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Ammonia... Bleh!

Jibas Mom

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Hello everyone and ty for taking the time out to read our post. My little axolotl came to me a little over a month ago. I had a fully cycled tank and things were alright. I did all the care by the book (50% water changes weekly and use seachem prime). What I noticed about 2 weeks ago is the water turned white. I assumed it was a bacterial bloom and it would go away. Also, in this time I began to get what I am guessing is algae as it was white and stringy hanging on my tank sides and artificial plants.

So.. here's where I have some questions. The sponge didn't seem to be doing a good job (and for the record, i did squeeze it out and clean it with tank water). I dealt with tiny worm decay (bloodworms) that I couldn't always get with the turkey baster and it wasn't doing a good job with missed poops (I do my best to use a turkey baster every day but if Jiba stomps on it or I miss it is what I'm referring to). Once the white cloudy stuff got all over that sponge filter, it was pretty much done. I disposed of it (though I know it had beneficial bacteria), it seemed to also not work effectively. So for 24 hours, I left it in there while replacing with an Aqua One.

Long story short, every parameter is now reading beautifully, minus the 2.0 ppm of ammonia. I still believe in my heart the sponge wasn't functioning as intended as the water is clearing up already with the Aqua One. To reduce the ammonia, I was thinking of every other day 50% water change. I know my tank is basically having to start the cycle over. We had to use a lemon/salt paste to scrub all this white gunk off the artificial plants, the filter is new, and we had to scrub the algae or whatever this white cotton stuff is. The axie is still eating, still interactive, and overall doesn't look stressed, but 2.0 cannot be good. Will the every-other-day water change at 50% be a good solution?

Thanks!
Jiba's mom
 

KumquatSquats

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is it possible that Prime is giving false ammonia readings? just something to check before going all out on water changes
 

Jibas Mom

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Ty for the quick reply! I have tested with the API to get the 2.0, it was a very deep green (luckily not the 4.0ppm). But I did just find something out. My water has chloramine (hope I'm saying this right) by calling my water district, and I'm not sure how effective Seachem is with that or if I should be doing something different during the water changes.

Sadly I'm a new aquarium owner and I'm not the most knowledgable. I learned the ins and outs before I got Jiba, but I never realized how easy ammonia could spike.
 

KumquatSquats

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Ty for the quick reply! I have tested with the API to get the 2.0, it was a very deep green (luckily not the 4.0ppm). But I did just find something out. My water has chloramine (hope I'm saying this right) by calling my water district, and I'm not sure how effective Seachem is with that or if I should be doing something different during the water changes.

Sadly I'm a new aquarium owner and I'm not the most knowledgable. I learned the ins and outs before I got Jiba, but I never realized how easy ammonia could spike.

https://www.seachem.com/support/forums/forum/general-discussion/1368-prime-chloramine

found this old thread on seachem prime and Chlorimines that might help you out
check if the formula has changed since this thread but the tech support interaction is pretty informative
 

Jibas Mom

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I'm so glad you pointed me in this direction. I read that and then contacted Seachem straight away and had a chat with tech support directly. They indicated that I need to literally use a full cap for a 50% water change and a half cap for a quarter. Though in a 20 gal it sounds high, I was advised that chloramine is indeed something that they're hearing a lot about these days and this is the dosage they are recommending. I put in a half cap full and tomorrow when I do the water change I'll be adding another half till it goes down. Then from there, less frequent dosages.
I agree with that poster on the Seachem site, being a new aquarium keeper I had never heard of Chloramines, much less knew they would be something to deal with.

Thank you so much for your response and I'll update in a couple of days with the new parameters, wish me luck!
 

KumquatSquats

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Glad you got some info!

i'll have to go double check my city water report now, this got me a little paranoid lol
 

Jibas Mom

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I hope you find out the good news on your Chloramines! I would contact Seachem just in case if you do have them and see what they recommend.

I've done as instructed and day one we got down to around 1 to 1.5 (couldn't tell 100 which green it was) so that was good. Today after adding an entire capful my axolotl seems to be doing great. I'm looking forward to measuring the parameters tonight.

Fingers crossed now we get this down and the bacterial bloom out. Jiba's tank is super clean, the filter is working swimmingly, now I just have to let it all cycle again.
 
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