Ammonia Is Reading High!

[Hjwhits]

I tested my tank and the ammonia is reading high so we did too 25% water changes over the last 2 days and it still reading around .5!
So I checked my tap water which is reading around .25 to .5
I used aqua safe on a bucket of water to do another water change but it’s still reading at like .5 with the treatment. I’m panicking!
I don’t want my little ones to get sick.
We use have a 10 gallon tank with 4 glofish
And a top fin filter. We use the top fin bacteria supplement and the nutrafin aqua plus.
I’m sure the water is suppose to be free of ammonia when you put it in or if the bacteria is suppose to get to it through the cycling process.
Photo of water in bucket after the treatment

 

[mattgirl]

Instead of using aqua safe get a bottle of Seachem Prime. It is first and foremost a water conditioner but goes one step farther and detoxes low amounts of ammonia. Along with water changes to keep the ammonia down to at least the amount in your source water and using Prime to detox it your fish should be protected from the damaging affects of ammonia poisoning.

Keep in mind. You will still get the same reading even after adding the Prime but the ammonia will be detoxed.

 

[Truckjohn]

That's normal for "City water". Don't worry about it so long as you are using a dechlorination chemical like Prime. Most city water is treated with chloramine - which is where the ammonia readings come from

Please be aware that water conditioner chemicals will NOT remove Ammonia compounds from water. These chemicals are made to dechlorinate the water.

As a side effect - many will *temporarily* "detoxify" ammonia for 24 hours or so and then release the ammonia again. But - since the ammonia is still there - the ammonia test will probably still read it.

Your established nitrification bacteria will do the work to eat up and remove ammonia is in the tap water assuming it's properly dechlorinated.

 

[Skavatar]

Prime will detox ammonia for up to 48hrs. by then your filter/beneficial bacteria would have already processed it.

 

[Leilio]

In my experience, my city water is around 0.5 ammonia if not higher. When I add the water in and test the next day with prime as my conditioner, the reading often goes down to around ~0.1 ish, and the second day, the ammonia is completely processed ~0. Just like other people suggested, as long as your nitrogen cycle is complete, your beneficial bacteria can handle it.

 

[Hjwhits]

Ok so I got prime and got the ammonia down in the water I was adding.
The tank is currently not good!
It’s
Ammonia .5
Nitrates is at 5
Nitrites are at like a 2 to 5.

Should I be doing a 50 percent change or give it a change to cycle?

 

[mattgirl]

I would be doing water changes daily to get and keep the ammonia and nitrites down. You want to keep the total amount of ammonia+nitrites down to one or less.

Add enough Prime with each water change for the full volume of the tank. Once the tank is cycled you will just be adding enough to treat the new water but in this case you are wanting to add enough to detox the ammonia and nitrites present in the tank.