Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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sevenyearnight
- Former Staff Member
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Reaperpilot2014
- Fahaka Puffer
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30g - 1 GSP "Demon"
15g - 1 C. Irrubesco "Raoden"
29g - 1 Figure 8 - Looking for good name ideas...
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10 wonderful years with puffers! - Location (country): USA
- Location: Utah
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Did you by chance mean .5ppm? That's still high, but way better than 5ppm.
It's a crayfish! It's a snail! It's a... ah who cares?
Nom nom nom!...
Tank: 4 liter custom-shaped sphere
Contents: 1 Brainfish
Ph: 7.4
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates: ?
Problem: Cloudy/muddy water
Can you help me?
Nom nom nom!...
Tank: 4 liter custom-shaped sphere
Contents: 1 Brainfish
Ph: 7.4
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates: ?
Problem: Cloudy/muddy water
Can you help me?
-
ILoveLola
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 246
- Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:33 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location (country): Virginia, USA
- Location: Virginia, USA
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Reaperpilot2014 wrote:If your ammonia is 5ppm then everything in there should be dead, or getting there. You may have gotten a false reading. The Seachem ammonia alert works okay, but I would trust the liquid tests. What brand of liquid tests are you using? If you are using API, then it could also be giving you a false reading for converted ammonia due to nessler reagents.
I definitely meant 0.5 ppm. *facepalm* I have done that this entire thread, eheh. The seachem reader is now at somewhere between the <0.02 and 0.05 ppm, and the liquid test (API) is telling me 0.25 ppm. Phew, relieved it's going down. Still worried, granted.
forgive me, but what's a nessler reagent?
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sevenyearnight
- Former Staff Member
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- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:41 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: T. nigroviridis
Balki Bartokomous - Location (country): USA
- Location: South Carolina
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Test kits are either going to have a salicylate(I think?)or nessler reagent, a non-nessler reagent will give a true ammonia reading, supposedly.
I don't feel as though you got a false positive though, especially since it's going down with water changes.
I thought you typed .5 this whole time!
I don't feel as though you got a false positive though, especially since it's going down with water changes.
I thought you typed .5 this whole time!
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sevenyearnight
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1894
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:41 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: T. nigroviridis
Balki Bartokomous - Location (country): USA
- Location: South Carolina
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sevenyearnight
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1894
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:41 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: T. nigroviridis
Balki Bartokomous - Location (country): USA
- Location: South Carolina
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
I just checked my API ammonia pamphlet, it is salicylate based.
I have ammonia in my tap water, so I remember needing to get a test that would differentiate true ammonia from chloramines.
I have ammonia in my tap water, so I remember needing to get a test that would differentiate true ammonia from chloramines.
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RTR
- Mentor
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Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Forgive my rudeness or bluntness, but the above is simply not applicable, it is misleading and confused. The poster does not understand the effects of Prime on ammonia and nitrite and on current liquid test chemistry. The Seachem test differentiates between free (dangerous) and bound (harmless) ammonia. which API and all other conventional tests cannot do. Our tests kits for nitrogen metabolites went out of date a decade or more ago when Chloramines became the standard disinfectant for potable water in the US. Someday they will catch up with reality, but until that time there will be massive confusion. Your ammomia readings by that test are fine.Reaperpilot2014 wrote:If your ammonia is 5ppm then everything in there should be dead, or getting there. You may have gotten a false reading. The Seachem ammonia alert works okay, but I would trust the liquid tests. What brand of liquid tests are you using? If you are using API, then it could also be giving you a false reading for converted ammonia due to nessler reagents.
For more info, see: library/water-filtration/youchlorinechloramines/
On posting test data, it is always much easier to read if all numbers less than whol;e numbers begin with the proper digit, which is zero: post 0.5 ppm, not .5 ppm. When decimals are used, there should be at least one whole number (1, 2, 3, etc.) or a zero before the decimal. That really is done to ensure that the decimal point is noticed.
HTH
Where's the fish? - Neptune
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Reaperpilot2014
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 638
- Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2011 1:38 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 150g - 1 Fahaka Puffer "Ramses" (The Pharaoh)
55g - 3 SA Puffers "Larry, Curly, * Moe"
30g - 1 GSP "Demon"
15g - 1 C. Irrubesco "Raoden"
29g - 1 Figure 8 - Looking for good name ideas...
29g - Ramshorn, Marmorkreb, Cherry & Ghost Shrimp Breeder Tank
10 wonderful years with puffers! - Location (country): USA
- Location: Utah
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
You are correct. I was confused and was trying to undo my confusedness by asking questions. 
I certainly don't have the ability to write or understand some of the technical parts of aquaria that you have so much experience with.
As for the Seachem test, I do realize that they can differentiate, but they also get old and stop working.
I certainly don't have the ability to write or understand some of the technical parts of aquaria that you have so much experience with.As for the Seachem test, I do realize that they can differentiate, but they also get old and stop working.
Last edited by Reaperpilot2014 on Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It's a crayfish! It's a snail! It's a... ah who cares?
Nom nom nom!...
Tank: 4 liter custom-shaped sphere
Contents: 1 Brainfish
Ph: 7.4
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates: ?
Problem: Cloudy/muddy water
Can you help me?
Nom nom nom!...
Tank: 4 liter custom-shaped sphere
Contents: 1 Brainfish
Ph: 7.4
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates: ?
Problem: Cloudy/muddy water
Can you help me?
-
ILoveLola
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 246
- Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:33 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location (country): Virginia, USA
- Location: Virginia, USA
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
Thank you RTR for clearing that up for me, that's definitely reassuring. Lola has continued to be a happy little stinker, and the ammonia is steadily going down with the Prime & water changes I'm making. =] I really really appreciate everyones help, x100000. maybe more. So does Lola!
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RTR
- Mentor
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- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:39 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): East Coast, USA
Re: Sudden Ammonia Spike!
I have to admit that I really hate using the Seachem ammonia test kit, and yes, it does die faster than the old liquid kits. But it is the best we have ATM. Someday we have better (easier, more user-friendly) kits for ammonia, but it seem that we are going to have to wait a while for them.
Hey, I was a research biologist back in the real world, so if I did not know a lot of this stuff I would have been on the street. But it is hard for me to get the info out not using chem-speak. Americans are funny people - the population is tech-crazy but totally numb to chemistry, physics (which seems strange to me), and immune to biology- which is blend of chemistry & physics and biochemistry & physiology. All the basic sciences and the applied science fit into and on fish tanks.
Hey, I was a research biologist back in the real world, so if I did not know a lot of this stuff I would have been on the street. But it is hard for me to get the info out not using chem-speak. Americans are funny people - the population is tech-crazy but totally numb to chemistry, physics (which seems strange to me), and immune to biology- which is blend of chemistry & physics and biochemistry & physiology. All the basic sciences and the applied science fit into and on fish tanks.
Where's the fish? - Neptune