# help with ammonia



## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

hi,

so my tank has been running for about 2 months, it`s a 20 gallons.

I have 4 black phantom tetras
2 corydoras leopard
2 ancistrus
4 ammano shrimp

what I`m noticing is that my black phantom tetras have red gills. after doing some reading I think it`s ammonia poisoning.

now my tank is planted... I`ve been doing 5 to 10% water change every day for the last 3..4 days and yet for some reason when I check my water for ammonia I'm under the impression that it's not 0 but it's not 0.25... my test tube doesn't become super yellow the color stays in between 0 and 0.25.

I just can't find out why, it's not over populated... I have 2 aquaclear 20s running and I've cleaned the sponges when I did one of the water changes so I cleaned the sponge in that same water I was going to throw away there was a lot of crap in it...

anyways all this I've done it like 2..3. days ago and still my test results is not flashy yellow...

HELP!!!  I just don't know where to look anymore or what to do to bring it down to 0. as far as I can rememeber it has never hit 0 or I've never had that flashy color I'm supposed to get on the cardboard that comes with API with all the colors.

nitrite = 0
nitrate = 5

here is a pictre of my tank

http://i62.servimg.com/u/f62/16/32/90/24/001_aq11.jpg

thank you for any help.

look I'm a canadians fan but if you help me find my problem I'll put on a leafs shirt


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## Antoine Doinel (Dec 20, 2010)

Test the water directly from your tap. It's possible your water contains small traces of ammonia.

If this is the case, use Prime for your water conditioner, which will lock any ammonia.


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

no not my tap water. and even if it does have a small trace of ammonia my bacteria in the aquarium should be able to get rid of a small trace in few hours at most.


now I just got myself a small pump and I'm pumping air into the water with a small rock... this is a first for me since I own my 20 gallon tank. it's noisy as hell but I will let it run for few hours and then test the water again since bactera needs oxygen so do fish.

if this works out I will be really confused because everybody tells me I don't need an oxygen rock in my tank because of the plants I have.

I'll post again tonight to let you know how it went I just need to find a less noisy pump/rock or something this is just insanely noisy.


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

if there was alot of crap in your sponges within 2 months period then you overfed your fish. feed them less, once a day and less amount...now put on that leaf jersey!


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

Do you see the food get eaten by the fish or sucked into the filter? stick a sponge at the end of the filter like this:


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

ok so I do have the sponge now and I am also running a bubble thing in my water.

I will do a water test tomorrow morning and see how that goes.

so far I think my 2 male black phantom tetras just with the bubbles in the water, left had corner, they're showing their full color and showing off to each other which is a healthy behaviour.

I'll feed a bit tonigh and then water test tomorrow.


and yeah I'll put on a leafs jersey you just need to get into the playoffs first  otherwise I can't cheer for you guys.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

With 2 AC20s, you have more than enough filtration even if you overfeed. The fish load is light, so I think there may be a problem with your test kit. If you are concerned still, change out about half the water and see what that does to your test. If you want to increase your filter capacities you can add a second sponge to each.


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

ya but what you're forgetting is it's only been 2 months and you don't how much overfeeding


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

I'd like to comment... GO LEAFS GO!

Playoffs this year? Slim.

Improvements from previous years? Oh hells yeahhh!

Next year? Watch


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

Brian said:


> I'd like to comment... GO LEAFS GO!
> 
> Playoffs this year? Slim.
> 
> ...


+1 Go LEAFS Go

BTW, some systems can take up to 3 months to fully cycled.


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

ok so I have 2 sponges, one on each aquaclear 20.
I have a nice bubble setup going in my water and did another 10% water change... 4th time this week.

yesterday before bed I took 2 test tubes. 1 with my tap water and 1 with my aquarium water. both were the same color and since I doubt the city of montreal makes me drink water with ammonia then I would say I have 0 ammonia in my tap water so 0 in my aquarium since both test corlors are the same yellow.

this morning I went and got myself Prazipro since the only other explanation I see to red gills is flukes. if this doesn't fix it then I'll go with clout.

so I'll let it go for few days and see what happens.

thanks guys for your replies.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

Well, it can be normal for some city tap water to sometimes test for low levels of ammonia. There's ammonia in chloramine and I'm pretty sure our hobby tests react to that as well.

To me it sounds like your fish are showing normal behaviour, feeding well, aren't doing anything like gasping or rubbing against objects to indicate discomfort, irritation, gill damage, or difficulty breathing.

Sounds like these are the only fish in the tank that it's 'affecting'. You haven't had anything die or get weak. You haven't mentioned introducing any new stock to the tank that could have brought in parasites, it sounds like you maintain high water quality, and everyone's showing good colours by the sounds of it.

So I don't think there's a problem. Fish gills are red. If the fish are light in colour or partly transparent, you may even see a bit of this redness around the gill.

When the fish starts showing physical signs of illness or irritating, or starts producing slime around the area, or if the area starts growing or getting raw, etc, then I would start to worry.

My 2 cents.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

I have to agree with qwerty. I too don't think there is a problem. Fish gills are supposed to be red. It is unwise to start medicating your tanks on maybes and perceived problems that don't exist.


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## patricka (Mar 24, 2011)

qwerty I don't know... you may be right...

I had 6 of them, 2 males and 4 females.

I lost 2 females and yet my water is fine, all the numbers are good. temperature is around 25.5 and 26

now I have 4 left, 2 males and 2 females and I'm not sure if I want to introduce more fish (more females) to my tank since I have no idea why I lost my 2 females in the first place.

they went at the top trying to get air and all that I could notice was that they had their gills a bit open and red and were taking water in really fast compared to the others. the others it`s like once every 3...4 ..5 seconds but the ones that dies it was like twice per second or so.

I know that you see the gills sometimes but with mine the gills are almost always a bit open and you can see them all the time... at the store where I got them the fish do not behave the same behaviour.

anyways long story short ... 3 weeks I'm trying to fix this if there is something to fix I decided to medicate since it's the closest thing to red gills and gasping for air at the top.

I'll see in few more days. it's been just 1 day so far and I have to say that with my 2 males it's better than yesterday but it may also be in my head... 

thanks for all the comments.


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