My tank was cycled for 4 or 5 weeks prior to putting the fish in
25% water change every 5 days
Tank size 100g
1 fish, 10 or 11 inches
How to lower ammonia?
- Thread starter Arowanablubber
- Start date
25% water change every 5 days
Tank size 100g
1 fish, 10 or 11 inches
Update on water specs after 70% WC
Nitrite 0, nitrate 10, ammonia 1, ph 7.2
The water change definitely helped the ammonia but it’s still high, WC helped ph but only slightly.
I think I’ll continue doing water changes daily until I get better readings. What do you think of this approach?
Nitrite 0, nitrate 10, ammonia 1, ph 7.2
The water change definitely helped the ammonia but it’s still high, WC helped ph but only slightly.
I think I’ll continue doing water changes daily until I get better readings. What do you think of this approach?
i would do WC as much as needed to get it under 0.25-0.50 ppm do back to back WC you need to get that down asap do 5 in a row in needed also i would not worry about the PH to much ammonia is much worse for the fish. once it is low and you dont feed anything i think you will be ok the BB is be adjusting to your bio load and if the ammonia is to hi it can take longer
I do not consider a 25% water change once per week, a large water change.
Where I lived in the U.S., I would do 30-40% water changes every other day on all my tanks.
Because 4 to 5 weeks may have not been a complete cycle (some tanks take longer), especially for 10+" fish that are constantly producing tons of ammonia.
I believe you need to do much more frequent water changes than you are doing to dilute that ammonia, if it were me, I'd be doing 30-40% every day, until it was under control.
Where I lived in the U.S., I would do 30-40% water changes every other day on all my tanks.
Because 4 to 5 weeks may have not been a complete cycle (some tanks take longer), especially for 10+" fish that are constantly producing tons of ammonia.
I believe you need to do much more frequent water changes than you are doing to dilute that ammonia, if it were me, I'd be doing 30-40% every day, until it was under control.
30-40% is not enough. if he is at 1 ppm that will only bring him to.6-.7 ppm still to hi dont worry about the % off water take as much out as you can and still have room for the fish to swim. fill it up and keep doing it till you are under .25 and you can just do a water change every 2 days or you can test your water and find out when you really need a water change. after a few months you will find out how often you need to do a wc it might be ones a day or once a month depending on how you feed and your stocking among other things.
0ppm ammonia out of the tap is perfect, that's a good start in addressing your problem. The fact that your tank water has ammonia in just screams inefficient filtration and/or overfeeding and/or lack of proper maintainance, or maybe all of those things combined.
I can't really see it being your bio load as you've only got one fish, unless it's a very messy fish and you regularly overfeed this one fish, in which case that could be your issue right there.
When you do your water changes, and I agree with duanes by the way, that your water change schedule could be increased a bit, is there a remote possibility that untreated water is getting flushed through your filtration because that would mean you are potentially wiping out your BB in which case your BB will never be able to multiply to the levels needed to maintain the nitrogen cycle.
That would lead to constant showings of ammonia, which is what you're experiencing.
I can't really see it being your bio load as you've only got one fish, unless it's a very messy fish and you regularly overfeed this one fish, in which case that could be your issue right there.
When you do your water changes, and I agree with duanes by the way, that your water change schedule could be increased a bit, is there a remote possibility that untreated water is getting flushed through your filtration because that would mean you are potentially wiping out your BB in which case your BB will never be able to multiply to the levels needed to maintain the nitrogen cycle.
That would lead to constant showings of ammonia, which is what you're experiencing.
Should nitrifying solution be put in after ever water change? Does this solution raise PH? I did massive WC and have been adding in de-chlorine and nitrifying solution with each one should I just be doing the de-chlorine?
Update- ammonia is now at 0.25 -
0.5 ( hard to tell with test tubes), ph has gone up it seems?
I think it may be overfeeding and lack of maintenance. I think My BB wasn’t ready for this and so the weekly water changes isn’t cutting it for the time being. I’m usually pretty observant about not putting tap water in the tank because I know it could hurt the BB
I’ll do another water change later today and post the readings. Hopefully this gets fixed soon, my aro is under a lot of stress
I don't think you mentioned the substrate, but if you are doing a gravel vac every time you do a water change you are removing some of the BB in the process. Also, if you are rinsing filter media make sure you are rinsing it in removed tank water, not with water from the tap.
