# Ammonia issue



## aphex (Jan 21, 2017)

I have a 40b with 15 neons, 3 Cory cats ,2 dwarf g's a couple of snails and 4 ghost shrimp. The tank is fully planted and I do weekly 20% or more water changes but the ammonia level stays at .25 or slightly above. Could this be caused by high ammonium levels caused by the plants? I don't over feed and nothing's dead in the tank including plants the ph is 6.4 . Any theories of why this is happening would be appreciated.


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## aphex (Jan 21, 2017)

*Ammonia levels*

I have a 40b with 15 neons, 3 Cory cats ,2 dwarf g's a couple of snails and 4 ghost shrimp. The tank is fully planted and I do weekly 20% or more water changes but the ammonia level stays at .25 or slightly above. Could this be caused by high ammonium levels caused by the plants, lots of Java fern s.repins, Anubis ,ocelot sword, and a few others? I don't over feed and nothing's dead in the tank including plants the ph is 6.4 . Any theories of why this is happening would be appreciated.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

How long has the tank been set up? What substrate do you use?

Plants don't cause an ammonia or ammonium increase, but they can reduce those levels if they are growing well.


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## gnovince (Jan 16, 2011)

*Re: Ammonia levels*

Is this a newly setup tank or has been fully cycled?


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## aphex (Jan 21, 2017)

*Re: Ammonia levels*

It's about a month nitrite is 0 ppm nitrate is 5 to 10 and the ph is getting leeched by the safe t sorb. I'm fairly sure its cycled. And the fish and plants are doing wonderful I just can't account for the extra ammonia. I've checked the tap water and it shows 0 .


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## s2man (Nov 8, 2016)

Good qustions, Hoppy. The ammonia could be coming from fresh soil substrate. 

Agreed, the plants should be sucking up the ammonia/ammonium. Experiments show plants prefer ammonia over nitrites over nitrates, as they as easier to assimilate.


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## gnovince (Jan 16, 2011)

*Re: Ammonia levels*

Did you change filter pad or any filter material if using a canister that could remove beneficial bacterial? Another thing maybe is, it might not have been fully cycled and when you added fish it slowly started to build up and bacterial couldn't keep up? Or is there a chance your test kit is old or bad? Last thing I can think of is what substrate? Maybe it's leeching into water column


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## aphex (Jan 21, 2017)

It's about a month or so, nitrite is 0 ppm nitrate is 5 to 10 and the ph is getting leeched by the safe t sorb. I'm fairly sure its cycled. And the fish and plants are doing wonderful I just can't account for the extra ammonia. I've checked the tap water and it shows up as zero.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Since these threads are essentially duplicates, I have merged them to reduce confusion.


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