High ammonia levels

[colin779]

What is the best way to lower them? Water changes?

 

[DonW]

Why are they high? Is this a new tank?

Don

 

[mmkeeper]

Tell us more about your setup so we can assist you.

 

[colin779]

the tank is currently about 4 weeks old. 18 gallon tank, 20-25 lbs of live rock, 1 1/2 - 2 inch live sand bed. between the filter and powerhead 270gph flow. ammonia was the only thing that showed up on the tests i ran, no nitrates, nitrites, copper.

i do not know a good amount of water to change and how often i should be doing it. i am going to do 3 gallons today.

 

[chend2]

Hey bud,
You are going to lose your clowns and anything else that is alive in there. See if you friend or a wish store will take them.
Waste (fish pee) turns into ammonia.
Then to nitrites
Then to nitrates

All of which are toxic.

For a new tank this can take up too 8-10 weeks. If you don't move anything that is alive in there it is almost certainly toast.

But if you don't mind things dying leave everything in there and wait it out till the tank cycles through the stages then do some water changes.

Anyway, it is up to you, you can't do anything about it until the tank has been up long enough to process waste.

Cheers,
David

 

[colin779]

Is there any kind of chemical or anything i can use to help lower the ammonia to a level that wont harm the fish. i don not have anywehre i can take them and am kind of on a small budget so it would not be good to flush $45 down the toilet...

 

[mmkeeper]

Do you have a friend with a saltwater tank that is cycled? If so you could get some of his sand bed to help seed yours. your fish are at high risk. Water changes will dilute the ammonia but will slow the cycling. You could get some Purigen http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~SC3231.html

 

[chend2]

nope you cant skip the biology, the local fish store should take em back. But mistakes happen. If if you get rid the ammonia its has to cycle or tank will never be able to take waste. You can't skip over the toxic part.
You cannot save them in that tank (Period).

 

[OmarD]

Colin,

Small tanks are tough to start out on...Am assuming your tests are showing ammonia or you would not be asking question.

If you can, do a good sized water change now. Then tomorrow pull fish out and take them down to Eric (or Mario) and tell them you need temporary housing/or fish return until your tank completes cycle.

Might want to call them first, am pretty certain either will take care of you.

Do it before they really start getting sick on you.

Then it is just a matter of a waiting game, till your tank is cycled enough to handle the bio-load you want to put in it.

You did not say how many fish you had...but can be only one, at most two small ones in a newly cycled tank that size.

Sorry,

Scott

 

[colin779]

Currently just the 3 fish, a chromis and the clowns.

My entire sandbed is from a cycled tank, a friend had to downsize because of a move and dontaed it to me. About 7 lbs of the rock was from his tank too.

Ill have to call eric tomorrow, hopefully he can hang on to them for me for a little while.

As for now i am going to change out some water...

Figured the tank was rdy, all tests came back with nothing even after having the chromis in there with a shrimp and a couple snails for a couple weeks.

 

[Reefergeorge]

What are your levals at? Sorry if it was already posted.

 

[mmkeeper]

What brand of test kit are you using?

 

[colin779]

I am using the "Saltwater Master Test Kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals". The first test i did looked like it was somewhere just below 0.25, so i changed 1 gallon of water out. I retested just now which is roughly 3 hours later and that test shows 0... So, i dont know what to do. I suppose i will keep a very close eye on it..

 

[mmkeeper]

The key to not wasting alot of money and killing alot of things in this hobby is to go slow. It takes time for a tank to cycle. By getting stuff from a running system should speed up the process some as long as there wasn't alot of die off. Go to the "New to ReefKeeping" thread and read thru the sticky that krish has there and it will be of great help to you.

 

[colin779]

Other thing was, my tank already did the gets really brown and gross looking stage all over the rocks and sand, that was almost 2 weeks ago, i thought once that was done that was the main part of the tank cycling?

 

[Reefergeorge]

Somebody correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think .25 is going to hurt anything. I think things start dieing around 1.

 

[colin779]

what is an acceptable ammonia level? i have been under the impression that 0 is what you want?

 

[NC2WA]

colin,

Yes. For ammonia and nitrite, the amount should always be zero. Personally, I would never put anything in a tank where the ammonia level is NOT zero, otherwise you are throwing money away and not being smart about this hobby.

 

[colin779]

The ammonia level was 0 for a long time. I am thinking i may have somehow messed up the test that was high, or looked at it in funny lighting.

I just tested it again and it still shows as 0.

I only did a 1 gallon water change and that was going on 6 hours ago now. I do not believe if there had been any ammonia in the tank a 1 gallon water change would have brought it back down to 0 on the test?

Someone please correct me if i am wrong. If i am i need to get my fish out of there for a while.

I will test it again in the morning before i go to work and see what it looks like.

 

[ronj]

if the ammonia is at zero, the fish should be ok...i would still keep an eye on all your water parameters for the next few weeks..it wouldn't hurt to do a good water change every week for the next few weeks just to be sure..