ammonia trouble please help!?

Question

what would you reccomend doing to decrease the ammonia

Answer 1

It depends--when did you set up the tank? If it is still a relatively new tank, it is most likely going through a natural cycling process. If this is the case, you do not want to do much of anything. You can buy live bacteria at the fish store to try to speed up the process, but it will happen on it's own. I assume you have gotten your water tested--if the nitrogen levels are also starting to go up (and the tank is new) it is about half way through the process.

If the tank is not new and you are just having ammonia problems, you should evaluate a few things. First, have you done a significant water change lately (more than 50%)? If so, it will be just like you started the tank new.

What kind of fish do you have? How many? Goldfish are naturally dirty animals, and can withstand a higher level of ammonia (within reason). If you have regular tropical fish, you should have no more than one inch of fish per gallon. If you have goldfish, the general rule is no more than one inch of fish for every 5 gallons. More than this and you may see ammonia problems simply from too many fish producing waste in a limited amount of water. If you have the correct number of fish, how much are you feeding them? You should feed them no more than what they will consume in 1-2 minutes, no more than twice a day (once is usually sufficient). If there is food falling to the bottom and not being eaten, this can also cause your ammonia to spike.

When you change your water, are you cleaning it with a gravel cleaner? If not, you should. If you don't get the gunk out of your gravel, you will continue to see high levels of ammonia. Ammonia also concentrates near the bottom (it is denser than just plain water) and so you won't be changning the dirtiest water without a gravel cleaner. Only take out 25-30% of your total water at a time. You shouldn't clean your tank more than once a month (twice if you are trying to get your water levels under control).

You may see a product at the pet store that promises to "lock up" your ammonia. DO NOT use it. It does not rid the tank of ammonia and will not allow the beneficial bacteria that normally break down the ammonia to live in your tank. You will be causing yourself many long term problems.

I hope this help!

Answer 2

While goldfish are more "dirty" (produce more poop) than other fish, they cannot withstand poor water quality any better!! And you should definitely clean your tank more than once a month! I recommend 20% water changes every week at a minimum, unless you have an extremely heavily planted tank (if that were the case you wouldn't have ammonia issues however).

How toxic ammonia is depends on pH and temperature in the tank. Lower temps and lower pH mean less toxic. (Just FYI)

Careful using Amquell products as they can lower your pH, which can be helpful in an ammonia crisis, but too low and you'll kill the fish. My favorite ammonia-detoxing product is Prime by Seachem. Carbon/charcol alone will not remove ammonia. You need a chemical resin called zeolite, or a product that specifically says "removes ammonia,"

If you've had the tank set up a while and are still having ammonia issues, you may be overstocked and/or over feeding.

Answer 3

Increase the amount of water changes, and decrease the amount of food you are giving to reduce the amount of poop (ammonia). If your only feed your fish every three days they will not starve for at least two weeks.
If you have a filter that hangs on the side, lower the water level to increase the waterfall effect. The increase in water movement and oxygen will help with the bacterias growth.
Adding salt for freshwater fish will help as well. One level tablespoon for every 5 gallons will stop your fish from absorbing as much water and therefore less ammonia. It will also increase their slime production delaying ammonia burn.
Buy a plant or decoration (keep them in water) from an established pet store tank. It will introduce more of the beneficial bacteria into your tank.
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Answer 4

It depends.
First you need to figure out if the level of ammonia you're seeing is at toxic levels. How toxic ammonia is depends on pH and water temperature. If your pH is up around 8, you'll have a lot more work to do to keep ammonia low than if your pH is around 7. The tables here should help
http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html

If your water is well buffered (KH is high), amquel detoxes the most ammonia per dose... however it eats up KH and can crash your pH.

Prime can also be used to detox ammonia and it won't affect pH. there's a dry version of Prime called Safe that would also work.

Here's a good article on cycling that has some info on things you can do to keep your water from getting toxic.
http://thegab.org/Articles/WaterQualityCycling.html

Answer 5

ammonia is created from fish waste. You may need more filtration. Definately make sure you are changing 25% of the water 1 time a week and maybe seperate some of your fish you may be over crowded.

Answer 6

Well it depends on where the ammonia is. If its in a fish tank sorry Im not sure but if its in something like a water tank or trough that animals drink out of then pour in some chlorox or vinegar.

Answer 7

if it is a established tank do a 25% water change if you have a lot of fish keep up on the water changes you can use ammo carb for high levels of ammonia to

Answer 8

Water changes

Answer 9

water changes and stop over feeding !! decrease the bio load in your tank untill the tank is cycled

Answer 10

Purchase AmQuel Plus, or any other nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, chlorine, and chloramine remover. AmQuel is nontoxic to fish.