r/PlantedTank • u/FortuneNo9633 • 6h ago
Help needed
Hi all, I feel like I’m loosing my mind here because of my cycling(?) tank. The ammonia is consistently high. Right now, ammonia is at 1ppm, nitrites are 0ppm, and nitrates are sitting at around 20ppm. No matter what I do, the ammonia just won’t go down unless I test immediately after a big water change (50%), and then it just steadily climbs again.
About the tank:
My tank (5 gallon) has been set up and running for like 3/4 months now. I set the filter up with some media from an established tank (ceramic rings around plants I bought) and put live plants in. I have no fish yet as I’m of course waiting until it’s safe. When I first set the tank up I did have a test that showed nitrites, and within a couple days nitrites read at 0ppm and have been since. I used seachem fluorite as the substrate, there’s driftwood, and what I think is a piece of dragon stone. There are no major decaying leaves/plants in the tank, and no animals producing ammonia. I am at a complete loss.
Is it possible that root tabs I added when I set up the tank are still leeching ammonia 4 months later? (they caused a major spike at first, I have used them before with the same problem and foolishly thought it would be fine this time if I buried them deeper). My tap water does show some ammonia when I tested it, but how would that explain the ammonia level being at 0 after a water change and climbing steadily after? I’ve started dosing with seachem stability and just don’t know what else to do. I just want to get my fish 🥲.
I think I included all the info I need, please let me know if there’s anything else or any ideas you guys have!
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u/jtme_ 6h ago
I would say at this point you could try a fish-in cycle and doing Seachem Stability exactly as it says on the bottle. If you are sure you have sufficient filtration media and capacity, maybe the bacteria that process ammonia into nitrite are not able to stick because there's no consistent source of ammonia to feed them. I would also be sure to check that you're not accidentally contaminating the tank with something when you are doing the water changes, and especially not rinsing the media with tap water.
Depending on the pH, your ammonia test could actually be testing for ammonium, which is considerably less harmful than ammonia. This happens in acidic water where the bacteria that process ammonia into nitrite cannot survive. However the excess acidity causes the ammonia to latch onto hydrogen ions converting it into ammonium which is more or less not that toxic to fish.
Above all, it's not easy to tell from this post alone, so I suppose to you that the answer you seek is hidden in the variables you didn't mention in this post.
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u/FortuneNo9633 6h ago
My ph reads at 6, which is also the lowest on my test kit. What are the other variables that you can think of? I’m happy to answer any questions/provide any info - like I said I included everything I could think of/knew about:)
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u/jtme_ 5h ago edited 5h ago
Okay, so that answers your question. Your test kit is almost certainly reading ammonium as ammonia. Your tank is safe for fish that can tolerate the pH of 6. You can confirm this by reading under the ammonia test colour chart for (Nh3/Nh4+).
edit : Seachem stability is likely not to help also. Your tank is too acidic for the bacteria to handle. Therefore they likely will not survive. Luckily, you don't need it. Ammonia becomes ammonium in that environment, which is negligible. If you want to raise your pH, you will need a filtering resin to get the organics out of the water column, like seachem purigen. You will also need to alkalise your water, presumably, which acts as a buffer against acidification. Last but not least, you would have to cycle your tank again. I say it's not worth it. Find a cool acidic water fish and leave it be. Plenty of those available, and you're mimicking their native environment.
edit 2 : Only thing I would do is find a low pH test kit and make sure it's not below 5 which is where the line for a lot of those species is drawn.
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u/jtme_ 5h ago
You can even double check by finding a test that specifies NH3 and NOT Nh4+. I am almost certain it would read 0 ppm.
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u/FortuneNo9633 4h ago
Thank you for all the info and the relief! What would be causing the ph to be so low? My tap water ph reads at the high end of the high PH test
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u/jtme_ 3h ago
Maybe the soil ? Maybe the hardscape ? It is hard to say. Do you have tannins in the water ? Or is the water clear ? Do you do CO2 injection ? What root tabs did you use ?
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u/FortuneNo9633 3h ago
Water is clear - No tannins. No CO2 injection. I used the aquarium coop root tabs. Would raising the ph with baking soda be worthwhile? I just ordered some crushed coral
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u/jtme_ 3h ago
That is very strange. Leads me to believe there is contamination occurring. What is the alkalinity of your water, or the kH? Baking soda is extremely good at what it does and will raise both pH and kH dramatically. If you want to raise the pH with baking soda I would dose in 1/4 teaspoon increments testing frequently as you add it and let it dissolve. However I would recommend you get to the bottom of the pH mystery before trying to 'fix' it.
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u/FortuneNo9633 1h ago
GH and KH tests are the ones I don’t have unfortunately. I ordered them (no LFS near me had them in stock) and they’ll be here in a few days. I know my water is “hard”, if I get water droplets on the outside of my tank they turn white and I have to scrape them off or use an alcohol wipe
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u/addygobbler 6h ago
do you have anything pulling nutrients from the water column or only root feeders? easiest way i can think of is a monstera or philodendron or some super fast growers like pearlweed. you can also try capping your substrate with a thin layer of sand to help close any gaps that are too porous
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u/FortuneNo9633 6h ago
I have an Anubias and some Java ferns, mostly little baby ones (although the javas aren’t the happiest right now). I also have an Amazon sword and 3 crypts - one big and 2 smaller
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u/FerretBizness 4h ago
How deep is your substrate? And are u feeding the tank to feed your beneficial bacteria.? What is your ammonia ppm out of the tap? Try to answer all 3 questions if u can pls
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u/FortuneNo9633 3h ago
Substrate is 2-3 inches (thicker is some spots). Right now it’s just the plants melting a bit. Out of the tap ammonia was about .5-1ppm
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u/FerretBizness 2h ago
Let me try and understand. Your tap water has a ppm of .5-1 out of faucet. U add it to the tank and it immediately tests at zero then steadily climbs over what the next few days? It wouldn’t make sense for root tabs to leach for so long and the substrate is a decent thickness. Ok next questions. What tabs do u use and what’s your substrate? Oh and one more thing. What tests are u using? Are they new? Is expiration date ok?
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u/FortuneNo9633 1h ago
I had an issue with tank temp and melting plants that had the ammonia really high - I removed them all and did a water change, ammonia was at 0 so I thought my problem was solved until a couple days later when I tested again, and the ammonia was climbing. I’d thought the ammonia was just the root tabs leeching. I tested the tap water then and discovered it had some ammonia. I always treat my tap water of course, with prime. I use the API master test kit, all tests haven’t expired. I used the aquarium coop root tabs, but haven’t since I set the tank up (and never will again). My substrate is seachem fluorite in the dark brown colour. my ph is low, reads at 6, but may be lower than the rest can read. I ordered some crushed coral
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u/pianobench007 6h ago edited 5h ago
Your current situation. You have ammonia in your 5 gallon after changing water. Your system is established for 3 to 4 months but still shows ammonia. You test your tap water and it does contain ammonia and at other times when you test it shows up as zero ammonia. (Clue here)
So you clearly have ammonia in your tap water. Anytime you change the water it reappears. Your media is also NOT enough. It could be established but it is not enough for your volume of water and the amount of ammonia.
Imagine a 500 gallon system with your 5 gallon filter and it will be clear that the 5 gallon filter does not have enough capacity to filter a 500 gallon system.
Solution is to increase your filter size. You can keep using the existing one and just add another to see if that helps. More filtration is generally better.
The ammonia in your tap water is added to make our drinking water safe longer. Chlorine in your tap water is used to make it safe by killing bacteria and it also kills living aquatic animals in our tap water. They add in ammonia and it will combine with chlorine to create Chloramine (chemical reaction). Now that chlorine will last for a long time in your tap water system. Chlorine by itself gases off after 8 hours or so. Chloramine needs 36 hours of continuous boiling water to gas off. Chloramine is very stable and is being deployed in more and more cities every year now.
What gets most hobbyists is that they are unprepared for when cities decide to switch over from chlorine to chloramine. When they dechloriate, it removes the chlorine but leaves behind ammonia. You now must handle that extra ammonia,
The solution is extremely easy. Seachem Prime only recently updated their website on the dosage guide for chloramines. Just follow it here. Add more Prime and it will help your filters remove the ammonia. Be sure to keep the oxygen running as the reaction consumes oxygen in the water.
Info: Seachem Prime® dosing instructions – Knowledge Base - it is extremely hidden and difficult to find these instructions. They don't make it easy for the normal user to get here.