High Ammonia

[Joe]

Th ammonia levels in my aquarium are extremly high & stressing the fish. I have well water & use a RO unit. I do daily water changes, but when I checked water quality in storage bin, the ammonia is high, thus I'm replacing water with water that has high ammonia. I'm at a loss as what to do. Does anyone have any advice?

Joe

[Jhhnn]

Add prime, amquel+ or chloram-x to insure there's no free ammonia, only ammonium. Then get a seachem ammonia testkit so you can tell the difference between the two.. Ammonium is relatively harmless, but normal testkits convert it all to free ammonia, measure that.

Also measure nitrites and nitrates to see if the biofilter is working...

[tcyiu]

Do as Jhhnn suggested. In the meanwhile, add a small amount of salt to reduce the stress (and nitrite toxicity if any). Anywhere from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per 10 gallon. Start on the low end and gradually work your way up.

My initial thought would be to age the water in a bin with LOTS AND LOTS of bioballs. Have a pump recirculate and aerate the water. The bio filter will eventually convert the ammonia to nitrates. But the problem is that we do water changes to remove nitrates. In your case, you would be adding more.

So I wonder with that much nitrous compounds in your water supply, mightn't you consider an alternate water source? Or perhaps keeping some other fish which are not as sensitive?

Or another solution which isn't exactly practical, is to have a mini wetlands setup. Meaning, a green house with water flowing over a large bed of plants (like mangroves) which will suck the nitrous compounds out of the water. Like I said, not very practical.

Tim

[Jhhnn]

Aerating your water storage container with a sponge filter might help, too, provided you neutralize the chlorine effectively. It'll take weeks for bacteria to colonize a new filter, unfortunately. Nitrate levels would rise, but that's better than high ammonia... Seachem purigen or similar in a box filter might also be beneficial... you'll need to experiment, see what works.

I've never used RO units, never really studied them, so I can't say what they'll actually remove from the water...

[TankWatcher]

Hi Joe

My tap water tests positive for ammonia, but my cycled tanks don't. I find that provided I am putting my tap water into a cycled tank, the good bacteria very quickly deals with the ammonia in such short order that a seachem ammonia alert never detects it's presence. I do age, aerate & pre-treat my tap water with prime, so perhaps that helps.

Is your aquarium well established? I thought at first that might be the problem, but you're such a long term member, that's probably not it at all.

[discus21473]

To turn Ammonia NH3, to Ammonium NH4 which will not harm fish.
When ammonia is dissolved in water a significant ammont of it reacts with the Hrdroium Ions (H3O+) to give ammonium ions.
(H3O+ + NH3 = H2O + NH4)
The degree to which ammonia forms ammonium ions depends on the pH of the water. If the pH is low (acidic) Tthere is a high concentration of hydoium ions.

Water in a acid-base reactions. In the reaction with ammonia (NH3) water donates a H+ ion and thus acting as an acid.
NH3 (base) + H2O (acid) = NH4+OH-
NH4 is ammonium

[taekwondodo]

To turn Ammonia NH3, to Ammonium NH4 which will not harm fish.
When ammonia is dissolved in water a significant ammont of it reacts with the Hrdroium Ions (H3O+) to give ammonium ions.
(H3O+ + NH3 = H2O + NH4)
The degree to which ammonia forms ammonium ions depends on the pH of the water. If the pH is low (acidic) Tthere is a high concentration of hydoium ions.

Water in a acid-base reactions. In the reaction with ammonia (NH3) water donates a H+ ion and thus acting as an acid.
NH3 (base) + H2O (acid) = NH4+OH-
NH4 is ammonium

I'm going to say this another way. If you lower your pH below 7.0, the ammonia converts almost 100% to non-toxic ammonium - and becomes a non-issue.

[Jhhnn]

Using Prime on my chloramine treated tap water renders ammonia a non-issue, and I'm sure it would do the same for ammonia in well water unless the concentration is ridiculously high.

No fussing with chemicals to alter the pH, no muss, really no bother at all. It's convenient and economical in the 2 liter bottles from Kensfish, even cheaper in the larger size. I change 100gals/ day, and a bottle lasts 5-6 months...

Using Prime, I have one less thing to be concerned about... Highly recommended, not just by me, but by a lot of aquarists.