Question: Why is my ammonia so high?

[19barsav]

Hello! I've had my baby axie for three or four weeks now and he is growing wonderfully. He seems to be doing good, just a little fat; but he's pooping as normal.

I checked my ammonia yesterday and found it around 1.0 ppm, so I quickly did a 50% water change. Today, the ammonia is still at that level. Should I do another water change? They stress him out pretty bad.

My tank is still cycling. Has been for 4 weeks. The ammonia spiked and I heard a water change would fox it, but it didn't.

Thank you!

 

[KumquatSquats]

do you use prime as your dechlorinator? it can give false ammonia readings sometimes

if your tank seems unable to finish cycling id tub the little one and do 100% water changes daily until it finishes, annoying to deal with but it keeps them healthy

 

[19barsav]

do you use prime as your dechlorinator? it can give false ammonia readings sometimes

if your tank seems unable to finish cycling id tub the little one and do 100% water changes daily until it finishes, annoying to deal with but it keeps them healthy

I did use a primer, that might be why! If it doesn't go down, I'll tub him. Do I just keep him in an empty Tupperware with clean water everyday? I've read about it but there's a lot of different ways, haha.

Thank you so much!

 

[KumquatSquats]

I did use a primer, that might be why! If it doesn't go down, I'll tub him. Do I just keep him in an empty Tupperware with clean water everyday? I've read about it but there's a lot of different ways, haha.

Thank you so much!

pretty much, i just bought a set of tupperware and keep them as designated isolation bins. any food safe container that you can sanitize will work.
if you have an airstone to put in with them its good but if not just keep the water less than double his length so he can breathe easily.

 

[Freshwater Salt]

Speaking of false positives, what tester do you use to check also? Strips or a Tube tester? I would recommend the investment into the API master test kit. Just make sure that when it says shake vigorously, you shake that thing like crazy for a minimum of a minute.

 

[KumquatSquats]

api kit is usually the cheapest good one too, shake the bottles for a min AND shake the tubes for most accurate results

 

[19barsav]

api kit is usually the cheapest good one too, shake the bottles for a min AND shake the tubes for most accurate results

I use the API Master kit! I will shake it more thoroughly, haha