aquarium ammonia levels in gravel ?
Hi
I am having problems getting my ammonia levels down below 1.0 mg/L in my 34L tank, the tank is 6 weeks old & only has a small number of tropical fish in it. No matter how many water changes (using dechlorinated water) i do the ammonia level nevers seems to drop ! My local fish store suggested removing certain items from the tank & putting them in clean water bowls & testing them after a few days for traces of ammonia. Well yesterday i tested the gravel sample bowl & got a reading of 0.50 Mg/l of ammonia from it.
Is it possible that these readings could be caused by aquarium gravel giving off ammonia or is it me not cleaning the gravel thourougly on water changes that ar causing it ?
Filed under Aquarium Start Up by on Feb 9th, 2010. Comment. 
Leave a Comment
Comments on aquarium ammonia levels in gravel ?
any new tank is going to have ammonia problems untill it is done cycling. It take 4 to 8 weeks for the levels to drop.
at 6 weeks old and the fact you have done water changes means your tank is still cycling.
another thing that could be giving you high ammonia levels is that your 34l tank is about 9gal of water and if you have say 6 fish your tank is at its limits of what it can handle.
Also there will be alot of ammonia by your gravel because any extra fish food and fish wast collect there.
So to me your tank is very normal for a new cycling tank.
I’m sorry you got some misleading advice from your LFS. Naturally if you test that gravel, you will find ammonia readings in it, because all the fish waste is going to gravitate towards the bottom, in the substrate, and accumulate there. If you want to test your water for ammonia, you just take a test from your tap water source. Ammonia enters tanks via fish respiration, fish waste, excess food, or plant decay. It is not emitted or originating from your gravel or substrate.
Bacteria begins to grow in your filter area, and some in your substrate that turns that ammonia into nitrite, and then a secondary bacteria developes that turns that nitrite into nitrate. This is what Greg X is talking about. The nitrogen cycle that is sometimes miscalled “New Tank Sydrome” This process takes different amounts of times and that varies by tank size, population, ph, feedings ect… A rough estimate is around 6 weeks, but does go longer in other cases.
The best thing you can do to clear your ammonia phase of this cycle is to continue with water changes to keep that ammonia under lethal levels, reduce the food you give to only as much as they will eat within 2 minutes only, and feed the fish one time a day for now. IF you can locate an established tank, media from that filter will help speed this process up, or gravel from that tank will help as well.