Help with chemical testing

[sliemm]

I bought a chemical test today to test the ammonia levels in my aquarium, but I'm not really sure what the results mean. I changed the water, cleaned the filter, added some Prime into the new water, which gets rid of chlorine, chloramine and ammonia.

A few hours after doing this I used a chemical colour test, and it appears that there is about 0.75mg/L of ammonia in the tank. I have no idea what this means; the chemical test doesn't really tell me what the ideal levels are.

If this is too high, what should I do about it? I also have an air stone; does oxygenating the tank in this way help reduce ammonia? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Chirple]

Is your tank cycled ?

That is indeed too high. The "ideal" reading is 0.

I would do daily water changes as needed until the tank is cycled. How many / often water changes do you do now ?

How big is the tank / how many gallons of water are in it ?

Do you have any other chemical tests, and if so, what are the readings ?

The oxygenation of the water can increase the amount of free ammonia in the tank, slightly, but this is not a problem with a cycled tank.

What kind of filter do you have and how do you clean it ?


Edit : also, I don't have experience with the particular product, but I remember people advising to stay away from products that claim to remove ammonia from the water.

 

[lollypop]

One of the declorinators with the ammonia thing, works by doing something to neutralise ammonia in the water, but in such away that it will still cycle. (takes longer I think) and you can still get readings. But the others don't. Unfortunately I can't rember what one is what, and why it works the way it does. So I can only suggest you wait till someone with more knolage or someone who uses the same product, can tell you

Personally I don't use any ammonia blocking chemicals as I have always been lucky enough (usually) to be able to pinch media from other filters.

 

[sliemm]

Thanks for the replies. I've got to admit, I'm not actually too certain what 'cycling' entails. Here's what I've done so far though:

- Got the tank two weeks ago, filled it with approx. 55 litres of water. Added Prime (dechlorinator and de-ammonia) once, then Stability (natural biofilter) for seven days.
- Started feeding axolotls pellets but many of them dropped to the ground or disintegrated pretty quickly; it took them a while to get used to me feeding them. In the meantime the water got cloudy due to excess food breaking up.
- One week in I gave the tank a complete empty/refill. Added Prime again and Stability for seven days.
- After two weeks the filter started making spitting noises. I took it apart thinking it might be the motor, and in the process noticed lots of gunk on the sponges, so I washed them in clean water and gave them a light scrub with a clean toothbrush. (The guy at the pet shop told me to clean them this way.)
- After cleaning filter, I emptied about 80% of the water, refilled with clean water, added Prime and am adding Stability and will do so for the rest of the week. I added in an air stone to oxygenate the water better. Then I took the chemical reading last night and got 0.75mg/L.

So all in all I've had two empties/refills (one a week) and I cleaned the filter pretty good. I'm aware you need to build up a natural biofilter on the filter sponges, but they were caked in excess food. Fortunately my axies are used to me feeding them now and I have little problem with food contaminating the water.

I'd really like to find somewhere that has a good step by step approach to cycling, not to mention what a beginner needs to do to get a good tank setup in the first months for their axolotls. I've looked all over the web and there loads of information, a lot of it conflicting. Also, was I cleaning the filter the right way? Even as I washed the sponges in clean water and scrubbed them I had a bad feeling, but I was going on what I was told.

 

[lollypop]

For cleaning your sponges, take some of your tank water (while doing a water change is good) then with your hand squeeze the sponge out in it. Your sponges won't necessaryly come up shiny and new looking, but the large particles of gunk etc, will be removed.

As for cycling, I found the best things to look up is fish less cycling. (obviously when having pets in the tank makes it a little different) but you can understand the principles that way.

The other thing to rember is when looking at FL cycle it normally tells you to keep topping up to 4ppm. And with your pet in there you actully don't want it going above 1ppm. Watch it closely (the water) as all fresh water might take a couple of days to reach 1ppm (depends on volume of water to waste produced) and you can get into a routine of say 20% water change a day, get a little lax on the daily testing. And all of a sudden you have a huge ammonia spike. (normal but you little friend wont like it) and you will be changing out larger quantitys of water (now here is where I get my ates and trites mixed up ) after ammonia you will get a spike in one of the nitrates/trites (please check witch one as I have stupid brain at the moment) and you will need to water change to keep that down as well.

Well you get the gist. Like I say there are a few places and a lot of fish forums that have fish less cycling, on stickies or articles with how tos. So keep looking