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Betta Fish

Betta Fish: Ammonia ?

The last few days my tank has been at .25 ammonia? I did a 1 gallon change each day (1.5 gallon change yesterday) and today it was also .25 so do I do another 1 gallon??

5 gallon tank
Heated to 79.5
Just added live plants a couple days ago
Added frogbit yesterday
The nitrite & nitrate have been 0 & PH 7.4

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1t6ai2o

Posted by Sweet_Property_

6 Comments

  2. Foreign-Ad3926 on

    Hi OP, how long has the tank been running and his long has the fish been in there (I’m assuming this is a fish in cycle)?

  3. Onocleasensibilis on

    Have you tested your tap water before adding it? Mine has a touch of ammonia in it so it never reads true 0

  4. Ryanbxz2 on

    Plant decay can raise ammonia. If you just added plants that easily can be the culprit. If nitrites are still zero the cycle should be fine. Check all parameters and try not to remove an benefitial bacteria (things like gravel, hardscape or overcleaning the filter). Adding a sponge, lavarock or ceramic rings to the filter can add more stability especially if your changing the pad frequently.

  5. Real_Departure6663 on

    Just watch it. .25 ppm can be due to some ammonium (less toxic than ammonia, more usable by plants, and way more tolerable for fish) or just a slight blip from organic decay due to new plants. If nitrite is 0 ppm then don’t too much and let your tank balance.

    Many tanks always read 0-.25 ppm and do just fine. But it’s definitely worth watching.

  6. CrumblingSaturn on

    can answer as someone who did something similar: tanks take a while to establish bacteria to handle the waste of the fish and plants. Adding new plants part way in can set things back for a sec as it might spike ammonia as the tank resches equilibrium.

    theres nothing wrong, just check the ammonia and nitrites level each day and do a water change as needed. Better to do a small water change daily than a big one every couple of days.

    This will be annoying and take longer than you think. I had a cycled tank after my first 6 months but no plants so i added a bunch at once and then had to deal with daily water changes for like two months (daily is an exaggeration but i was super cranky about it).

    You probably dont need to be rinsing your filter but getting more media (like a sponge filter) in there (if it can fit) can give the bacteria more stuff to grow on which can help speed it up.

    dont lose faith, just dont go on a vacation til this settles.

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