High ammonia

shannonranee

shannonranee

New Member
Help. I have had my tank set up since Christmas day. Added 5lb LR the week after Christmas and 16 more lbs of lr 3 weeks ago. Added cleanup crew a week ago. as of last night all levels were normal. PH-8, Nitrate - O, ammonia - O. Tonight I added 2 clowns. tested water two hours later PH-8, nitrate - O, ammonia - between .25 and 1.5. Why would it spike so soon after adding the fish? Will they be ok? I have a 30 gallon tank, bio-wheel filter, power head, and a bak pak protein skimmer. Also, my clowns were swimming all around the tank and now that I turned off the light they act like they are having a hard time swimming. Should I leave the light on or turn it off at night?
 
thud

thud

Member
Your fish should be fine at that ammonia level although ammonia should be undetectable (0)
You should buy some ammonia detox liquid. It will still show as positive when you test for ammonia but it will make the ammonium non-toxic to your fish.
Make sure you haven't lost a fish, it may be decaying - which would be your answer to an ammonia spike.
 
ol'salty

ol'salty

Member
I am not sure why the ammonia spiked. I would change as much water as i could. 30 to 50% imo. Clowns swim funny sometimes. Mine swims in the corner face up at night. You definately want to turn off the lights at night. IF they were swimming fine with the light on, they should be ok. The ammonia should come down with water changes and should be done asap.
 
shannonranee

shannonranee

New Member
I drip acclimated the fish fro 2 hours, I did not add any water from the bag to the tank. I did a 30% water change last night - but the ammonia level did not change. They are both swimming fine this morning - i am checking the level again right now.
I would have never thought that I would have been up at 1:00am duing a water change and not sleep very good because I was afraid my fishies woulnd't be ok (I was never this way with my fresh water fish).
I also have a sea erchant in my tank. He looks like he is trying to hide under the rock. I did poke him this morning though to make sure he responded - he seems to be doing ok.
Ok - test is done. it sometimes is hard to tell - the first two colors on the strip are so close. So it is somewhere between o and .25. I think I will check the pet store and see if they have any ammonia detox liquid though to keep on hand.
Thanks guys.
No that I have become so attached to my clowns overnight - I need to name them.
 
f14peter

f14peter

Member
Agree with Earlybird and Journeyman . . . ditch the strips and get a better test kit set.
Likely, I think, that the clowns added a wee bit of ammonia, but your beneficial bacteria should take care of that. The test strips probably (Definately?) aren't accurate enough to register exactly what the level is.
 
shannonranee

shannonranee

New Member
What do you mean a strip test kit. Maybe I said it wrong. These are the vials that you put water in and then and the test drops - I was talking about the strip that shows the colors that you compare the color of your test to in order to see what the levels are. My kit is a Tetratest Laborett. is this a good one or do I still need a better one?
 
f14peter

f14peter

Member
Originally Posted by shannonranee
What do you mean a strip test kit. Maybe I said it wrong. These are the vials that you put water in and then and the test drops - I was talking about the strip that shows the colors that you compare the color of your test to in order to see what the levels are. My kit is a Tetratest Laborett. is this a good one or do I still need a better one?

Ahhhhhhh, apologies then, this is what got me . . .
the first two colors on the strip are so close.

In the words of Miss Emily Latilla . . . "never mind!"
 
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