0.4 ammonia

[jaddis18]

hello,

my discus are healthy, but i just decided to check my parameters again havent checked it in weeks due to them looking healthy.

i discovered that my ammonia was at .4 around 12am last night and i just left it as it is, so i checked again around 9am where it just went back now to 0.

would this be normal or something i have to look into? just like some experienced opinions.

i feed my arowana twice a day where debris of the chew are fed to the discus. i feed my homemade food.

thank you.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

What size tank?
How many fish?
What size are the fish?
How much water do change and how often?
Are you using tap or RO and if so is it aged?
How often are you feeding?

So many questions, so few answers, Lol

[Elliots]

Low ammonia is OK, I think it should be less that .5 but I am not sure what the number is. Ammonia is a fish waste product and can be caused by decaying food. If you could measure finely enough there would always be some ammonia as long as you have fish. A zero reading is not really zero, it is really "Undetectable"

[jaddis18]

What size tank?
How many fish?
What size are the fish?
How much water do change and how often?
Are you using tap or RO and if so is it aged?
How often are you feeding?

So many questions, so few answers, Lol

sorry for that, im just wondering if it is normal for the water parameters to have .4 ammonia after 4-5hrs of feeding. then almost "zero" after 12hrs later.

i have:
1x 10" asian arowana
1x 3" discus(i know its bad just to have one, but lets just move along and skip this part)
3x 4" clown loaches
5x 5" golden red tail

i always change 30% water everyday and use RO water.

i feed twice a day of my homemade food consist of:
chicken
deshelled prawn
krill
pellets

tank is a 65gal tank. will be upgrading to a 230gal end of the year.

im sure my tank is cycled but im just unsure if what i discovered is normal or im going through a mini cycle.

[mirador]

HI
I do a lot of testing and I can say that it is about for sure that you made a testing error. LIkely the test tube was not well enough rinsed. When you get a high reading like that ..retest after a really good rinse of the test tube..and glass is better as it cleans better, without residue, than the handy plastic ones. If the reading was correct,the bacteria took care of it...but then there's the nitrite. By the way, .4 ammonia is high. Ammonia readings have to be zero..I have a tank with newer altum angels which due to it's extreme water conditions ( ph 4 and TDS 8) does not support a bilogical filter at all well. Therefore each evening the total ammonia/ ammonium will be .25 ppm. It's not supposed to be toxic at a ph of 4 but you can tell they don't like it. I have never detected ammonia or nitrate in my discus tank,ever,.,.and at a little bit of nitrate they suddenly get nervous.

[jaddis18]

hello mirador,

I do clean the test tubes after using clean it throughly, but never really retest.

Are you saying that u never get ammonia reading after heavy feeding? Wow, i always get traces of ammonia after feeding, so i never check after feeding just a few hours after. Probably 5 hours after. I usually feed around 9-10am and another round at 5pm.
I havent cleaned my CR and jap mat since 3 months ago, do u think i should rince partially.

[jaddis18]

I just checked my ammonia/ammonium after a few mins of moderate feed. The results were 0 ammonia.

I will keep checking my ammonia in the next few days, u might be right. Could of been a test error.