Ph and ammonia link

[VITS]

Is there a link with the dropping of ph and rising of ammonia. Or another thing I was looking at was that I didn't rinse the frozen brine shrimp I was using before feeding the fish. Therefore adding too much minerals and nutrients too fast causing the spike.

At the moment my ammonia is sitting in the 8.0 x2 as it goes green then blue. I am freaking out atm. I have put ammonia lock in and am doing 30% water changes daily feeding nothing to minimal as well but there are fry in the tank so stop feeding not an option. Crushed zeolite has been added to soak it up. Anything else I should be doing?

Thankyou

 

[Mike Wise]

Ammonia (NH3) is toxic to fish in alkaline conditions. In acidic conditions it reverts to ammonium ions (NH4+) which are much less toxic to fish. The problem is that most ammonia test kits used in aquariums can't distinguish NH3 from NH4+. In a mature aquarium that is properly stocked and maintained, ammonia is usually not a problem. Look at your fish. Do they looked stressed; breathing heavily? If not, then the ammonia in your tank isn't overly toxic - for now. If, however, something happens to change the ammonium ions to ammonia or the biological filter stops converting ammonia, then you could have problems. Right now, if it were my tank, I would be moderating feedings (no more than 1X per day and probably only every other day) and changing water every day until the ammonia concentration drops.

 

[wethumbs]

Frozen brine shrimp is not very nutritious for fry and the frozen 'juice' has no added value other than load up the biological filter. You may want to try feeding them something better.

 

[VITS]

I had been using the frozen brine shrimp as a treat for the fish as they seemed to like it. The babies were unexpected due to how new the tank setup is and how long I had the fish ( about 3-4weeks)

At the moment I am feeding the tank once a day like mike said but with either microworms or sera micro food, I have yesterday put some brine shrimp eggs in a bottle with bubbles to hatch and today I am separating them and this will be there first real feed.

Anything else I could do?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Plants are the best option, many species will preferentially take up NH4+ ions over NO2/NO3. If you use floating plants like Pistia (Nile Cabbage), Salvinia (Floating fern), Limnobium (Amazon Frog-bit) or Lemna (Duck weed), they have access to aerial CO2 and are easy to thin out. I know what you can keep is limited in Australia, but I'm sure at least one species will be available. Have a look at Tompoz's tank here: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/showthread.php?11710>

cheers Darrel