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Thread: High Ammonia, need advice.

  1. #16
    Registered Member bluelagoon's Avatar
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    Mervin

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Quote Originally Posted by dspeers View Post
    That's why I asked you to check your nitrate levels on your other tanks. To validate that you are at 0 Nitrates which would rule out a false pos TAN from the breakdown of chloramine. Mervin have you seen levels up to 4 due to chloramine breakdown?
    I don't have chloramine in my water.

  2. #17
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Quote Originally Posted by bluelagoon View Post
    The 6.6-6.8 ph will not have the toxic form of ammonia. Is this from your tap water? When PH is greater than 7 then ammonia will become toxic the higher the PH. If your water has chloramine and you use Prime you will get a false reading until the BB consumes the ammonia. What is the ammonia reading two days after a WC?
    I use RODI water for all my water changes.... Out of all my tanks, this is the only one that has any ammonia show up when tested. Cleaned one of my Canister filters yesterday after 50% WC. This morning still showing 1.00, maybe a little more since the Colors are very close. I stopped adding Prime a week ago. I'm not going to do a WC today, but I will add Stability.

    At this point, I'm really not sure why BB all died off, or what caused it.

    Thanks for all the input.

  3. #18
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    Don Speers

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    I have tried hard to conceive of a method to kill all of the BB and then suppress regrowth without having any impact on your fish, and the only way would be recurrent use of certain antibiotics or the tank being inadvertently exposed to some sort of chemical that selectively is BB toxic (think cleaning supplies, air freshener, etc). Absent that, the only other thing that readily comes to mind that could kill all the BB and then completely inhibit regrowth for 2+ months would be something selectively toxic to bacteria currently inside your tank. Did you introduce any new type of filter material not used in your other tanks' filters prior to the beginning of this, or any other object into the tank?

    Have you used your nitrate tester to check any of your other tanks? Even if the filters were somehow sterilized you still should have some measureable (as in a posive nitrate test at some level) nitrification due bacteria residing on the substrate and anything/everything else in the tank. At this point after confirming that Nitrates were actually 0 and eleminating some sort of external environmental toxin I would pull everything but the substrate, tear down, aggressively clean, and then repack all 3 filters with all new material with a little donor filtration material from a currently cycled tank. Should see nitrites and nitrates bump within days, if that failed would completely tear down the tank and start fresh. Gotta free tank for the current stock? Not recommending you swap substrate as I understand it has been present when the tank was cycled for 2 years?

  4. #19
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Well, I looks like the tank is finally cycling. This Nitrate readings today, before my WC change today. Ammonia was still 1.0-2.0 before the WC. I Agree with you about what could kill BB in a tank. I'm not sure what did it to me in this tank. I added the Pleco's in Aug. '22. I add duckweed, frog bit periodically from other tanks because the Sevrum eats it. But other than that, I don't recall adding anything else to this tank. I did start a new RO UNIT, but I use that water in every tank I have.
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  5. #20
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    Don Speers

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    I did a quick skim and did not see a comment, where is this tank relative to the other tanks?

  6. #21
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    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Best explanation in my mind is something aerosol introduced into the tank via the air pump/air-water interface, that or extraterrestrials. Unless your BB crash again, may hopefully never figure out the cause. Good luck.

  7. #22
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Jose,
    Did you end up trying to add active media from your other tanks? If not and you are still having issues.. give it a try.

    One other question.. you feed bugbites to this tank.. do you feed it to any other tank?
    Al
    Last edited by brewmaster15; 01-25-2023 at 08:10 AM.
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  8. #23
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Quote Originally Posted by dspeers View Post
    I did a quick skim and did not see a comment, where is this tank relative to the other tanks?
    It's the one at the back of the room.... Sorry for the mess, this picture was taken a few weeks ago. The 20 long underneath to the right, is going thru an issue right now, where most of the plants are dying off.

    I haven't test any water today yet.
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  9. #24
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Yes all the tanks get feed bug bites of different sizes depending on what in the tanks. I didn't change out any media or add anything from another tank at this time. I'm on my 3rd 500 ml bottle of Stability. Today would be day 6 from this bottle.

  10. #25
    Administrator brewmaster15's Avatar
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    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    I know who I am hitting up for plant cuttings next time I feel the urge to have a planted tank! That is alot of green growing there Jose.. very nice!
    Al
    AquaticSuppliers.com Freeze Dried BlackWorms and other foods your Discus will Love!!!


    >>>>>I am a science guy.. show me the science minus the BS

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    I take Pics.. click here for my Flickr images

  11. #26
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Thanks...

  12. #27
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    Jose Catala

    Default Re: High Ammonia, need advice.

    Hi,
    I thought I'd post an update. For the past 5 days or so, Ammonia has been reading .25, Even after the last water change. No water changes Since Friday, 2/3. I did add purigen to my system, 2 bags, one in each filter. Don't know if that helped, but it seems to. I am getting minor nitrates when testing for it. Fish seem to be doing fine still.

    Thanks to everyone for their input.

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