# what should i do about ammonia



## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

i have a 125 gallon, with three 3 inch terns, one 3 inch piraya , one 3inch super red, and four bloodfin tetra.....i have a penguin 350 filter, and a xp3 filter, i also have a powerhead.........now what should i do to lower my ammonia ?

my water perimeters are

ph 6.0
ammonia 4.0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10 ppm


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> i have a 125 gallon, with three 3 inch terns, one 3 inch piraya , one 3inch super red, and four bloodfin tetra.....i have a penguin 350 filter, and a xp3 filter, i also have a powerhead.........now what should i do to lower my ammonia ?
> 
> my water perimeters are
> 
> ...


let me be the first to ask is your tank cycled????

because with ammonia being at 4.0 and your nitrates being 10ppm,...that doesnt look like its cycled but i could be wrong and we will go from there...


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

it was cycled, i used bio-spira to speed it up, but i hadnt checked it for a couple weeks....i jus checked and i got these results


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## spinalremains (Nov 10, 2006)

How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> it was cycled, i used bio-spira to speed it up, but i hadnt checked it for a couple weeks....i jus checked and i got these results


you have 9 fish in there so your nitrates should be threw the roof,mybe your bio-spira didnt work because its hard to belive your nitrates are at 10ppm when you have 9 fish in your tank../


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

bud......weiser said:


> it was cycled, i used bio-spira to speed it up, but i hadnt checked it for a couple weeks....i jus checked and i got these results


you have 9 fish in there so your nitrates should be threw the roof,mybe your bio-spira didnt work because its hard to belive your nitrates are at 10ppm when you have 9 fish in your tank../
[/quote]

those are the readings im getting...... i have 9 fish but there all very small, the 4 tetra i have are about 1.5 inchs and the rest are 3, i also jus bought the super red and piraya today ........ i dont remember my nitrates but my ammonia and nitites were at 0


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

and its ok if your tank isnt cycled because you can do it again...i have two 8-9"reds and they just went threw a whole cycle and there fine,i mean they went threw ammonia being at 8.0ppm for almost two weeks and nitrites being at 2.0+ and they couldnt look happier now.it takes a month to cycle, just if your going to re-cycle then keep your ammonia &nitrites at about 1.0ppm by doing water changes every day and when you start getting high nitrates get some live plants thatll help with high nitrates because plants feed on nitrates.youll be fine if you have to re-cycle


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## spinalremains (Nov 10, 2006)

spinalremains said:


> How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

spinalremains said:


> How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


[/quote] ive had the tank for maybe 3- 4 months


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## spinalremains (Nov 10, 2006)

Hmm, maybe you might be overfeeding them? How often do you do waterchanges and gravel vacs?


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

spinalremains said:


> Hmm, maybe you might be overfeeding them? How often do you do waterchanges and gravel vacs?


i usually do about 25% every 10 days....i gravel vac the entire gravel every time i change the water


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


[/quote] ive had the tank for maybe 3- 4 months
[/quote]
how long did you have fish in there for because if you just added fish lets say two weeks ago that means that there were no fish in there 3-4 months ago to start the cycle and there for you tank isnt cycled...just a thought.


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

bud......weiser said:


> How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


[/quote] ive had the tank for maybe 3- 4 months
[/quote]
how long did you have fish in there for because if you just added fish lets say two weeks ago that means that there were no fish in there 3-4 months ago to start the cycle and there for you tank isnt cycled...just a thought.
[/quote]
i had 3 reds that was in the tank as soon as i set it up, jus because i had these filters on my cycled 50 gal that i sold....but i sold the reds about a month ago maybe less.....added the 3 terns 1 month ago ...added tetras about 2 weeks ago...... added the piraya and super red today, jus bought it from m.a.

are there any tricks for lowering the ammonium? i dont wanna add any chemicals


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> How long has it been set up? If you have them, what are some readings of previous parameter tests?


[/quote] ive had the tank for maybe 3- 4 months
[/quote]
how long did you have fish in there for because if you just added fish lets say two weeks ago that means that there were no fish in there 3-4 months ago to start the cycle and there for you tank isnt cycled...just a thought.
[/quote]
i had 3 reds that was in the tank as soon as i set it up, jus because i had these filters on my cycled 50 gal that i sold....but i sold the reds about a month ago maybe less.....added the 3 terns 1 month ago ...added tetras about 2 weeks ago...... added the piraya and super red today, jus bought it from m.a.

are there any tricks for lowering the ammonium? i dont wanna add any chemicals
[/quote]
well its just that when fish produce waste it turns into ammonia then nitrites and then into nitrates if the tank is cycled so i just dont understand why you have such high ammonia and low nitrates im sorry bro but i dont know how to help you the last thing i can ask you is if you treat your tap water because if you dont ,normal tap water can kill bacteria and there for destroy your biolagical bacteria in your filter and there for get ammonia and nitrites


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

i treat it every time i change my water ...i use aquasafe......will these paremeters harm my p's in the long run? and should i be doing more water changes?


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> i treat it every time i change my water ...i use aquasafe......will these paremeters harm my p's in the long run? and should i be doing more water changes?


like i said my piranhas went threw ammonia being at 8.0ppm for almost 2 week and there fine i mean theres not much you can do at this point just try to do water changes every day and keep it around 1.0-1.5ppm because after a sertain ppm ,the bacteria in you filter will stop growing if the ammonia is to high just do about 30% water changes everyday-no more then 50%water changesif the ammonia gets out of hand and dont worry youll be fine,my were with no problems and this is the best water treater ,with this stuff all you have to put is 1?4 of the cap for a bucket and it completly removes ammonia nitrites and nitrates, i tested this product http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_det...prime&N=2up

if my link dosent work then go to petsmart.com and search for prime,its a red bottle


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

thanx for the help....if anyone else has suggestions id appreciate it


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## spinalremains (Nov 10, 2006)

I just thought of another thing. What kind of test kit are you using and how old is it? i had an expired test kit that gave off false ammonia readings. Just another idea.


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

spinalremains said:


> I just thought of another thing. What kind of test kit are you using and how old is it? i had an expired test kit that gave off false ammonia readings. Just another idea.


im using the ap fresh water master kit....ive had it about 6 months


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## spinalremains (Nov 10, 2006)

There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

spinalremains said:


> There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


the last 4 digits are 0406 .... could my tank be goin through a cycle again ?


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


the last 4 digits are 0406 .... could my tank be goin through a cycle again ?
[/quote]







i dont know at what part of the world your from but its april/2007(04/07) your drops expired,exactly 1 year ago







:laugh: why would you think that its not cycled.


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## koleohn (Dec 28, 2006)

bud......weiser said:


> There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


the last 4 digits are 0406 .... could my tank be goin through a cycle again ?
[/quote]







i dont know at what part of the world your from but its april/2007(04/07) your drops expired,exactly 1 year ago







:laugh: why would you think that its not cycled.
[/quote]
i thought that was the month and year the bottles were made.


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## bud......weiser (Feb 12, 2007)

koleohn said:


> There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


the last 4 digits are 0406 .... could my tank be goin through a cycle again ?
[/quote]







i dont know at what part of the world your from but its april/2007(04/07) your drops expired,exactly 1 year ago







:laugh: why would you think that its not cycled.
[/quote]
i thought that was the month and year the bottles were made.
[/quote]
well then your in luck lol your tank probably has no ammonia,just buy a new test kit and check it out


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2007)

bud......weiser said:


> There is a date printed on the bottles themselves where it says LOT # 28c0206 for example. The last four numbers are month and year. (o206 meaning February of 2006 of course) Check yours out.


the last 4 digits are 0406 .... could my tank be goin through a cycle again ?
[/quote]







i dont know at what part of the world your from but its april/2007(04/07) your drops expired,exactly 1 year ago







:laugh: why would you think that its not cycled.
[/quote]
i thought that was the month and year the bottles were made.
[/quote]
well then your in luck lol your tank probably has no ammonia,just buy a new test kit and check it out








[/quote]
are u sure becuase on mine my year is 2005 on all of them.


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