Ammonia Remover

[Mickmack]

Has anyone ever used ammonia remover inserts with their filter? I was wondering if I put one in if I will have to keep using it- I don't want it to affect the bacteria levels in my filter if I use it for a bit and then take it out.
Anyone had any experience with this?

[Eddie]

Has anyone ever used ammonia remover inserts with their filter? I was wondering if I put one in if I will have to keep using it- I don't want it to affect the bacteria levels in my filter if I use it for a bit and then take it out.
Anyone had any experience with this?

I wouldn't use it. Are you having ammonia build up? Its best to let the nitrifying bacteria handle ammonia and if it becomes overwhelmed, water change.

Eddie

[Armandi_Fishcarer]

Water Changes are the best TooL IMO! High levels of Ammonia are more of a problem when you have a higher pH. To answer your ?, I have had experience with this & wouldn't use them anymore only too remove added chemicals from the water & with my w/c regime I don't need to use them for that anyway. My cents worth! :D

Regards
Ahmed ;)

[Don Trinko]

An additional option is to use Amaquel+ or some other chemical that removes ammonia. Any thing that removes ammonia should be thought of as a temporary solution in that ammonia should not normaly be present in a cycled tank. All of this IMo; Don T.

[poconogal]

I tried that stuff many years ago when I first started out in the hobby and found that it didn't work well anyway.

You can use Prime which will convert the ammonia "into a safe, non-toxic form that is readily removed by the tank's biofilter." Prime also detoxifies Nitrites as well. Prime along with WCs should see you through.

[Jhhnn]

Most test kits measure total ammonia. Unless your pH is very high, the ratio of damaging ammonia vs not-so-damaging ammonium is really quite small. If you use a water conditioner like prime or amquel, it won't appear to work, either, because of the way the test kits work...

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/MT_Ammonia.html

Good article wrt ammonia toxicity, here- the chart tells the story-

http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/Ammonia.htm

[Mickmack]

Thanks- I wasn't really sure about it. I bought it just in case my ammonia levels spike up suddenly and I notice anything wrong with my fish. It was only after that I thought it might actually affect the bacteria that I am trying to build up in my aquariums. I'm gonna play it safe and not use it unless it's an emergency- and even then I will only use it to bring the levels down and then remove it.

[Eddie]

Thanks- I wasn't really sure about it. I bought it just in case my ammonia levels spike up suddenly and I notice anything wrong with my fish. It was only after that I thought it might actually affect the bacteria that I am trying to build up in my aquariums. I'm gonna play it safe and not use it unless it's an emergency- and even then I will only use it to bring the levels down and then remove it.

Sounds good. In an emergency, the best thing to do is add Prime (depending on you PH) or do a water change.

Take care,


Eddie

[kaceyo]

The ammonia remover inserts won't remove enough ammonia to do you any good during an ammo spike. Your best bet is to exchange it for store credit and have an ammonia detoxifier on hand. If the ammonia spikes, do a large wc and add the detoxifier (Prime-Ammo-Lock, AmQuell etc).

Kacey

[Bgroovy2]

When you say ammonia remover inserts, I assume that you are talking about the pre packaged packs of amonia chips. As stated in other posts, they are not real good for dealing with spikes, but let me offer my theroy on this whole subject. I believe in what is called overfiltering. As you see from my signature I have a small display tank. I use two aquaclear 50 filters on this tank. This allows me twice the contact area for bio filtration but I can still keep the flow rate fairly slow.
In my filters I use amo-carb, a misture of chips and ac. If I can remove any free amonia before it converts to another form, I figure this to be a plus! If you should have a spike, you would alredy have something in place to help assist with the clean up. None of this takes that place of a good WC plan and sticking with it, but...if I can avoid potential issues ahead of time I figure I'll use it! I know that there are those that will disagree with me on this but there are more then one way to get a good end result as this along with my wc's keeps the water in this tank always looking beautiful!

[steve.ryall]

The only proven ammonia remover in my experience is a good mature filter, period.
Products will get you out of a corner, but they don't fix the root cause.

Steve

[Eddie]

The only proven ammonia remover in my experience is a good mature filter, period.
Products will get you out of a corner, but they don't fix the root cause.

Steve

That's the truth Steve, in the long run.....what happens when you can't find or purchase the ammonia removing substances.......the REAL bacteria gets tasked too hard, ammonia build-up, nitrite spike=dead fish. Best to have a healthy bacteria colony established! The ammonia removing chips are not allowing the bacteria colony to handle the bio-load solely/appropriately. ;)


Eddie