ammonia spike after adding fish

[starrynight99]

Hi everyone, I recently added 2 clown fish and 5 snails to my 1000 litre tank and the ammonia spiked at 0.2 (tested twice. fish added 5 days ago). I added some Amguard today to neutralise the ammonia. I also added some aquavitro seed.

Just wondering if it's normal to have a ammonia spike after adding fish and how long does it last for? The fish seems fine so far...The tank is only 5 weeks old but I had checked that the cycle is done (no ammonia and nitrite and nitrate present before adding fish). thank you

 

[Dan_P]

Hi everyone, I recently added 2 clown fish and 5 snails to my 1000 litre tank and the ammonia spiked at 0.2 (tested twice. fish added 5 days ago). I added some Amguard today to neutralise the ammonia. I also added some aquavitro seed.

Just wondering if it's normal to have a ammonia spike after adding fish and how long does it last for? The fish seems fine so far...The tank is only 5 weeks old but I had checked that the cycle is done (no ammonia and nitrite and nitrate present before adding fish). thank you

Without knowing how you cycled your tank or what test you are using, I can’t make a call on what you are witnessing.

To your question, an aquarium that size with two clownfish (I am discounting the snails because they are probably starving and not producing much waste) that is properly cycled does not have ammonia increase when fish are added. The 0.2 ppm total ammonia reading is likely to be an overestimate of ammonia and even if the total ammonia is that high, the concentration of free ammonia is likely at or below the safe limit.

Have fun with your new aquarium.

 

[starrynight99]

Without knowing how you cycled your tank or what test you are using, I can’t make a call on what you are witnessing.

To your question, an aquarium that size with two clownfish (I am discounting the snails because they are probably starving and not producing much waste) that is properly cycled does not have ammonia increase when fish are added. The 0.2 ppm total ammonia reading is likely to be an overestimate of ammonia and even if the total ammonia is that high, the concentration of free ammonia is likely at or below the safe limit.

Have fun with your new aquarium.

Thanks. We cycled natural sea water using Dr Tim's ammonia and one and only. Using Red sea marine tests for testing.

My rocks are completely covered by diatoms so hopefully that's enough food for the snails.

 

[taricha]

ammonia spiked at 0.2 (tested twice. fish added 5 days ago).

Like Dan said, most all ammonia tests can read some color that looks like ~0.2ppm in a totally stable zero ammonia system. A slight blush of green is of no concern.