Combating Ammonia

If you have ammonia (NH3) in your aquarium it may be due to a new aquarium setup that has not yet completed the "tank cycling process" AKA "new tank syndrome", which means that your aquarium has not yet developed enough beneficial bacteria to sustain the new aquariums environment. It could also be poor water quality (dirty, lots of debris, dead fish, fecal matter, etc). No matter the true reason for the ammonia levels I find the best remedy for combating ammonia issues is to do 25-50% water changes 1-2 times a week or as needed  (there are also aquarium products on the market which claim to remove ammonia, but I have yet to find one that gave me instant success), and try to at least keep the ammonia levels in a safe range during this period. Once your aquarium becomes established (which can sometimes take months) the ammonia level should reach 0, and this is the ideal level to be at.

Below are some questions I've been asked about ammonia, and if you have anymore questions you'd like to ask feel free to write me in the comment section below.

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Question: Does 'Seachem Prime' show traces of ammonia when using ammonia test-strips in water?

Answer: I tried this using the 'API Ammonia test-strips' on my aquarium tap water as well as bottled water with the appropriate amount of 'SeaChem Prime' in them over the course of several days, and the results were negative.

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Question: Does 'Aquarium Salt' remove ammonia?

Answer: I tried using 'Aquarium Salt' to remove ammonia that was in an unestablished aquarium and this did not work over 24hrs later, if anything my ammonia readings seemed to get higher... which may not be all too surprising since 'Aquarium Salt' can be used to clean an aquarium (hence, possibly killing some beneficial bacteria??).

So it may actually be possible that if your aquarium was established and now has ammonia in it from being overly dirty than 'Aquarium Salt' may actually help the ammonia levels, but I have not tested that out yet.

Treating Ich on Ranchu

This past week I made a big mistake thinking that my ranchu would be fine in a temporary bucket of water while I cleaned out the aquarium. Well, it took me awhile to get around to actually cleaning my tank so I transferred my ranchu into a new bucket of water and they ended up going through a drastic temperature change (ranchu can only handle around a 3-5F temperature change at time) and thus suffered from it. Bumblez is not at all a fan of cold water and thus he began slowing down his swimming, while Oakki had broke-out in ich on the front of his wen. Luckily I was able to remedy both of them at the same time, here's how I cured and treated the ich in under 3 days (be sure to treat ich ASAP)...

1: Do at least a 50% water change to the aquarium water (be sure the new water added in is within 3-5F of the current tank water temperature), and treat the water with Seachem Prime according to directions (Seachem Prime helps reduce stress, helps slime coating, and dechlorinates water).

2: Keep the water temp in the aquarium around 74-76F (I use an Aqueon heater), as this seems to be an ideal temperature for ranchu in general.

3: Add 1-TBSP of Aquarium Salt (I used the Jungle brand) per 8-10 gallons of water (aquarium salt reduces stress, provides electrolytes, and cleans.. it may also raise your pH so be sure to dose accordingly). Although it may not be necessary, I added in a pinch of aquarium salt everyday after this initial dose until my ranchu no longer showed signs of ich.

4: Turn off any aquarium lighting to reduce any stress caused by glare, etc as these fish have already undergone enough stress at this point.

5: Be sure to run an air diffuser in your aquarium (along with a 24/hr running filtration system) for at least several hours a day to insure the fish are getting plenty of oxygen in the water (this is very important if you are using any other water treatments to remedy your fish outside of what I have on this post), this is especially important for smaller aquariums and/or ones with a higher temperature.

I hope my ranchu ich remedy works for others just as well as it did for my ranchu, and be sure to do another 50% water change a few days after having done the first one as to reduce the risk of having ich spread, etc (just be sure the new water you're adding into your aquarium is in the ideal temperature range as I mentioned before, too drastic a change may only worsen or cause the ich to reoccur). Good/adequate water quality can solve a lot of problems (be sure ammonia levels are also in a safe range, preferably no traces of ammonia, this is especially important if you have a small or overcrowded aquarium).