Amonia in a fish tank

by **josephine** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:21 pm

I am new to fishkeeping. I have a 250 litre tank, freshwater tropical, which is 11 weeks old. The amonia level is still sitting at 0.3 or sometimes 0.6 and this is every day. I am feeding the fish correctly and am not overstocked. The filter runs at 1000 l/ph. It is an external filter with sponge and ceramic rings. My nitrites are zero and I have a small amount of algae but I have live plants and the algae is well controlled. The fish all seem happy and active.
I have today added a separate external filter with chemical filtration included - it is the tetra 700 filter. It includes sponges, rings and carbon and I have included amonia remover and nitrite and phosphate remover.
Why has my amonia stayed so high? By this time it should have been nil. Adding cycle did nothing to the amonia at all but burnt a hole in my pocket.
I want a tank with an amonia reading of zero.

by **a1k8t31524** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:25 am

what are the reading on all of our tests nitrates and nitrites

by **josephine** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:09 pm

Nitrites nil, nitrates - I don't know but I have a very little algae in the tank (a fine layer forms on the glass but not on the plants and lots of real plants. I do a 10% water change every week and stir up the gravel a little every day as the tank is deeper than usual. After adding the second filtration system a day or two ago that has amonia remover in it, I tested the amonia today and it is 0.1. I think that biological filtration alone probably doesn't work.

by **josephine** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:27 pm

I've checked - I have been using the Hagen cycle. I have spent hundreds of rands on it. I even started to think that people were tampering with the bottles. I am not using it anymore. I also started to think that perhaps the test was faulty and designed to show some amonia so that I buy more cycle...

by **a1k8t31524** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:03 pm

i think that is is safe to say that your tank is not fully cycled yet. and i do not think that 10% waterchange is suffecient i personally do 25% every 3rd day

by **josephine** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:33 am

Thank you for the advice. 25% every third day is a lot of work! Especially when I have a lot of plants that I have to try to miss when doing the vaccuuming. Inevitably one comes loose and I then have to replant it using a rod to try to manuevre it without damaging it as my hand doesn't reach the bottom of the tank. Also because my tank is deep every time I clean the tank, my hand and part of my arm also have to go in. I do wash my hands beforehand and rinse off carefully though. These are the disadvantages of a deep tank.

Do you also clean your filter foam in the aquarium water which has been removed at the same time, ie every third day? I have been cleaning it in the aquarium water every week, but have been thinking that perhaps I am doing it too often and thereby removing the beneficial bacteria.

Do you have live plants? I was looking at the top 10 aquariums online and most do not seem to use live plants. Does the addition of flora weekly after a water change potentially affect the amonia levels?

Do you get a nil reading of amonia? Does anyone?

Thanks for the advice. Your tank is beautiful by the way.

by **a1k8t31524** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:25 pm

.... first off, how big is your tank.?
and 25% every 3rd day is not alot of work, if you get it down to a good system,
and i only clean my filter once every month sometimes 2 months..... when i do chand my water i only vaccume the water once every week it is not necessary to do it every time i change water
my ammo ins nil my nitrates are o and nitrites are 0 but i am also heavliy planted and have massive amounts or biological filtration

by **josephine** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:03 pm

Thank you so much for the practical advice. I will clean every third day, 25% and leave the filer for once or so a month. The practical advice a person gets from actual fish keepers is always a bit different to a book, but it is what is needed. My tank is only around 250 litres and is 116cm long, 72cm in depth and 32 cm wide.

Amonia in a fish tank

8 posts