Question about my freshwater aquarium and its ammonia level?
My aquarium is currently not overstocked based on the current size of fish. Going by the 1 in. of fish per gallon of tank, I have about 37 inches of fish in a 60 gallon tank. I’ve been doing regular water changes and vacuuming my gravel, especially lately. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get the ammonia level down. I have an aquaclear 110/500 power filter and plenty of aeration. The tank is kept at about 76-77 degrees. I feed the fish twice a day and give an additional small feeding after lights out for my Black Ghost Knife. I’ll probably have to do another water change tonight as last night my ammonia showed at about .5. Does anyone know anything else I could try that would work. Should I put one of those ammonia remover filters in my filter? Any help would be much appreciated
The rule is really 1 in of adult size fish per gallon, not current size of fish. I don’t like that rule anyway though. If the tank is newly set up then it sounds like you are at the very beginning of a cycle, if the tank has been set up for a while (over a couple months) then it sounds like you are over stocked and your filter can’t keep up with the bio load. .5 ammonia isn’t that bad, yes it should be zero but it’s not high enough to kill a healthy fish. If the tank is new I would just keep up with the water changes until the tank completes it’s cycle, if the tank has been set up for a while then I would think about either getting a larger tank or getting rid of some fish. I don’t recommend those ammonia removers since it takes the ammonia away from the beneficial bacteria that are needed to cycle a tank.
Oh and you can also cut back on the feeding until you get the ammonia under control. The more food you add the more waste and the more ammonia.
If you’re at the beginning of a cycle, which it sounds like at this point, you can’t do much other than constant water changes to get the ammonia level down. Or, if you are not at the beginning of a cycle, you may have added a bunch of fish all at the same time, which will make your ammonia spike.
How long has your tank been set up?
There is a product on the market that will help to neutralize the stress causing effects of ammonia. It’s called Ammolock. You will still see the ammonia readings, but they won’t cause your fish as much stress.
Also, I would avoid feeding them for a couple of days to help bring down the ammonia level.
In addition to that, you can see if you can get some used filter media from your local fish shop, or from a friend with an established tank. This will introduce the needed bacteria into your tank and will help the ammonia levels to go down.
Beware that you’re also going to have a nitrite spike after the ammonia starts to drop as your bacteria starts to grow. You can avoid that with used filter media, but otherwise you’re probably in for a lot of water changes. Hopefully your fish will survive the cycle, but you may end up losing a few of them.
What kind of filter do you have, and what is the gallon rating on it? Is it for a 60 gallon? Usually you should get the next size up – so for a 60 gallon tank, you probably should have a filter that can handle up to 75 gallons, etc.
Good luck…
i would feed them once a day and a little extra for the gosth knife at night, i would also get either a canister filter or another hang on back to help keeping the water extra filtrated and along with weeklt water changes you should be set
Rule that says we can keep “1 inch of fish per gallon” is just plain wrong. I don’t understand how come this myth is so widespread for the last 10 years. It’s just wrong.
Think about this. Say, you have two 1-inch fish (total = 2 inches of fish). How does this compare to having one 2-inch fish?
A 2-inch fish is approximately 8-times bigger than a 1-inch fish in terms of volume (length x width x height), you know? So in this example, one 2-inch fish will create about 4-times more waste than two 1-inch fish.
Clearly, your tank is way overstocked. I think you can do two things, not mutually exclusive.
One, you can reduce the number of your fish (return to your pet store). This is the easiest solution.
Two, invest on better filters. I’m not talking about power filters; they are mediocre filters as biofilters. The best biofilter on the market is Wet-Dry trickle filter, the kind that a professional uses. Because it’s like having a separate tank connected to your main tank, it increases the water volume too.
Here’s the best suggestion I can give to you or any relatively new aquarium enthusiasts: resist temptation to introduce just one more fish. Please remember that, in the end, skimpy tank with few fishes in it would be more trouble-free and therefore would give the most joy to the keeper…. Unless you enjoy keeping changing water every other day and do a lot of medication and so on.