I'm a new goldfish owner and I acquired him unexpectedly, so while his tank is cycling, I'm trying to make him as comfortable as possible. I'm trying to keep a close eye on the ammonia level (testing at least 2x a day). I don't feed him much, once a day and a small amount that I make sure he eats. My problem is that no matter what, I can't seem to get a reading of anything less than 0.25 ppm. I haven't been able to find a test kit with any smaller increment than that, so I'm wondering if these kits will show 0.25 ppm if there is any trace of ammonia? For example, when I got up this morning, I had a reading of 0.25 ppm so I did a 20% water change. When I got home from work, I had a reading of 0.25 ppm so I did a 30% water change. It's an hour later and I'm still getting 0.25 ppm. Can something be adding ammonia to my tank, like the gravel or the filter? I know the tests work because when I test the water I'm using to change, it reads 0 ppm.

I have a 10-gallon aquarium, with an AquaClear Mini Filter (with a foam insert, an activated carbon insert, and ammonia remover), a Tetratec AP50 air pump, gravel, and five plastic plants. I was using Testra test for Total Ammonia, and today I tried the Jungle quick dip strips. I've also tried a kit by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals which does show 0, but the first level is would show is 0.5 - 1.0. My goldfish has shown signs that he's very sensitive to ammonia, so I want to be careful. But I don't want to be changing the water too much either. I used Bio Safe (by Marineland Labs) initially to treat the water, and Bio Coat for the water changes. My tap water does not have ammonia. Today however I did buy the AmQuel and NovAqua I've been reading about, so maybe that will make a difference.

Any ideas? Thanks.

hi suzyg and "welcome

first off, i think that its just wonderful that your doing all you can to make your new goldie as comfortable as you can. i really admire your compassion!

if your using a detoxifier that "locks" up certain ammonia levels per dose, you need only keep the ammonia levwl at or around 1ppm. just make sure to do a waterchange (w/detox) each day that handles at least 1ppm per dose. once the nitrites start to appear, you can start adding aquarium salt to the tune of 2 3/4 level teaspoons per us gallon. but, try to add the salt slowly. say, over the course of 12 hours or more. this will help your goldie to deal with any nitrites that your detoxifier hasnt dealt with. try to keep the nitrite levels at 2ppm or less. as you may know, youll have to keep this up until the ammonia and nitrites reach the desired 0ppm. then, you can discontinue the salt additions.

remember, salt cannot be removed from the tanks water with wnything other than waterchanges. so, with that in mind, keep a close eye on the amounts that your adding. and only add the prescribed amount of salt as per the water that your replacing.

keep us posted on your progress and good luck!

paul

p.s. im going to move your post to the tanks section as you may get some more helpful advice there.

Thanks for the clarification. That makes sense; I don't think I was thinking of it correctly.

Hi suzyq7,

Paul gave you some wonderful advice. The only thing I can add is to be patient.
Cycling a tank with the fish in it can get frustrating.

Good luck.