Jeramy Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 What is the highest acceptable level of ammonia ina a system. I know 0 is ideal but I just tested my QT and the ammonia was .25ppm I did a 10% water change right after. I have about 1.5 inches of fish ina 10gal tank with 10lbs of established live sand. My nitrites were almost undetectable. I just am not sure what is considered the max on ammonia for a fish in QT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I'd do more than a 10% change. I would freak out if it hit .5ppm, so .25 is pushing it. i would try to keep it at or under .125ppm. i'd be surprised if stuff survived anything above 1ppm...but that's largely speculation...maybe someone else has better experience. Also, with .25 ammonia, you'll probably see nitrites in a day or three, keep an eye out for sure. I killed a powder brown because the nitrites were too high. it survived the ammonia part of the cycle, but not the nitrite spike (I wasn't monitoring it like I should-thought using tank water to seed the QT was sufficient...learned that $60 lesson the hard way) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelhead77 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 #1 - There should be no sand in a qt. If your qt is meant to either treat fish that are diseased or ensure that fish contract no disease, then there should be nothing in the tank that can harbor that disease. #2 - Although 0 ammonia is desired, fish can tolerate some for a short period. Do a 50-75% water change ASAP. #3 - This is why some people, including myself, do not advocate using qt tank. They are too hard to maintain and too stressful on fish. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Big water change, 10% will not do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 I'd change at least 50%, maybe 50% twice. It's not that hard in a 10gallon...be glad your WT isn't a 40! If the NH3 is 0.25, a 10% change removes 0.025, making it 0.225 A 50% change removes 0.125, making it 0.125 2x 50% changes removes 50% of the 0.125 remaining, which leaves 0.0625ppm Of course that all assumes that it's exactly 0.25 now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 I did a much larger water change this morning and the ammonia level is just barely registering on my test kit so hard to tell. it goes in increments .25 .5 1.0 but the color is lighter then .25 on my lunch break when my water is finished mixing I will be doin another water change. I can only mix 4gal at a time well little more then 4 gallons but not much it gets awefully close to the top of the bucket. thanks for every ones quick responses on my ammonia =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beardedsmurf Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Go get a small bottle of the biospira from the LFS that has all the various ammonia and nitrite processing bacteria in it. I put a bottle of this into my 20g QT and never even got an ammonia or nitrite blip with 3 fish in there. $10-15 for a small bottle is a small price to pay for not losing your fish in the first couple of days due to cycling the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 Ok first I want to thank every one for their great input and ideas. Theyhelped me out a ton. I have my ammonia down to 0 again at least as low as it will go with my test kit. My nitrites are also low enough to be unreadable. I have basicaly done 120% water change over the last 24 hours. also added some biospira to the tank to boost the bio filter. The reason I put the sand bed in there is that I wanted to have some biological filtration in my QT so I bought one of those sealed bags of live sand that claim you will not have a cycle just add fish now. What a croc, I kinda knew going in that the claims on th bag were inflated but I also seeded the filter from my display tank so I figured I would be ok wrong answer. I do belive I have every thing in hand now. I have a spare 40% water change on hand ready to go. I have been testing a lot more frequently. Just wanted to Say a BIG THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP! =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Glad it's working out for you! I take it you did three 40% water changes? The way it works out is that you changed about 79% of the water, not 120% it's 60% x 60% x 60% = 21%, so about 79% changed...make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beardedsmurf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Also, I'm running a small Whisper HOB filter with the bio media and white bio bag w/carbon in it. I change the white bag every 2 weeks or so and leave the black pad alone (since the bag gets all the particles). I haven't had to dose medication yet (using the hypo salinity method), so the Whisper is working quite nicely as a bio filter with a bare bottom on the tank. Once my DT finished cycling the current batch of fish will move in and I'll get some new ones for the QT using the continuing setup (dropping the salinity again with a major water change in the meantime). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 People can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always heard you should never combine hyposalinity with copper treatment, so I'd assume that's rue for hypo and other meds...make sure you ask around before doing both. I'd imagine it'd be tough on the fish cause they're getting their kidneys stressed by the hyposalinity, adding a chemical they have to filter might fry the poor kidneys... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beardedsmurf Posted December 21, 2011 Share Posted December 21, 2011 Burning: I heard the same thing, so I'm not using any medications at all but rather trusting that the Hypo process will wipe out any unfriendly parasite hitchhikers as soon as they hit the QT. So far it's been working great. If it becomes absolutely necessary to medicate, I would probably slowly raise salinity for a day or so to almost normal seawater and then start dosing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Sounds like you've got a good plan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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