About Aqua Clear ammonia remover?

Question

Okay so I was at the pet store and I saw Aqua Clear ammonia remover media which is made for my Aqua Clear HoB filter. I haven't finished my cycling yet and ammonia is starting to become a problem in my tank in spite of changing 1/4 of the water every other day staying at about .50 and raising to 1 the next day or every other day. My nitrites are staying at about .50 and I was wondering if I could use this stuff to drop the ammonia level and let my nitrites raise to 1 to feed the bacteria so I can maybe finally get some nitrates going (water is salted lightly to help a little with nitrite toxicity). Will the bacteria that absorbs the ammonia and produces nitrites starve if I use this product? I know I made the mistake of stocking my aquarium before I cycled my tank..I have 8 fish (2 corys and 6 guppies in a 29 long). They have been little campers so far..I'm still pretty new at this and making mistakes but I'm learning fast :)

Also will this cause the cycle to be unstable once I have the nitrates and the nitrites drop to 0?

Answer 1

I would also recommend against it. Without knowing more about how it works and how much ammonia it will remove, you might remove too much - and then starve the bacteria that use it. Then you'd have to start the process again.

I don't like the use of the liquid removal products either - they bind the ammonia and nitrite in the tank to make them less harmful, but they don't actually remove anything - and your water test will still test positive for the compounds. This will make it more difficult to tell when the ammonia and nitrite levels really are too high, other than by stressing the fish.

If the bacteria aren't in your tank in enough numbers to convert the nitrite to nitrate, removing the ammonia and nitrite isn't going to help. There are different bacteria in each step of the process - one type that converts the ammonia to nitrite, another type converts nitrite to nitrate. So what you need is more of the bacteria to convert the earlier compounds so you get to nitrate faster. Depending on the current temperature, raing it a few degrees will get the bacteria to reproduce more quickly. But since warm water holds less oxygen, and fish need more oxygen when the water's warmer, you need to make sure you have good water movement for aeration to do this. There are bottles "bacterial additives", but these have different degrees of effetiveness. If they've been sitting on a shelf for too long, the bacteria will have died.

Since you really don't have that many fish, your ammonia and nitrite bith seem pretty high for doing water changes every other day. Do you use a siphon to do the water changs and vacuum the top of the gravel? If you're just chaning the water, wastes may be accumulating and keeping the levels higher. You might want to try a slightly larger volume of water as well - try for 1/3-1/2 the next water change. If you clean your filter media, don't clean it the same day as the tank - some of the bacteria will be living there, too. When you clean the filter media, get some tank water and clean it in that - if you rinse it under the tap, the chlorine will kill the bacteria. Also, make sure you aren't overfeeding the fish. You should only put in what the fish can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day, and net anything left after this time out of the tank. If you're only feeding flakes, this can be hard to judge, since it may take a while for the food to get down to the level of the corys.

Answer 2

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RE:
About Aqua Clear ammonia remover?
Okay so I was at the pet store and I saw Aqua Clear ammonia remover media which is made for my Aqua Clear HoB filter. I haven't finished my cycling yet and ammonia is starting to become a problem in my tank in spite of changing 1/4 of the water every other day staying at about .50 and raising...

Answer 3

I'm not real familiar with that product, but I would say no don't use it. Anything that will remove the ammonia will interfere with the cycle process. You'll just end up with a continual battle trying to cycle the tank.

Your best bet is to just let it run naturally through it's course. Just keep doing the frequent water changes to dilute the ammonia and nitrites. You could also try Prime by Seachem. It's supposed to convert the ammonia to a non toxic form, and will detoxify nitrites as well without removing them-allowing the tank to continue cycling.

And, you don't want your nitrates to be at 0, ammonia and nitrites will read 0 ppm when cycled, and you want to keep your nitrates under 20 ppm ideally.

Answer 4

I have used the Aqua Clear Ammonia Remover and it does removes harmful ammonia, reduces ammonia stress for fish, lowers ammonia concentration in new aquariums, and supports beneficial bacterial colonies.

It helps continuous breakdown of harmful toxins, in addition to superb solid and liquid waste removal, adds up to the best filtration for the aquarium inhabitants. It actually chemically bonds with ammonia to remove it from fresh water aquariums.

Not a bad product if you go by the booklet.

Answer 5

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Best ammonia remover, is time and water changes if nessesary. Best filters for saltwater are protein skimmers. If you want to use the aquaclear, empty the media chamber and add small pieces of live rock. Let the tank cycle, chemicals just make things worse. Use RO/DI water. 30 gallon tank might be too small even for the small puffers.

Answer 6

The bacteria feeds on ammonia and nitrate. So after a couple of days, if it's still that high, then yes you can use it. But for now, let the bacteria feed on it.

~ZTM