# Ammonia



## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Four days ago my ammonia came off 0 and went to 0.25ppm. I've been checking it every day but it wont go down. I'm pretty sure the cycle isn't gone because the nitrates keep climbing by a little less than 5ppm a day.

Its a 72g tank with a a wet/dry and a hob for filtration. The wet/dry has around 6g of biomedia that turns over about 300-350GPH with another 150-200GPH ish just running through mech and back into the tank. The Hob appears to be a POS Cascade that I got with the tank. I haven't rinsed any media since a week or two before the wet/dry was installed. Also there is no chemical filtration ATM and hasnt been for a while.

The params are:
.25ppm ammo
0 nitrite
25ppm nitrate <= still slowly climbing though
7.8 to 8 PH

Livestock is:
one 5-5.5" rhom
5 x 1.5" cons
1 x 3-4" pleco
And some swords, anubias, and wisteria i recently added for the hell of it.

The tank has be up and running since mid December if I remember right, and it was established with media from my other tank. The gravel is clean, there's little to no algea, and I have not added anything for the plants yet because I wanted to figure this out first.

The test kit is an API that's only about 9 month old. All the bottles were always shook well before use. 
I treat the water for chlorine with stress coat+. This stuff It says it gets rid of ammo too. Could that be turning the ammo into a different compound that shows up as ammonia on the tests, but the filter wont take it out? Ive been using the stuff for a while, but ive never had this problem before. Could it build up over time?

I'm clueless as to what could be going on.

Any help is appreciated. Sorry for the long read. I just wanted to get everything in there I could think of that might help.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Ok it looks like it cant be because the test kit is expired. I found how to tell the age of the API test bottles and it sounds like all of them will make at least 3 years. Mine are all just over 1 yr old.

This guy from fishlore.com had a pretty in depth email with API on the subject. Heres the link.

Still looking for ideas.









I'm probably still going to take a water sample to a LFS tomorrow to be sure about my results.

Just thought of something. Chloramines are chlorine and ammonia right? Could it be the stress coat breaking down chloramine into chlorine and ammonia? After it does that the ammonia shows up on my test? Kind of explains why I dont get an ammonia reading from the tap.

Nothing completely adds up.


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Add some stress coat to some tap water then test it. Dont do anything to the tank for a week and then test it. If you keep getting different results, then just get another test from someone different than you bought the original with.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Ok, checked it. Its not quite zero but it isnt as high as the tank water.

Checked it again just to make sure. this time it looked pretty close to the same as the tank.

Why wouldnt the tank get rid of it in four days though? does it turn into some form the filters cant take care of? I wouldnt think so because amquel and ammo lock or what ever it is doesnt.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Plowboy said:


> Ok it looks like it cant be because the test kit is expired. I found how to tell the age of the API test bottles and it sounds like all of them will make at least 3 years. Mine are all just over 1 yr old.
> 
> This guy from fishlore.com had a pretty in depth email with API on the subject. Heres the link.
> 
> ...


You are correct, they are chlorine and ammonia. The conditioner detoxifies the ammonia but wont remove it. Gets converted into ammonium and than slowly over a couple days converts back to ammonia. Which is probably what you are reading. Maybe you are doing too big of water changes.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Thanks Giggles!

I've never done a big water change on this tank, because the bio load is so small. Usually just 20-25% at the most per week. I haven't tested the last few days. Ill get a reading today sometime and post them. And from now on I'll just do 2 10-15% per week about.

Before Christmas break i never had this issue. They must has just started adding chloramines.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Plowboy said:


> Thanks Giggles!
> 
> I've never done a big water change on this tank, because the bio load is so small. Usually just 20-25% at the most per week. I haven't tested the last few days. Ill get a reading today sometime and post them. And from now on I'll just do 2 10-15% per week about.
> 
> Before Christmas break i never had this issue. They must has just started adding chloramines.


Did you have a major rainstorm or runoff from major melting snow recently. Water districts tend to overdose extra on the chloramines when that happens to battle bacteria outbreaks. You can call them also and ask if you're curious. With that water change schedule just keep an eye on your nitrates so they are in a manageable range. That is what truly tells you how much/many water changes you need to do weekly.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

I'm not sure where they get there water from for this district. Its possible though. Thanks for all the help so far. When I tested last night the nitrates were 40+ so I did a change. The ammo went from a bit below.25 to .25-.50.


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## Plowboy (Apr 9, 2008)

Tested again today. ammo is gone, nitrates are up, and nitrites are 0. I guess I just have to live with the fact that i have chloramines in my water now.


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