Fish Tank has lots of ammonia?

Question

I have a really high level of ammonia in my fish tank. How do I get it out what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

you need to make sure you clean the water often and clean out the lil turds that float around in the water. good luck! floating turds are bad lol

Answer 2

The only way to permanently rid your tank of ammonia is to get a culture of good bacteria started. The bacteria will naturally form when ammonia is sensed in the tank, and it sticks to every surface that is exposed to water, oxygen, and ammonia. It will even form in your own toilet if you don't flush it.

The most bacteria will hang out in the filter floss/spongue and in the gravel. To jump start this, you can add man-made bacteria such as TLC. Tap water kills this bacteria, and so never rinse your gravel. Do partial water changes using a gravel vaccuum and only take out 10-25% of the water once a week. Add ammonia chips and/or Amquel water conditioner to help slow down the ammonia until enough bacteria forms. Do not change the cartridge in your filter, either or you will throw away the bacteria in it. Feed every other day, what your fish can eat in 5 minutes and remove uneated food immediately. Use as much filtration as possible and an air pump/stone if you have it. The more circulation in the tank, the more air for the bacteria and fish. The ammonia forms from too much food or poop, so either you just set up a tank and there's no bacteria (takes 6 weeks) or you added too many fish at once (just add 1-2 at a time per 10gallons and wait until 0 ammonia to add any more) or there was too much waste from decaying food and poop in the tank. Once there is no ammonia or nitrite (what ammonia breaks down into-just as toxic) you just need to keep doing partial water changes to keep the nitrate (what nitrite breaks down into) lower than 50ppm.

Answer 3

too much fish waste in the water. You either are over feeding them or you have too many fish in your tank. A good rule of thumb is 1" of fish for every gallon of water the tank holds. So, a 10 gallon tank, you can have enough fish to where their combined lenght would be 10". You also may need a new filtration system that uses charcoal to pull out the ammonia. Just some thoughts

Answer 4

Fish excrete waste just like humans do, only it stays in the tank with them. The waste they produce ends up as ammonia which is toxic to fish. There are bacteria present in water that break down ammonia into nitrites which are still toxic to fish at certain levels. There are also bacteria that break down nitrites into nitrates which are dangerous, but tolerated at low levels. If your tank is not cycled with enough of these bacteria, ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels will build up fast. Frequent water changes will help control this. I find that 25% water change weekly is good for me, but most don't find the time for this and do it once every two weeks.

Answer 5

It's from the fish waste. How often do you clean the tank? Should be minimum once a month. And be sure your filter is working. Also, your local pet store should have some products that help eliminate the ammonia.

Answer 6

Try doing a 1/3 water change. When you are doing the water change, make sure you are siphoning out the gravel. When you refill make sure you use a little Novaqua Amquel along with your favorite water conditioner.

You are probably are over feeding or have too many fish for the size tank you have.

Answer 7

You are feeding your fish WAY too much. Ammonia comes from food that isn't eaten. You must feed the fish MUCH less. Really, each fish needs only a couple of tiny flakes.

Answer 8

gold fish are the highest for this, so cut back on one or two goldfish. If you don't have goldfish, try cleaning it once a week with the "sucker-tube" that gets the poop out. Or mabbee your over-feeding. Fish don't eat more than their eye-ball a day.