ARRRGGGGHHHH! Ammonia!

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Followup To
Question -
Chris -

I empathize about the home improvement hassle ... we live in a wonderful, old, turn-of-the-century home with great woodwork through-out.  It is a constant work-in-progress though, and threatens to need a new roof and siding this coming spring.  I hope your experience is a positive one.

Do you have an opinion on products like Ammo-Lock?  I'm considering trying it to see if it will help solve the problem once-for-all.  The AmQuel does not appear to be making much of a dent.  I assume that I will want to wait until the AmQuel is pretty much out of the system (via water changes) before trying another product.  Your thoughts?

Sincerely -
Ken.


Chris -

Please confirm for me that the two primary causes of ammonia are fish food, and fish waste.  Right?  

I'm starving my fish, and the threads on my python are starting to show wear from water changes ... the bottom of my tank is well vacuumed.  And I continue to test out at 1ppm on my ammonia.  I'm using StressCoat and Am-Quel during my water changes and have a very stable pH at 7.2 (or a little higher, I went a little too heavy on the baking soda a week ago and it is a bit slow to come back down - it max'd out at 7.8).  My ammonia is at 1ppm, and the nitrates and nitrites are both at 5ppm.  Hardness is testing out perfectly along with the pH.  Following all the advice I've been given, my 90-gallon tank should be in perfect health!  :(

Any other sources/treatments that you would recommend?  I love your advice, but fear that I may be over-extending my welcome with the repeated questions.  

Sincere thanks in advance for your help -
Ken.
Answer -
Hi Ken;

Don't worry that you might have too many questions! That's what I'm here for.

That ammonia sure is persistent. The nitrite is elevated too so it's a good sign because it shows the bacteria is still going. Maybe try water changes and no gravel vacuuming for a week. With the gravel cleaned maybe it needs to settle down now. As long as the fish are acting like they feel well it is okay to relax your efforts.

You can write me anytime you need to. I really don't mind. The weather here is awful so we are stuck indoors and bored anyway. Been raining for two weeks. Yep, it does rain in California! LOL! It might surprise you to know that I am a stay-at-home mom of four (21 year old son, 17 year old son, 12 year old twin girls). Hubby is a contractor and we live in a small house in the middle of remodeling. Pretty crazy around here right now!

Anyway, let me know how it's going with the tank......

Followups Welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!  

Answer
Hi Ken;

AmQuel and Ammo-Lock do the same thing but I read somewhere that they have different chemicals in them. They shouldn't be used together, so you are wise to make more changes before using a different one. Even though they bind ammonia and make it less toxic to the fish, it is still chemically available to the bacteria to use for cycling. I never use them personally. I just don't like to use chemicals in my tanks. I only add water conditioner like NovAqua or Stress Coat and ocassionally some plant food for my live plants. Since I have well water with no chlorine or anything, I rarely use even the water conditioners anymore. Only if the fish seem stressed after a water change or adding/moving fish.

I think our remodeling will be going on forever, but it has been a pretty interesting project. It is actually my husband's family home. The house was built in 1961. We found an old homemade cookbook put together in a ringed "binder" that was lost inside a wall by his mom sometime around 1965 or so. They had built the kitchen but didn't finish the interior paneling for awhile so she must have dropped it behind there and never found it. She visited us a couple of months ago (she lives in Washington now) and just marvelled over all the recipes she had pasted into it from magazines and such. She really didn't remember it (she has early alzheimer's) but she spent 2 hours just reading through it while she was here. It was so sweet.

More Followups Welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins