# .25 ammonia reading after 4 weeks



## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Ok, first of all, happy new year!

I set up a 75g Novemer 27. There is a 1/2" layer of pre-soaked sphagnim peat moss, and mulm from an established tank at the bottom of the Soilmaster Select substrate(like a fired clay). It has a broken in, established XP2 and an AC30 w/filter attachment in there. Also, there is 3 pieces of driftwood from a local river bank that I boiled for 40 mins, and soaked in water for about 5 weeks in there.

I put 50-60 guppies in the tank almost a week after setup that were sickly. I didn't realize they were sick until I opened the bag... *phew* I did not put that water into my tank. I floated them and added .5 cup of water every 5 mins or so for about 40 mins, then I netted them and released into the tank.

They were dying off like crazy for about a week until about 20 remain. None have died after that. I was scooping them out when I found them.. I was monitoring the ammonia levels, and decided to do 2 45% water changes during the time they were dying, because the ammonia levels were about 1.5ppm or so. --That was 3 weeks ago.

The tank is borderline heavily planted. The substrate has water softening qualities as it sucks up some calcium and magnesium from the water. The pH is 6.0, KH is 3, ammonia is a steady .25, nitrItes 0, and nitrAtes 20. I don't want to put my sanchezi in this tank until the ammonia is 0.

I have checed the tank very thouroghly, no dead bodies, barely any mulm/rotting leaves on the bottom from the plants. Just tiny stuff. Seems quite normal.. can't find any obvious source of ammonia.. What am I missing?? Could the driftwood be slowly rotting? Could that cause ammonia? IT seems hard enough to put in there...? Any thoughts? --thanks in advance!


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## rbp75 (May 2, 2004)

It is possible the driftwood is rotting but if you say there are no soft or discolored spots it should be ok. The guesses I would have is either the tank need more time to cycle, the bioload could be larger from whatever you previosly used to establish the filters, or the use of the sphagnim moss along with the driftwood dropped the ph down to 6 too fast causing some loss of bacteria in the media. 
The other thing I would guess is "maybe" there was so much ammonia from the guppies that it soaked into the driftwood and is still leaching out. Whatever is happening I would just give some more time to see what happens. If it still has ammonia after a while then try adding more bio media to the filters if you have some room to spare. Good luck with it bro, the tank looks awsome.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

The only thing i could think of is that your water district may be adding a higher concentration of chloramines which contains ammonia. Please check your tap water for ammonia.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Thanks guys, rbp75, jerry.

I appreciate the time spent trying to help me. I will try both suggestions, and hopefully this will come to a happy conclusion!

ok, all my other tanks have 0 ammonia, and so does tap water.. I will just wait it out for a couple weeks before i ask this question again... if I have to.

I am just getting a little impatient, because I want to put the fish in there !!!!


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2006)

Dippy, I don't know why you're getting that ammonia reading. It's not from the driftwood. Ammonia is a by-product of rotting or digested protein (actually the amine group off the amino acids). Wood and leaves just dont have that much protein.

I noticed your pH was 6.0. Is that the actual pH or just the lowest reading on the test kit? Your actual pH may be signifigantly lower than 6.0 if that's the case. Spaghum moss can really lower your pH if your water doesn't have a high enough carbonate hardness to resist the pH drop.

The low pH is signifigant because the lower the pH, the slower the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria work. At some point they actually stop working entirely and even start to die off. (An open container of soda goes rancid very slowly because it has phosphoric acid in it to give it a pH in the 3's.)

The low pH also explains why your guppies or having trouble in the tank. Guppies do best at a pH of 7 or higher.

Hope this helps.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

well, I can tell you that when I opened the bag from the LFS, the BAG stunk like ammonia, not the tank.

the fish were bad from the very beginning, now the remaining fish are happy as can be and reproducing. I now have about 25 babies swimming around in there, along with the 20 or so adults tht made it.

Thanks for the info, I will keep it in mind


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

well, today --same ammonia reading... fish are doing great! plants are growing.. no problems, except I do not want to risk putting in the sanchezi.. I don't want him getting messed up at all...
anyone have any ideas, or should I keep patient? thanks


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## rbp75 (May 2, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> well, today --same ammonia reading... fish are doing great! plants are growing.. no problems, except I do not want to risk putting in the sanchezi.. I don't want him getting messed up at all...
> anyone have any ideas, or should I keep patient? thanks


Do you have any more room in your filters for more bio media? Just a thought but maybe you just need more.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

I thought of that, but I had that filter on my other 75 wich housed 60 neons, 12 SAE's, 10 otto's, and 2 blue rams. I never had an ammonia or filtration problem. I even have a AC30 w/filter attachment to help it out a bit, which I never had on the other tank.

There is like 40 guppies in there. But, I guess I might have to try it. THanks for the reply


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## assclown (Dec 12, 2005)

IMO/ Driftwood from local water are not good for a tank.

1) they contain many chemicals that are in that water that we can not test for.

2)yes it can bring your ammonia levels up, decay in any form will spill out as ammonia

3)i have traveled down this road in my cichlid tank with driftwood and it did decay and sen my readings off the charts along with decreasing my ph

IMO / the only driftwood that is safe after soaking, is from Africa..........just IMO


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

assclown said:


> IMO/ Driftwood from local water are not good for a tank.
> 
> 1) they contain many chemicals that are in that water that we can not test for.
> 
> ...


the wierd thing is that I have this collected driftwood in all my tanks, and this is the only tank with the problem..


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## Azeral (Dec 28, 2004)

DiPpY eGgS said:


> Thanks guys, rbp75, jerry.
> 
> I appreciate the time spent trying to help me. I will try both suggestions, and hopefully this will come to a happy conclusion!
> 
> ...


Nice Tank!


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Azeral said:


> Thanks guys, rbp75, jerry.
> 
> I appreciate the time spent trying to help me. I will try both suggestions, and hopefully this will come to a happy conclusion!
> 
> ...


Nice Tank!








[/quote]
thanks man... maybe it is the peat..LOL


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