I seem to always have a problem with amonia in my tank... can anyone tell me how to eliminate it?

Answer 1

Overstocking can be an issue. Yes, you would need to tell us the size of your tank and what fish you have and how many. Also though, it can be from cleaning the tank too well and never giving the beneficial bacteria time to grow which starts the nitrogen cycle. Never scrub a tank "squeaky clean." Remove about 25% of the water once a week, wipe down the glass, rinse the filter and the plants and decorations in the old water you removed from the tank and siphon the gunk out of the gravel not disturbing it any more than you have to. You shouldn't need chemicals,other than a dechlorinator/detoxifier if you're doing your cycling and water changes correctly. If your stocking isn't an issue, try adding some Bio-Spira to kickstart the nitrogen cycle. Once you understand the nitrogen cycle, how to fix things might seem a little less confusing. Good luck!

Answer 2

You really do need to post your stocking level and tank size for a good answer but if this is a fairly new setup , I would say you dont have an established tank .
Ammonia blockers are absolutely never ever needed if you will properly do a fishless cycle when you start up a new tank and only add new fish slowly to existing tanks .
I think alot of people need to learn fishless cycling , cycling with fish is very cruel and painful to them :) had to make that point known
I would suggest going to an informed site like aquahobby or other trusted site and read up on it .
If your gonna keep the fish know the fish .

Answer 3

I recently went through a similar problem. For a while, I was changing water like crazy, with 9 inches of fish in a 10 gallon tank. Changing to distilled water helped some, and what really helped was switching to a larger tank. But the core of my problem was I didn't understand the nitrogen cycle. Your ammonia needs to spike when your tank is new to help beneficial bacteria grow.

-If your water is hard where you live, I'd switch to distilled water, this helped quite a bit for me.
-Feed your fish only a little bit of food. When I feed my fish, whatever they don't eat within a minute or so, I scoop back out of there. Excess food in your tank will cause ammonia to spike
-Make sure your tank isn't overstocked
-If your tank is still new, cleaning this that and the other will slow your tanks stabilization. Your ammonia needs to spike initially.
-Using chemicals to prevent ammonia spikes will also slow your tanks stabilization, if your tank is relatively new don't use anything to eliminate the ammonia, perhaps try a bacteria supplement instead?

Answer 4

If you have a filter in your tank, you should cycle it first before adding in fish. There should be no amonia in a cycled tank. However if it's a small fish bowl, with no or minimal filtration, nothing really gets rid of amonia other than water changes.

Answer 5

stocking levels are generally the main cause of excess amonia, so id post a question or edit your question with the details of the fish you have in your tank, the size of them, and the size of your tank (l x w x h)

i know they make products especially for this problem, but i have not used them myself, but that may be an option

Answer 6

i first want to know
-what size tank it is...
-how many fish are in there, and what types are they...
-if you have a filter or not...

with tropical fish i always use the rule of thumb that says one gallon per each inch of fish.... unless its goldfish...they should have alot more cause they produce alot of waiste that creates alot of ammonia.

like everyone else has been saying, take out 25% of the water each week- i use tap water so i make sure to use a water conditioner for the water i'm adding in

add some sort of filter

if you have too many fish in there, i'd see if either the petstore will buy them back, or if you want to get a bigger tank.

make sure to keep the ammonia down, cause it will cause the fish to become stressed, and supress their immune systems...watch out for signs of ick or other common fish diseases....

Answer 7

do a 25% water change every 2 weeks, and use amonia block.

Answer 8

Use an ammonia blocker, with charcoal.