New To Api Master Test Kit!

Yes I can get some as soon as the pet store opens in about half an hour. I'll be able to start the water change when I get back. My wife is picking up some more 5gal buckets as we speak.

So more than 50% would be fine and treat with Prime and TSS? And do this back to back to back, as long as it takes for ammonia to go down.

Too many fish for stocking?

Yep, I'd start with 70%. Treat the new water with prime but only dose TSS once you've got the ammonia below 1ppm and you've finished doing water changes. Make sure the new water is the same temperature and Ph as the tank water.

For stocking the danios need much cooler water than the angelfish.
Angelfish shouldn't be kept in groups of 3 as usually 2 will pair up and bully the other to death
The tetras and danios both need to be in groups of 6+
So no, not too many fish but bad stocking

 

Thank you so much for your help! I am right on it.

Now that my wife is home for the weekend, she can help me read these test colors as her eyesight is much better than mine.

You can always post pictures of your test results and we can help you read them

For stocking the danios need much cooler water than the angelfish.
Angelfish shouldn't be kept in groups of 3 as usually 2 will pair up and bully the other to death

I guess I was reading fast and missed the 3 angels. Agree 3 is not a good number. Adding one more might work but may increase your chance of fighting down the road. I would try to determine their sex and do from there.

 

Yep, I'd start with 70%. Treat the new water with prime but only dose TSS once you've got the ammonia below 1ppm and you've finished doing water changes. Make sure the new water is the same temperature and Ph as the tank water.

For stocking the danios need much cooler water than the angelfish.
Angelfish shouldn't be kept in groups of 3 as usually 2 will pair up and bully the other to death
The tetras and danios both need to be in groups of 6+
So no, not too many fish but bad stocking

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Did a 70% Water change and tested the water an hour later and came out with these results. If my eyes aren't deceiving me, I see a slight change with PH, Nitrates and Ammonia. Dosed with Prime, and have my TSS on standby for when I get the ammonia down.
Will go in for another round of water change tomorrow afternoon.

 

I would do one sooner, your ammonia and nitrate is still quite high.

 

I would do one sooner, your ammonia and nitrate is still quite high.

Oh ok. I wasn't aware that I can do them on the same day.
Will start that now.

 

Maybe someone can back me up here, but if his water has chloramines in it, and once dosed with prime would split into chlorine and ammonium and the API kit will show ammonium and ammonia total - could his water have high enough chloramines to cause a 1+ppm ammonium result? I don't see how fish are living otherwise.

OP,
Have you tested your water yet prior to a water change?
We could test this theroy if you dose some tap water with prime and check it for ammonia. If it has crazy high chloramines in it your test will read them as ammonia (even though it will be ammonium) once mixed with prime.

Before you panic, ammonium is non toxic to fish, this is also the way that prime works to detox ammonia, it temporarily turns it to ammonium until your BB can use it.

 

Maybe someone can back me up here, but if his water has chloramines in it, and once dosed with prime would split into chlorine and ammonium and the API kit will show ammonium and ammonia total - could his water have high enough chloramines to cause a 1+ppm ammonium result? I don't see how fish are living otherwise.

OP,
Have you tested your water yet prior to a water change?
We could test this theroy if you dose some tap water with prime and check it for ammonia. If it has crazy high chloramines in it your test will read them as ammonia (even though it will be ammonium) once mixed with prime.

Before you panic, ammonium is non toxic to fish, this is also the way that prime works to detox ammonia, it temporarily turns it to ammonium until your BB can use it.

I don't know how much ammonia is in a given amount of chloramine, but that is certainly a possibility.

 

The op mentioned in his 1st post that he used ammolock. That product detoxifies ammonia but it will still show up in tests. When I first started and was using petco advice I used ammolock. My ammonia read 8 ppm for a week and I had survivors. I have since learned better options and no longer use ammolock.

This may explain the sky high readings and living fish.

 

The op mentioned in his 1st post that he used ammolock. That product detoxifies ammonia but it will still show up in tests. When I first started and was using petco advice I used ammolock. My ammonia read 8 ppm for a week and I had survivors. I have since learned better options and no longer use ammolock.

This may explain the sky high readings and living fish.

Huh, interesting....

OP, please try two tests if you could, treat some tap with ammolock, and some tap with prime, and test both - I wonder if we will see high readings.

 

The ammolock will only bind the existing ammonia. If there's none in the tap water...

I would assume the ammonia is safe, but do the water changes to get it below .5, my suggestion. Then if ammonia elevates, do water changes, don't use the ammolock

 

Oh ok. I wasn't aware that I can do them on the same day.
Will start that now.

Dear Gilques85,

You can not use prime while using TSS. After dosing prime you have to wait 24 hours before dosing TSS and after TSS you can not dose prime for at least a week. Also, if you make a water change, you have to dose another full tank dose of TSS . So I would recommend a water conditioner without ammonia lock, at least for this cycling stage with TSS. You could also use Seachem Stability instead of TSS but TSS would be faster based on what I hear

This is an excellent Q&A article with Tetra about SafeStart. I hope that it will solve most of your problems.

Q & A With Tetra about Tetra SafeStart

Happy Fish Keeping

 

The ammolock will only bind the existing ammonia. If there's none in the tap water...

I would assume the ammonia is safe, but do the water changes to get it below .5, my suggestion. Then if ammonia elevates, do water changes, don't use the ammolock

I guess the point I was going for was if his tap has high chloramines, it will not matter how much he does water changes, he will continue to see ammonia from that bond being broken to get rid of the chlorine in the water. We could check this by testing plain tap that was treated with prime, it will show ammonia in it. If this is the case for OP I guess he needs to switch to bottled water/another source of water until he gets his cycle rolling, as ammonia as high as he is showing is probably stalling his cycle.

 

Maybe someone can back me up here, but if his water has chloramines in it, and once dosed with prime would split into chlorine and ammonium and the API kit will show ammonium and ammonia total - could his water have high enough chloramines to cause a 1+ppm ammonium result? I don't see how fish are living otherwise.

OP,
Have you tested your water yet prior to a water change?
We could test this theroy if you dose some tap water with prime and check it for ammonia. If it has crazy high chloramines in it your test will read them as ammonia (even though it will be ammonium) once mixed with prime.

Before you panic, ammonium is non toxic to fish, this is also the way that prime works to detox ammonia, it temporarily turns it to ammonium until your BB can use it.

Hmm... that is very interesting. I will try that as soon as I get home. If I'm not mistaken, when I tested the tap alone, I got a reading of 0.25 ammonia. But I will test it again, and then test it with tap plus prime.

After my 2nd water change last night, it (ammonia) did drop from 2.0 to 1.0. The green shade is becoming more faint with each change as well as the nitrates going from a bright red to a light orange.

Should I continue to do 70% changes or back to 50%?

 

Oh wow!! Thanks for advising me to test all sources. With so much running through my head, I didn't even think of that.

 

Hrm, not the result I was expecting, I was thinking we would at least see some ammonia from your tap with prime or ammolok added.

Looks like your tank levels are falling, good work!

 

Omg!!! Do I have reason to be excited right now? The shade of ammonia looks much lighter in person.

I've included a color grab of the Test Tube and of the 0.25 color on the Color Swatch sheet.

 

Looks like you are headed in the right direction!

 

Thank you so much! Everyone that responded has been a super help! You guys are the greatest!

 

Sorry to bother everyone. But, give me some good news

Last water change and Prime was done yesterday at 3pm. Do I now wait the 24hours, which would be today at 3pm, to treat with TSS?

 

I have not used TSS so I will let someone else comment there, I use Seachem Stability, and yes I would give the tank some of that if you have some. You look cycled! WHOOOO!!

 

Your tank looks like it is cycled as of today. I would leave your tank be for 24 hours and just test it again tomorrow. See if the values hold. If you stay at the same levels for a few days, with only your nitrates rising slowly, you will have officially cycled your tank! Yay!