Are there any fish that will lower or help lower ammonia levels?

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Danielharris

Danielharris

Banned
Dec 29, 2011
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I just broke my leg and can walkto do a water change, my ammonia meater is slowly creeping up, ive been doing small water changes and been feeding alot less. Are there any fish that would eat almost all of the waste or neutrilize the ammonia.... Freshwater
 
well you now have alot of time on your hands!, so if i were you i would do daily water changes at least, or get someone else do the water changes for you, ammonia is really bad and should be 0, i wouldn't add any more fish as this will increase the waste.

good luck and hope you recover soon
 
I would dose with Prime (or something similar) to help reduce the amount of damage your fish are incurring from the current ammonia. Then I'd look for another healthy tank at a friend's house or a local fish store to see if I could get a bunch of their filter media to seed my tank. Bacteria is what you need to lower ammonia, not more fish. Bacteria, in the proper proportions, will also be what you need to keep your nitrites at zero. You'll need to do water changes to remove nitrates. Plants can help with nitrates as well, but they don't replace water changes by themselves.

If you can't find another healthy tank that's been up and running for a long time, look into purchasing some Tetra SafeStart and dump the entire bottle into your tank.
 
no fish will do that but plants will help
 
Thank you everyone.... I just did a mini water change with a bucket and a wheely office chair... Hopefully 2 or 3 of those a week will help get it under control... Thanks.... And also will any pleco's or catfish stay small and help pick up the scraps, sa cichlids are messy eaters
 
golcondorus said:
no fish will do that but plants will help
Click to expand...

Hello; This makes sense. All fish produce waste products which contain ammonia as a result of their metabolism. The beneficial bacteria can use this ammonia in their life processes. This eventually becomes a material that plants can take in as part of their growth. Plants can help within limits, but will not do a great deal for an overstocked tank. If you do not have plants, perhaps some floating, non-rooted plants, can be thrown in. Hornwort comes to mind, but there are others.
Reduced feeding makes sense.
I live alone and do not know how I would manage with a broken leg.
Frequent large water changes are stressed by many on this forum. While not wrong, I have in the past gone for long water change intervials, up to a month. My tanks were not too heavily stocked and had a good amount of plants. My tanks did well and i lost about the same amount of fish as i do now with more frequent water changes. I do the more frequent changes now as it is good insurance, but I do not panic if circumstances cause a delay. While i expect to be hammered for saying this, I simply wanted to point out that letting the water changes go for a while should not be critical. In any case you can only do what ou can manage with a broken leg. Try not to allow a guilt trip to be laid on you if you have to make do. Good luck.
 
If you have a gravel cleaner like the python, Lees or aquean, you can connect it to the faucet, drill and fill. This will stop the need for so much movement until your leg is healed.

As for the ammonia issue, make sure your filter pads are not clogged. Then leave them and the gravel bed alone (two places most of the bacteria accumulates) until the tank is stable and ammonia/nitrite are zero.
 
Thanks.... I was gonna get some plants but green terrors and some of the other cichlids in my tank are notorius for digging up plants
 
No such thing as a fish that will reduce amonia. Fish produce amonia. Water changes water changes then more water changes.
 
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