# too much ammonia!!!!



## FeederFish33 (Jan 22, 2003)

This is really pissing me off. No matter what I do, my ammonia is high. I do tons of water changes, I vacuum the tank, it does no good! My tank smells! How do I lower it and make my tank not smell? Water changes and vacuuming are not working!


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## golfer931 (Feb 26, 2003)

are you using a carbon filter?


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## FeederFish33 (Jan 22, 2003)

i dunno


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## RAZORTEETH (Feb 6, 2003)

do like i did go get some ammo lock this stuff works fast


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## FeederFish33 (Jan 22, 2003)

i have a whisper power filter 5. can the ammo lock work for it?


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## sccavee (Feb 11, 2003)

How long has your tank been running? You should not have a problem if a tank is fully cycled unless you have a huge amount of bioload.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

Test the water out of your tap. If ok use bio spira it worked great for me.


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## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

My tank did the same thing about two or three weeks after I set it up. It smelled like crap. I used ammo lock and let it complete the cycle and now it is fine. I would not do a lot of water changes, just use ammo lock and keep testing the water. Also, don't do anything with your filter. Just let it run. It should stop smelling within a week. Good Luck!


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## pcrose (Mar 9, 2003)

I think I will use some ammo lock thanks for the idea fellas.


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## rosecityrhom (Feb 3, 2003)

Excuse me if I'm wrong but if I'm thinking right wouldn't ammo lock mess with your cycling as it gets rid of the ammonia thus not letting bacteria form to deal with ammonia naturally?


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## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

Actually, it says right on the bottle that it doesn't really remove the ammonia, it just neutralizes it. When using ammo lock, it will still register ammonia in the water but the ammonia is no longer harmful to fish.


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## Netmancer (Mar 10, 2003)

Don't get me wrong, not trying to start up an argument or anything, but what ammo-lock does is simply converts ammonia from one poisonous form to another. It's still harmful to your fish, just not as much as it would be if you had left it alone. And you still get the false positive on your ammonia test, so you can never be too sure as to how effective it actually is. I'd say Bio-Spira is your best bet. That, or letting your tank simply run its course like I did. My Pacu and P were a little sluggish for a day or two, but then the bacteria kicked in hard and the ammonia vanished, now my tank is doing great and all my fish are happy as pig in sh*t. :







:


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

The water changes and gravel vacuming is not allowing your tank to cycle. I have heard bio-spear works well to speed up the cycle. I would not do any water changes or gravel vacs until your ammonia is gone and the tank is cycled.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

I tried ammo lock for awile and it didn't help. Two pet stores i talked to said that that stuff was garbage and to thow it away. Just stating that was told to me by a knowledgeable guy at lfs who hasn't sterred me wrong yet. Bio spira is the bacreria that eats ammonia.


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## rosecityrhom (Feb 3, 2003)

That was pretty much my point...by locking the ammonia you are not allowing bacteria to form in order to consume it then expel nitrites which new bacteria is formed to absorb those that expel nitrates. I believe using ammo-lock will just simply mess with your cycle. Nature seems to be the best way to go about letting your tank deal with harmful things like ammonia and nitrites as it does in our rivers. Just my thought.


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## pcrose (Mar 9, 2003)

Use bio spira or cycle, don't feed the fish for a couple of days,  and don't over feed the fish. Innes says to do 20 -30% water change a day. Or every 2 days you could do a 50%water change. It is up to you.


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## RAZORTEETH (Feb 6, 2003)

sounds like the pet store guys are really smart







if u read up on ammo lock all it does is make the ammonia less poisonous to your fish it does not stop it from cycling just helps u keep your fish like i said i learned my lesson the first time i did not use it now i keep it on me at all times so to each his own and good luck


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## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

i must agree. Ammo lock didn't harm any of my fish at all. It cycled fine after using it too. I see no problems with using it.


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