ammonia spikes

[blarg news]

well, I know this is slightly off topic, but I can't find any freshwater
aquarium newsgroups so I'll have to post here and hope you guys will help me
even tho it is not about plants.

My aquarium is about a month old and had the first fish put in about a week
into it. it is a 29 gallon, has a penguin 170 filter, a aquaclear
powerhead, and a 100 watt submersible heater. I am mainting the temperature
at about 80 degrees. I have been treating with stress zyme and using a
combination of stress coat and prime as my stress-coat treatments (only the
combination because prime has been selling out in stores recently and i
wasnt able to pick it up until about 2 or 3 weeks after the tank had been
set up).

the problem I have been running into is that my ammonias have been
maintaining a level as high as 2.0 while my nitrites are dead on zero. I
have attempted daily 20% water changes to remove the ammonia as well as
higher doses of Prime which removes about .6 ppm for the normal dosage. to
detoxify the ammonia I have been occasionaly adding ammo-lock, however I do
not know how often to add it so I will admit I have been sporadic about it.

It seems counter-intuitive for me to have high ammonia and no nitrites since
the normal cycle for a tank is to get high ammonia, and no nitrites only in
the first 3 days of the tank cycle. My ammonia test kit is less than 6
months old and I do not know if it uses Salicyte testing methods.

Any help that you guys could provide would be very appreciated. thanks.

[Bruce Geist]

Do your fish looked stressed? This is a good way of validating high ammonia
levels.

The ammonia will get converted to nitrite after the correct bacteria get
started in your tank. Then you will see the nitrite spike, and be waiting
for a second bloom of bacteria to take the nitrite to nitrate.You may want
to try taking a couple of tablespoons full of gravel from someone else's
cycled tank in an attempt to culture the nitrifying bacteria more quickly.
You can put this gravel directly into the filter, or even just in the tank.
Even if you do not intend to raise plants in your aquarium, you may want to
get a few sprigs of hornwort or equally hardy, fast growing plant. Since it
is likely that these plants will come from an aquarium that has been cycled,
the plants themselves may have the same affect as trying to add the gravel.
(The nitrifying bacteria will typically exist on the plants..) If you have
reasonable lighting, say 1 flourescent watt per gallon or so, the hornwort
will actually grow and take care of some of the ammonia for you. Nitrite
spikes can be tough on fish too, so be watching. Hope you have cheap fish
in their while the tank is cycling.. How many fish are in your aquarium
now?

-Bruce Geist
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~brucegeist


"blarg news" > wrote in message
...
> well, I know this is slightly off topic, but I can't find any freshwater
> aquarium newsgroups so I'll have to post here and hope you guys will help
me
> even tho it is not about plants.
>
> My aquarium is about a month old and had the first fish put in about a
week
> into it. it is a 29 gallon, has a penguin 170 filter, a aquaclear
> powerhead, and a 100 watt submersible heater. I am mainting the
temperature
> at about 80 degrees. I have been treating with stress zyme and using a
> combination of stress coat and prime as my stress-coat treatments (only
the
> combination because prime has been selling out in stores recently and i
> wasnt able to pick it up until about 2 or 3 weeks after the tank had been
> set up).
>
> the problem I have been running into is that my ammonias have been
> maintaining a level as high as 2.0 while my nitrites are dead on zero. I
> have attempted daily 20% water changes to remove the ammonia as well as
> higher doses of Prime which removes about .6 ppm for the normal dosage.
to
> detoxify the ammonia I have been occasionaly adding ammo-lock, however I
do
> not know how often to add it so I will admit I have been sporadic about
it.
>
> It seems counter-intuitive for me to have high ammonia and no nitrites
since
> the normal cycle for a tank is to get high ammonia, and no nitrites only
in
> the first 3 days of the tank cycle. My ammonia test kit is less than 6
> months old and I do not know if it uses Salicyte testing methods.
>
> Any help that you guys could provide would be very appreciated. thanks.
>
>