ammonia

[lvdwfc]

I have a new tank 5wkS old, heavily planted. At 2wks it was cycled, Then put in too many fish,:redface: reduced fish population down to 3 plus frog, got ammonia down from verrrry high to .5 but ammonia levels won't drop past this. Why is this? It is making me crazy. All fish and frog in tank accounted for and living. I have made sure there isn't alot of dead leaves on the bottom and filter isn't overly dirty. What else? janeen

 

[tjudy]

How many days has it been at .5? Maybe it just needs more time. You might also try using the test kit on some distilled water... you might be getting a bad reading.

 

[lvdwfc]

The ammonia level has been at .5 for about a 1.5-2wks. the nitrite is 0 and nirate is 0, ph at 6. I'm running hang-on filter and airstone. temp about 76-78 degrees.

 

[bigbird]

What are you feeding the frog, how often and also the fish. Is there a lot of food left over after feeding. Are you fertilizing the plants or are they decaying ? Do you have a home made CO2 device ? Did you use the correct water mix of chemicals for conditioner ? Did you remove the dead fish ? Are dead fish in the filter ?
Ammonia is produced by decaying animal or plant matter and also urine. Also sometimes in rainwater tanks , if you are using tank water.
Have you tried to add a compound by Nutrafin called Cycle, which is live beneficial bacteria to reduce ammonia and other levels ?
Just some more questions to try and solve your riddle and problem ?
cheers jan-kurt
ps sorry for the loss of your fish so far

 

[lvdwfc]

I have done everything you mentioned already. there aren't any dead fish and I'm only feeding the 3 fish and frog once every 2-3 days a sm amt. I'm feeding the plants every 2-3 days flourish and also using floruish excell, a carbon product which works great. Plants have grown huge in 5 wks. I use these products in my ram tank without any problems. That's why I'm lost about the ammonia. The green that comes up in test tube is a little different from the colors on the card for h20 testing and that baffles me too. My experience with the test kits have been that the colors match pretty well. I've been rasing pond fish approx. 5 yrs. The tanks are new hobbie.

 

[bigbird]

Thanks for further info.
My suggestion would be not to feed the plants flourish or flourish excell for at least 2-3 weeks, Do a 30% water change and then let the tank cycle itself, again no more flourish. It could be that you over fertilised the tank.
hope this helps you further. cheers jan-kurt

 

[lvdwfc]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't think of that and that may help. janeen