!!HELP!! - Water Testing 2 PPM Ammonia

[Foxfire]

First, you have not measured your pH and posted that I have seen so far - if 7.0 or under, all your ammonia is fixed and not a harmful type so your fish will not show stress and that explains that aspect of the tank. Next, no matter what you think, if the test kits are working, and your water (with the new test kit) still measures 0.2 ppm ammonia or less, and your tank climbs to 2.0 ppm ammonia everyday after the very, very large water change (exactly how much are you doing?), then your bio-filter is dead. You need to start a new fish based cycle and carefully watch your ammonia AND nitrite levels (these are far more deadly to the fish.)

If you are cycling, keep some aquarium salt on hand for nitrites (they will spike -if measurable, do as large a WC as needed to get back to 'zero and add salt: 1 teaspoon per 10 gal) and use prime to be safe for non-zero ammonia. Get a seachem ammonia and a nitrate/nitrite test kits - these are very accurate and give great numbers (got mine on line.) Use an air stone when nitrites occur!

This is an outside possible issue but do you have an UGF that you use just to pump water around? Or did some plants die and their roots are decaying under the sand/gravel? Missing a fish? Any of these could supply hidden ammonia - just thoughts.

[nc0gnet0]

I agree it the OP has gravel and a UGF, this could be the problem. Ammonia is ammonia, and a warning sign, regardless of it is NH3 or NH4.

[Jhhnn]

Meh. Disregard the results from the API kit, because you know they're wrong, both from fish behavior and from testing with the seachem kit.

Test a sample of your tapwater with the seachem kit. it'll probably show ~2ppm total ammonia, almost all NH3, free ammonia. That's very common wrt chloramine in drinking water. 4ppm is the legal limit. Realize that adding prime will convert it all to NH4. Test a sample of aged prime treated water to verify that, if you want. Test the tap water for both nitrite and nitrate to establish a baseline for those.

Now test the tank before a water change. Total ammonia should be near zero, nitrites maybe slightly elevated over the tapwater sample, and nitrates definitely higher than from the tap. If so, the bio is working.

For some while after a water change, particularly a large one, total ammonia will be higher in the form of NH4, because you just put it into the tank in the form of prime treated tap water... There's always some lag for the bio to catch up, process that newly introduced ammonia. How long it takes is an indication of the strength of the bio and of the other loads placed on it.

In gravel tanks, organic buildup is quite common, which can load the bio excessively, delaying the conversion of the newly introduced NH4. Too much buildup easily overcomes the effects of water changing, and stirring it up hugely, all at once, can cause bacterial bloom and asociated issues... plunging pH is a sure sign of excessive bio load...

[mcishaque]

Meh. Disregard the results from the API kit, because you know they're wrong, both from fish behavior and from testing with the seachem kit.

Test a sample of your tapwater with the seachem kit. it'll probably show ~2ppm total ammonia, almost all NH3, free ammonia. That's very common wrt chloramine in drinking water. 4ppm is the legal limit. Realize that adding prime will convert it all to NH4. Test a sample of aged prime treated water to verify that, if you want. Test the tap water for both nitrite and nitrate to establish a baseline for those.

Now test the tank before a water change. Total ammonia should be near zero, nitrites maybe slightly elevated over the tapwater sample, and nitrates definitely higher than from the tap. If so, the bio is working.

For some while after a water change, particularly a large one, total ammonia will be higher in the form of NH4, because you just put it into the tank in the form of prime treated tap water... There's always some lag for the bio to catch up, process that newly introduced ammonia. How long it takes is an indication of the strength of the bio and of the other loads placed on it.

In gravel tanks, organic buildup is quite common, which can load the bio excessively, delaying the conversion of the newly introduced NH4. Too much buildup easily overcomes the effects of water changing, and stirring it up hugely, all at once, can cause bacterial bloom and asociated issues... plunging pH is a sure sign of excessive bio load...

This was an EXCELENT post. THANK YOU !!!

[nc0gnet0]

Jhhn,

I respectfully disagree go back and read the OP original post here:

So I retest aquarium water the morning after water change w/ same API test kit, and the water reads 2.0 ppm ammonia. I almost freak. But realize fishes show no signs of stress, and are eating and chasing each other around in their usual pigs w/ fins style. But to be sure, I drop another capful of prime in. I re-test that night, and it still reads 2.0 PPM. I'm worried, but not freaked out enough to do a 100% water change, since fishes are acting fine. I also test for NO2 and NO3, both below 5ppm.

I retest next morning: 2.0 ppm ammonia,

As you said:

Now test the tank before a water change. Total ammonia should be near zero, nitrites maybe slightly elevated over the tapwater sample, and nitrates definitely higher than from the tap. If so, the bio is working.

But this is not the case....thus my cause for concern.



A healthy bio would have converted the ammonia overnight IMHO, regardless of if it were NH3 or NH4

[nc0gnet0]

I would like to add that my opinion is based on this:

I keep a seperate 40 gallon tank in which I only use it to keep on hand several cycled sponge filters for back-up. I use RO/tap water and feed the filters with nothing but industrial grade pure ammonia (ace brand). This way, in event of emergency, I have several back-ups, and when I clean my sponges, I clean and replace with one of the back-ups.

Just as my own personal rule of thumb, I consider a sponge cycled when it can process 2-3 ppm overnight with zero nitrites.

About 2 years ago, I had a 75 gallon tank in which I had several baby koi I was overwintering. This tank had a UGF and a rena xp4. One day I got a bit to aggresive with my gravel vac'ing and low and behold, big ammonia spike, even though the xp4 should have been more than suffice.