I had to do a 75 water change, high ammonia

Have you any way to collect rainwater? I wouldn't be using your tap water.

 

I left my tank water out all night, and the test strips, still read 3.0 ammonia. And when I took the water sample, into the pet store, The tank water was left out about an hour, when I went to the pet store. still reads 3.0 left out all night. When the lady tested my tank water is 0.25 and so was my tap water.

 

You are seeing the lack of precision of the test strips. The strips are really only good for detecting the presence, but not measuring the amount.

If you see any color change, then you have something present.

The strips can't see the difference between 3.0 ppm and .5 ppm. They just tell you that there is some ammonia in the water and it is not zero.

It's interesting that right on the Tetra web site, the review for this product also describes how the strips measure way too high. https://www.tetra-fish.com/products/water-care/easystrips-ammonia-test-strips.aspx

The strips are not precise enough to see the change in chloramine levels as it outgasses over night either. But the chloramine does leave over time.


So you have some chloramines in your water, but as long as you use your dechlorinator your fish will be fine. And your tank is cycled and fish are happy!


And you have baby fish!?!

 

You are seeing the lack of precision of the test strips. The strips are really only good for detecting the presence, but not measuring the amount.

If you see any color change, then you have something present.

The strips can't see the difference between 3.0 ppm and .5 ppm. They just tell you that there is some ammonia in the water and it is not zero.

It's interesting that right on the Tetra web site, the review for this product also describes how the strips measure way too high. EasyStrips™ Ammonia Test Strips | Tetra®

The strips are not precise enough to see the change in chloramine levels as it outgasses over night either. But the chloramine does leave over time.


So you have some chloramines in your water, but as long as you use your dechlorinator your fish will be fine. And your tank is cycled and fish are happy!


And you have baby fish!?!

I thought I had baby fish, come to find out those fish are live bearers.. They are very small fish. I have 3 guppy fish, 3 tetras, 11 Glo fish, and 3 live bearers. Anyways, I ordered different test strips, for testing the ammonia levels. I will let you know how well that works out. I also own a 20 gallon tall fish tank btw. I bought these test strips on amazon...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLC75MZX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The test strips have given you all the information you need, they have shown you that there is Ammonia in your tank, that is all you need to know, the amount doesn't matter as the figure needs to be zero.

 

Folks with chloramines in their water will actually be raising their ammonia levels by changing the water so they cannot keep their ammonia at zero. This leads to confusion that makes one think that their tank isn't cycled, when it is. It's a classic aquarium conundrum.

Given your pH of 7.2, the ammonia levels from your chloramine are not toxic or in any way stressful for your fish. Baby fish would be fine as well.

Here is the relationship between pH and ammonia toxicity.
http://www.blueridgekoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pH-and-Ammonia.pdf

This is based on toxicity studies on real fish and is the standard tables used in aquaculture.

This is why we measure pH. To know if we need to worry about ammonia.

 

Folks with chloramines in their water will actually be raising their ammonia levels by changing the water so they cannot keep their ammonia at zero. This leads to confusion that makes one think that their tank isn't cycled, when it is. It's a classic aquarium conundrum.

Given your pH of 7.2, the ammonia levels from your chloramine are not toxic or in any way stressful for your fish. Baby fish would be fine as well.

Here is the relationship between pH and ammonia toxicity.
http://www.blueridgekoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pH-and-Ammonia.pdf

This is based on toxicity studies on real fish and is the standard tables used in aquaculture.

This is why we measure pH. To know if we need to worry about ammonia.

What about nitrites? Lets say the ammonia level is actually 3ppm but is not toxic given the pH level, it would be constantly under conversion to nitrites then nitrates. Does the pH level affect the toxicity of nitrites?

 

I always run acid tanks No Ammonia, No Nitrites, No Nitrates. My tanks are well planted.
Can I say you seem to be chasing your tail a bit. As suggested in another post, can you change your water source? Preferably to rain water.

 

Does the pH level affect the toxicity of nitrites?

Yes, opposite to ammonia, toxicity in nitrite goes up the lower the pH, peaking at about 6 if I recall correctly. Luckily most nitrifiers in low pH environments skip the nitrite stage of the nitrogen cycle resulting in minimal amounts.

 

I thought I had baby fish, come to find out those fish are live bearers.. They are very small fish. I have 3 guppy fish, 3 tetras, 11 Glo fish, and 3 live bearers.

I hope your fish have babies! My live bearers and guppies breed like crazy. Lots of fun. Nothing cuter than baby fish!

 

I would like to have baby fish, but I do not think i'd have room in my 20 gallon tank. I'd have to sell the fish to my pet store.

I always run acid tanks No Ammonia, No Nitrites, No Nitrates. My tanks are well planted.
Can I say you seem to be chasing your tail a bit. As suggested in another post, can you change your water source? Preferably to rain water.

There is no way I could get rain water. I could get bottle water thoe. according to my pet store they said my tap water did not have that much ammonia so I had nothing to worry about.
Can I breed live feeder fish, with guppies, and make money?

 

Your tetras will eat many of the baby fish, but a few will survive and get too big to be eaten, and the circle of life will continue!

We have a 20 gallon tank of livebearers like that. It seems to be a self sustaining little world going on 7 years now.

Don't worry about the room in the tank. It will work itself out.

 

Donna, yes you can sell fish back to the fish store and make a little money too! You will need to learn to save the babies and keep them separate.

You can learn to expand to some java moss plants, and develop a good relation with your local pet store manager.

Cory is a great guy in our aquarium world.

 

I use api, and tetra fish strips. I have a 20 gallon high fish tank.
Nintrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 7.5 t0 8.0
kh 180
gh 180
Ammonia 3.0
Taken with test strips...
I also have 10 glo fish
3 tetras
3 live beares'

 

Your tank needs a large water change. 75%

 

Ohhhh, Lawd..... first off Hi donnabright2002!

Ok everyone. Look. IF the tank is cycled, and well, the tank ammonia is lower than the tap water, and nitrates are coming up in the tank, so, yeah it's cycled.
Whole lot of back and forth here on what to do about this situation, And Honestly I keep coming back and thinking "is there even a situation here that needs addressing, or some store worker that doesn't know whats going on due to inexperience, giving advice, and scaring someone into going overboard trying to fix an issue that isn't creating any problem""....

IF the temp is 78F or cooler, and the pH is 8.0 or lower and doesn't continue to go up,
It's likely not going to have any adverse effect whether it's 0.50 ammonia, or 3.0 ammonia or anywhere in between.

We all have seen the API master test kit chart and the problems people have figuring out the colors and doing the testing process with the vials, bottles of liquids and big vs. small holes hard squueze vs. soft squeeze, it's about as accurate as test strips in reality, and in reality test strips are as accurate as the API master kit. it makes no difference, NEITHER is completely accurate and prone to errors or mishandling or misreading of the color charts. whatever you are comfortable with is good enough t get the general idea of how the aquarium is doing. Cheap knock off test strips should be avoided though.

The MOST IMPORTANT THING is that the aquarium is in fact cycled. if ammonia is going to nitrates, you don't need to test nitrites, nitrites are converting if theres nitrates. if the cycle is weak or transitioning you can get a backlog of ammonia or nitrites also, but that passes with time. Nitrites aren't particularly toxic anyways and takes like 5ppm to get in the dangerous zone, but I've been higher with minimal stress and no deaths. So it's not a hard rule. Ammonia and Nitrites should be "0" in a perfect world, but things aren't always perfect.

Water changes should be done regularly, you'd want to water change 100% of the water in the tank 1x a month and do it over a few water changes. if you tap water has ammonia in it, you'd need to do smaller water changes more often, say 25% weekly so that 5 gallons of new water with ammonia gets diluted by the 15 gallons of water without it that the tank has already taken care of, making it even more safe for the fish.

First post on this is Nov.18th , it's Dec. 6th. If all fish are still alive, eating and not acting strange/stressed and still looking good and healthy, then CLEARLY if it's a problem, it doesn't need outside influence to solve, it's mostly been sorting itself out just fine for the last 18 days.

As far as I can tell in this thread, no fish has died, everyone is fine, some fish store tested the water and freaked, but hey, like I said, not everyone is a genius and knows how to operate the tests at a store, and you shouldn't trust other people with your water testing and instead do it yourself, with whatever test you are comfortable with, they all are generalization tests and close color shade changes between readings, but it IS a decent baseline to get a general idea of what's going on, BASICALLY just used to determine when you should water change.
Heck, water change like I said. aim for 100% of the tanks water being changed each month whether it's 2x 50%, 4x25% 1x75% and 1x25% 10x10%.

Maybe there is ammonia in the tap water, that goes into the tank and the tank and cycle has to deal with it like it's supposed to. Even if that's the case the fish need to have an actual problem and the fish have actual stress and/or dying from it for it to be an actual problem that needs correcting.

IF that's the case where its injuring or killing fish, and the pH is high and the ammonia is high and then lower the pH below 7.0 with driftwood, or humic substances, or peat moss, ect. ect and the ammonia will be even less toxic at a lower pH.

Don't fix it if it ain't broke. Water change as you normally would to maintain the tank, Do your own water testing with whatever method suits you and is easiest for you to understand and use, it's all the same, general tests with color charts clearly not meant for the colorblind. LOL.

if the fish aren't sick or dying, are eating well and swimming around and growing, and look good, I don't see a problem whatever the tests or the stores tell you.

Just being honest. All the best to all yall!

 

I did a 25 percent water change. here is my test taking of photo is blurry. the test is 3.0 to 6.0.

 

Donna the test strips are giving a false high ammonia reading due to the chloramines in your water.

At your pH the chloramine is harmless and must be ignored.

Always use your dechlorinator and ignore the false ammonia readings.

The cholramines will leave after a few days and then your strips can be used to check the tank for ammonia.

 

Is it ok to use a new sponge inside the tank, or to wipe the glass? The sponge is new. I used it inside the tank, to wipe the glass. I did not clean the sponge as it was brand new. i read it should be cleaned cause there could be chemicals on the sponge, that was after the fact that I used the new sponge.

 

A sponge that is safe for washing dishes for people will be fine for your fish. No worries.

 

A sponge that is safe for washing dishes for people will be fine for your fish. No worries.

Thank you so much. I worried about it. I was worried for my fish. Thanks for replying to my post. Yes, it's a sponge for washing dishes. It had no soap on it.

A sponge that is safe for washing dishes for people will be fine for your fish. No worries.

'thanks for getting back to me. I was worried. Yes, it was a sponge for washing dishes. There was no soap on the sponge.
There are 0 ingredients on the back ,and front, of the package the sponge came in.
I found the ingredents of the sponge I used
What are cellulose sponges made of?






A cellulose sponge, as its name connotes, is made of cellulose (the material that makes up the walls of a plant cell) mixed with hemp fibers and sodium sulphate crystals. It's heated up, cut to size, bleached, and rinsed.
What is all this white specks in my fish tank?

 

Stuff you scrubbed off the glass?

 

Stuff you scrubbed off the glass?

Yes I think so.

Yes I think so.

The tank water is clear now.

 

If you want a good glass sponge that won't leave debris try the Mr Clean magic erasers. WITH NO SOAP. Just the plain ones. They work great.

 

I had the pet store check my water and she said every thing looked fine. I just wanted her to check my ammonia levels, but she checked everything. I asked her to write it down, but my fault. As i asked her after she threw the test away. Anyway I have a 20 gallon fish tank, tall. I have 10 Glo-Fish, 3 live bearer's. 3 guppies and 3 tetras. How often should I do water changes? Do I have room for a couple more guppies?

 

in all honesty you’re already overstocked as it is, no more fish in general. I can’t really give advice on water changes if you are cycling a tank, but if it’s a cycled tank I would do a 50% water change once a week.

It’s a bit suspicious that the fish store lady didn’t even vaguely remember your parameters if she just tested them.

 

in all honesty you’re already overstocked as it is, no more fish in general. I can’t really give advice on water changes if you are cycling a tank, but if it’s a cycled tank I would do a 50% water change once a week.

It’s a bit suspicious that the fish store lady didn’t even vaguely remember your parameters if she just tested them.

My tank is cycled. Thanks for the reply. I won't get any more fish. I will do 50 percent water changes weekly.

 

I just order 3 more fancy guppy fish. They look like 2 to 1 inch I'll sh0w the photo from ebay. I also have a 20 gallon tank tall.
I also have 3 guppy males, 10 Glo Tetras, 3 red eye tetras.
How often do I have to do water changes? And that i am buying for my 20 inch tank.
Thanks
Also 'i notice one of my live bearers keeps following one of my fancy guppy around. Could it be that she is not a he. lol