# ADA Amazonia - Ammonia levels



## kevinli1021 (Sep 9, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I started a new 10 gallon shrimp tank setup with new sponge filters 2 and half months ago. This tank has a 1 inch layer of new ADA amazonia. For the first month I have been frequently dosing with Biodigest and also Seachem Stability and I also see biofilms established.

My question is, why is my ammonia levels still reading about a 2-3???  2 and half months later? In the course of this time I performed 3 water changes of 75% each. I also use reverse osmosis water remineralized with salty shrimp. I also have a lot of floaters (almost the entire surface is covered with riccia fluitans and also salvinia). The nitrates and nitrites read 0 due to this of course. pH reads 5.2-5.4.

I am really puzzled. From what I have been reading the ammonia levels are supposed to reach 0 by 1-2 months, I don't know why the ammonia readings are still 2-3. It has not changed for over a month.

What am I supposed to do? I heard water changes are not truly appropriate for cycling amazonia as it just depletes the buffers in the substrate.

Thanks,
Kevin


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## ThyrosineChoi (Apr 6, 2010)

kevinli1021 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I started a new 10 gallon shrimp tank setup with new sponge filters 2 and half months ago. This tank has a 1 inch layer of new ADA amazonia. For the first month I have been frequently dosing with Biodigest and also Seachem Stability and I also see biofilms established.
> 
> ...


Hey Kev.

Any pics?
How often did you do that 75% water change? Did you disturb the sponge filter while you were at it?
How is the water exchange rate? Is the water stagnant?
Presence of air pump?
Have you thought of any lack of features that may or may not help the bacteria to house in?

Edit.

Also, have you tried using old tank water?


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## shrimpzoo (Jan 15, 2012)

You aren't using test strips are you?


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## darkangel66n (May 15, 2013)

Do you use Prime at all? That will give a false reading. At the PH you quoted ammonia is no longer toxic. ADA can take 10 to 14 weeks to stop leaching ammonia from the tank. It is sometimes difficult to get biological filtration started at such low PH as well. Try adding filter media from another tank.


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## kevinli1021 (Sep 9, 2010)

ThyrosineChoi said:


> Hey Kev.
> 
> Any pics?
> How often did you do that 75% water change? Did you disturb the sponge filter while you were at it?
> ...


No I did not disturb the sponge filter when doing water changes. The water that was removed and the water that was added in were also the same GH, KH, pH and was at room temperature. Also the water has a lot of flow. Lots of O2 bubbling and the sponge filter is actually for a much larger tank so I actually needed to create a mesh to slow that down a bit. I have 2 pieces of drift wood, 2 pieces cholla wood, and one indian almond leaf.



shrimpzoo said:


> You aren't using test strips are you?


No I am using the standard API test bottles.



darkangel66n said:


> Do you use Prime at all? That will give a false reading. At the PH you quoted ammonia is no longer toxic. ADA can take 10 to 14 weeks to stop leaching ammonia from the tank. It is sometimes difficult to get biological filtration started at such low PH as well. Try adding filter media from another tank.


No I do not use Prime. I don't add anything with a source of ammonia or ammonium. I agree with the PH being no longer toxic at low pH due to the whole redox thing but I rather not take the chances. I think you could be right about the fact that getting biological filtration at low pH is very hard. Maybe the bacterial additives (Biodigest and Seachem Stability) that I am adding does not tolerate low pH ~6.2 and that is why it is taking much longer than I want it to be. I know that initially when Amazonia substrate is added the pH is actually much lower than 6 (about 5 or below measurable tests) and at that time I didn't add anything until the pH bounced back up to 6.2.

Regardless I will do another water change, and give more time. I don't have any other tanks using sponge filters- mainly external filters and I don't want to transfer any algae, unwanted bacteria or parasites from my fish tank (if any) to this shrimp tank so I'll hold off on transferring any filter media over for now.


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

Amazonia leeches a boat load of ammonia, and keeps the PH pretty low. These two in combination make for a slow cycle!

You could also be getting a false reading, as the API kits read total ammonia (toxic and non-toxic). My 26g still reads around 0.5ppm, even though it is one year old. The tank also took 8.5 weeks of cycling to finally get that low. I kept dosing ammonia, and it would process down from 4-2ppm in one day, then 2-1 the next, then 1-0.5, and then hover there!

Angelfins has a toxic ammonia calculator that can help:

http://angelfins.ca/index.php?main_page=page_2

Also see the attached chart which shows safe levels of toxic ammonia based on parameters.

Hope this helps!


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

Levels that high won't be coming from Prime. You need to do far more frequent water changes when you first start a tank with ADA. When I did mine, I did a few 90% water changes the first week and then 1-2 70% per week after that. Cycled in about 6 weeks total.


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## kevinli1021 (Sep 9, 2010)

woopderson said:


> Amazonia leeches a boat load of ammonia, and keeps the PH pretty low. These two in combination make for a slow cycle!
> 
> You could also be getting a false reading, as the API kits read total ammonia (toxic and non-toxic). My 26g still reads around 0.5ppm, even though it is one year old. The tank also took 8.5 weeks of cycling to finally get that low. I kept dosing ammonia, and it would process down from 4-2ppm in one day, then 2-1 the next, then 1-0.5, and then hover there!
> 
> ...


So based on the parameters of pH 6.4, ammonia 2.0 from API readings, this would mean that the ammonia levels are safe (at least for fish but for shrimp it is unclear). Thanks so much for the link!


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## woopderson (Feb 12, 2014)

No problem! Yeah based on the ph of 6.4 and total ammonia reading of two, it should be safe. You can try doing a few larger water changes to bring that down, and then test again if you would like to be on the safe side.


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## creature55 (Apr 3, 2014)

I would personally wait until you're at 0.5ppm at least before trying to add any livestock. A few good water changes and some extra bacterial supplement (ie. Prodibio Biodigest) should do the trick!


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## Shrimp Daddy (Mar 30, 2013)

You're doing something wrong. Should try doing a water change and add some plants.


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