh... OK that make sense. anyway, I'll keep doing the water changes and maybee get some of that prime when I go to LFS on Monday.

stevekellner

0.25 levels of amonia are okay. Ideally it should be zero. Stress coat plus works great in removal. I second what has been suggested in above posts of daily water changes of 50% & combination of prime or stree coat should do good quickly.

cichlidlover

I've been doing the water changes. Not 50%, but I've been doing 25% about twice a week. I'ts been going down. It's a little less than .25ppm right now. I'm not really worried about it anymore.

cerianthus

I guess this is 55G, no LR?
How many fish and have you check for nitrite/nitrate?
what kinds and how many fish?

cichlidlover

yup, 55 gal with no live rock. the nitrite is around the same as the ammonia( a little less than .25ppm) I have three fish right now( 1 ocellaris clown + 2 pajama cardinalfish) and a peppermint shrimp. I think I will be going to LFS on friday. I plan on getting2 firefish, 2 royal gramma and 2 clown gobies.

travie

2 Royal Grammas shouldn't be in a tank that small. They can be too aggressive to their own kind. You shouldn't be getting any new fish if you have ammonia and/or nitrite readings.

tiggerthetiger

if your pH is low then its ammonium. there nothing wrong with that. if not, i would try for 0

cerianthus

For s/w, pH should be aound 8.2. Unfortunetely. Majority of Ammonia will be in the form of Ammmonia at that pH. 2 roysal gramma in same tank w/o LR (no place for them to run from each other, probably end up in death of one) is bad idea. On the other hand, Clown Gobys (difficult to feed them with other fast moving/eating fish) might get lost in 55G unless add in big number. There are other Gobys which will do well w/o becoming nuisance such as Diamond Goby, Valencienna puellaris, (interesting to see them sift sand with their big mouth searching for food and turn over substrates),Valencienna strigata, signigobius biocellatus (may be in pair), Crytocentrus leptocephalus, C. cinctus, Amblyeleotris randalli, etc. Most of these Gobys are readily avail.
if insist on smaller Goby, consider Candy Cane Goby, Stonogobiops nematodes, but make sure to wait bit longer (Well established, better off in nano) before adding to tank.

Most importantly, do NOT add any fish until tank is well established and stablized, especially in FO tank ( NH3, NO2 stay at zero for couple of week).
I know, it is very difficult task to hold back on a beautiful fish. But for them to stay beautiful, they depend solely on our sound judgements which is Patience and some more !!!lol

cichlidlover

hmmmm... I'll have to think about the royal gramma. People are giving me all sorts of information. some say there peaceful, but some(like you guys) say their not so peaceful. I went to the store today though. nothing was there that I was planning on getting. I still endedup getting 4 fish . 1 six line wrasse, 1 baggii cardinal, and 2 purple anthias. I got them about 3 hours ago. they seem to be doing fine. the water quality doesn't seem to be affecting any of my fish, although I am keeping an eye on it.

au01st

You should not be adding so many fish at a time, maybe 1 every week or two. If you have no live rock, there is little area for bacteria colonies to inhabit, and you will be adding a lot to the bio load with the new fish.

The anthias are also very difficult to get eating and are not considered a beginner's fish. Did you see them eat at the store? My LFS here gets some in every few weeks and of the past 2 orders, all have starved to death because they won't eat. He said he may give it one more try before he no longer orders those fish (I want one really bad) but he won't sell them to me if he doesn't get them to eat...

cichlidlover

yeah, they were eating at the store. never mind about the ammonia and nitrite. there both at 0 now. the nitrate is at about 5.

au01st

Well that's good. Keep an eye out for another ammonia/nitrite spike with the addition of so many fish at once.

Which store did you get them at, just out of curiosity? Check out http://www.atlantareefclub.org. If you join, you get discounts at many local stores in the Atlanta area.

cerianthus

Royal Gramma is not aggressive to others, Only toward each other and/or its cousins.
I dont think adding 4 fish will cause spike if tank is well established (cycled). It all depends on how much excess food given not just to fish but to tank. If too much food given or in excess, NH3/NO2 may spike thus remove uneaten foods. Just mnitor closely for next few days.
Hope Prot Skim is running.

Purple Anthiias should readily eat. Its such a common anthias and did better in group. Some of rare specimen such as Sunburst Anthias (when it first was introduced to hobby, 7/8 yrs ago) sometimes gave me problem in the beginning from time to time but eventually ate well.

Posting pics soon?

sgould

+1 on the gramma...not aggressive except amongst themselves.

cichlidlover

I got them at Marine Designs. (website= marinedesignsatlanta .com) It's a really nice place with lots of fish, and the people there really know a lot about aquariums(a lot more that I do. lol)I was lucky they didn't have royal grammas there yesterday 'cause I would have gotten 2. The anthias seem to be recovering pretty well. they're starting to swim around a bit. Thank goodness!! I was planning on getting a UV Sterilizer, but I don't know which one. I just want a small one (under$150) I should be getting it sometime in the spring. do you have any advice?



I'll post some pics soon.

cerianthus

For 55 G, would use anywhere from 8 W up. If sump is not avail, you can use
HOB type w/ small PH in tank. Before UV, skimmer should be running.
I'm sure if you were purchasing two, any decent store would have told you not to buy 2 for same tank.
I have kept few Dottys from Red Sea and Royal gramma together in a large tank tough but never 2 of same kind and never 2 fish with similar coloration/patterns.

Just monitor the water and contol your feeding.

Enjoy new residents.

cichlidlover

the UV sterilizers that I am looking at are from petsolutions. If you want to look at them, you can got to petsolutions.com and just type in UV sterilizers and a bunch of them will come up. The exact one I was thinking of was the gamma 8 watt one. It looks like it has a pump and mounting kit included.

cichlidlover

also I've noticed that the purple anthias still aren't eating. It's three days later, and their still really shy. whenever you walk by, they go and hide. I'm getting a bit worried. How do I get them to eat? I've been giving them plenty of opertunities to eat, but they are too scared.

cerianthus

What are you feeding?, Try Fz Mysis if not live brine just to initiate eating then convert to other types. Once well ajusted, should eat anything you put in!!

What kind of decorations in the tank? All the anthias are somewhat skiddish at first. Even had Pink Square Anthias die off Heart Attack in acclimating pan when spooked by shadows. It may take while to get used to unnatural surrouunding but should come out once ajusted. Trying letting the sun light into the room in the morning before turning lights on (from complete darkness to bright light or vice versa is not good idea for the certain fish, like anthias. Seen fish jump/spooked when goes from bright to dark or vice versa.
Hope they settle soon!