How to Lower Ammonia in an Aquarium 

Here is more information about water parameters. Definitely worth a look if you are trying to learn all you can about the subject! What exactly is the nitrogen cycle? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dFpN4wXgmfI.html What is Water Hardness? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xRYdtvakfv0.html How Does pH Impact Fish Health? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d9N-JliqsJg.html How to Lower Nitrites (This stuff is dangerous too) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3t8yq-ydOaE.html How to Lower Nitrates: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rTdjjZRBIDU.html What Does Water Quality Really Mean? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TkPwQGG1LMQ.html

Ugh, this tank cycle is just harder than taking care of a dog

I love this!!! Your videos help so much!!

Great tips Jason, & the tanks look great!

jason .... thanks 4 a lots of guideline from your side .....

Very well explained! Going to subscribe.

My goldfish are covered in ammonia burns. I ne or had this problem with them in the pond.

i like the contents of the channel and I guess I just have an affinity for jason’s voice.

Put aquarium salt? Since it wasn't specified

Whats ammonia ?

Stone cold Steve Austin

i dont know we have to be a scientist to be a fish keeper :(

Been watching your channel for over a Year! Never really comment. Plants Helps with this people. Put live plants in.

1) Vacuum the gravel, 2) change half the water using a chlorine remover, 3) add a Poly Filter pad (Poly Bio Marine) to the power filter or merely hang it in a water circulating area of the tank.

Hold off on feeding for several days an reduce the amount you are feeding an even the amount of times you feed them in a day.

I made this mistake first time out. Lost all my fish. Let your tank get cycled properly before adding fish.

Tetra safestart saved me... and seachem prime... zero ammonia in a day or two never had ammonia since...

Finally someone who knows and can explain their stuff! Thank you.

Great tip. The best advice I was ever given is, "patience". Let your cycle not only start but let your tank season for several weeks after the cycle has been established.

Also, when you do a water change...clean your plants. Even if you have plecos, sometimes that's not enough. And vacuum the gravel/sand as the poop and uneaten food will seep into the substrate causing ammonia build-up.

Thanks for the tips Jason, I actually have an unfortunate situation which I need answers for. I got an angelfish as a gift but I never had an aquarium before. So I started getting a tank with a filter. But I somehow couldn't get a used filter media. I have not used a test kit yet, but I'm pretty sure the ammonia levels are high. I'm trying to do anything I can to save the fish. I wonder if 'API quickstart' or 'Microbe-lift special blend' might help out in dealing with the ammonia levels.

Question, I have a 55 gallon tank, I've had fish tanks in the past but I lived in different cities where the municipal water treatment used chlorine instead of chloramines. I now live in a city in Colorado that uses Chloramines and ammonia remains in the tap water. My tap water has a range of 1ppm. So, even if I use an ammonia neutralizer like Prime, it's only temporary. I just started the cycling of my 55 gallon, I have about 6 more weeks. When I have to start doing 25% water changes I will be introducing more ammonia each time. I won't add any new water until after the cycling, but do you see my struggle with this ammonia issue? The only thing I could think of is using filtered drinking water to do water changes, but this will be not as convenient as using the water from the sink and more expensive. Right now I'm frustrated that I spent all this money on a tank and it seems impossible to have a healthy aquarium because the municipal water treatment uses chloramine. What is your best advice?

I think i got carried away and added too many fish to my new aquarium (about 9 small fish over a week period) and it looks like my ammonia rose from 0 to about 0.25 ppm. I will add more api quick start, fluval zeolite ammonia remover, and maybe some water conditioner to help protect the fish, oh and do some gravel "vaccing" and water change/s. I have to look into using poly bio or seachem purigen as im not familiar with those and dont have them.

Thank you so much! I'm getting a tank soon and doing as much research as i possibly can. thank you!!!!

Water changes and add SEACHEM SAFE every time you do the water changes works like a charm

4:36 30 to 50 per cent water change every day or every other day until level comes down.

You should do weekly water changes. I do 20% water changes every week to an up and running aquarium. When you cycling a tank, you should change your water every couple of days until all the bad stuff is minimal. Slowly add Snails and Catfish you kick in the cycle of the tank. I also add Carbon to my filter at that time too. I remove the carbon until it gets established. After that, I put mechanical and biological media in my filter. I put plenty of plants, one because it’s beneficial and two because they are beautiful.

Thank you so much, now I know why my fish are swimming to the top of the tank

I looked what ammonia spike water looks like and it looked same as my aquarium water... I tested the water and everything was great. Nice it was not that, but wth was it? Well i found out what it was and it was the tempature and i dont even know how.

after establishing your tank, how often should you check ammonia/nitrites/nitrates?

Another thing that temporarily will detoxify NH4, nitrites is a product called Prime. If you're not sure about your used media source, you can buy starter bacteria from any fish outlet. I dump right into the intake side of my hanging back filter and let'em rip. Instantly starts the cycling process, and cuts NH4 and nitrites.

I’ve been treating mine with ammonia killer for 3 days now and I even gravel vacuumed

Ammonia spick n nitrate aswell ... from over feeding

2:32 hey bruh... Gtf otta here pls! thanks for your videos. you really do make life much easier

putting more floating plants make your aquarium free AMONIA

How you explain everything is very helpful. You have helped save my fish, failing tank, and have been oh so helpful. Thank you :)

In emergency situation, I used powdered Prime which is also known by Safe, its by seachem. The only issue with this is that although it does lower the ammonia, it still will show up on an ammonia test, so you'll need to do a water change anyway...its really only good for a stop gap measure so you stop losing fish while you get your water change equipment set up ect

Dealing with an amonia spike RN! Thanks for your advice!

I appreciate your expertise as I am in the process of getting ready to set up a 150 gal tank so all of this information is extremely helpful.

Aquarium salt specifically for fish is best in some cases. Try and see if a family/local pet store would sell some used sponge media filters if the new or returning fishkeeper does not have access to used filter media. Informative video.

I wish i knew about this channel before i started keeping fish -ammonia is plaguing me atm, and i didnt know about biomedia till yesterday actually - i thought my information was good considering the vendor i went to... subbed

Most of my fish always stays at the bottom. Is it normal? Please help

What does Ike look like? My parrot fish one out of two some times turn black spotted and likes he’s got black spots and it comes in goes!??

Hi Stone Cold Steve Austin..!

I don’t know what to do I have got filter media from my local fish store and all I have is ammonia but no nitrite and no nitrate so I don’t know what to do.

Feel free to leave your experience with lowering ammonia (or preventing it).

awesome info!

Seachem Prime. ...For emergency Situations (sudden ammonia spike) You can even 3x the application/dose and do a 50% water change - clean your filter(s) medium with the aquarium water (NEVER use tap water unless you're perhaps on a well) and then add the Seachem Prime. I've used other brands in the past until I discovered Seachem's products. NIGHT and DAY!

I have a 40G with like 12-13 cichlids, but I just replaced my filtration systems with an aqueon 75. My media should be fine, I used them from my old filter. No dead fish, ph is probably high round 7-8 ph. I’m getting restless doing water changes

Very nice explanation... Hello from Brazil!!!

Jason! You had a link in one of your videos to an article that teaches you how to calculate the amount of toxic ammonia. I can no longer find the link. Do you still have it

Such a cute personality ❤

I have a 12x 12x 12x 7 gallon ish tank with tropical fish, what should i do to lower ammonia levels.

Hi, my name is Graham. I have Muna cichlids. I just moved into a house that has a water softener. Ph=7.4 kh=18 gh=6. Wondering what your opinion is in regards to getting this water to work for my fish

@Prime Time Aquatics Can I float a used hob filter sponge in a tank with sponge filters? Will the BB from that help? I keep having ammonia in my 36 hex. All I have is 20 blue shrimp and a snail. Im wondering if I crashed the cycle some how. Ive tried fritz bacteria, and still nothing is helping. Should I just keep doing water changes?

I’m using prime at the moment , as you know Jason I’ve put my giant blackmoor to a new tank as she got too huge for the aquarium she was in , I’ve put a sponge filter from another tank , very mature as it’s been running for over 3 years , still the ammonia is at 1 per million today , and ph and temperature are pretty high so I don’t think it’s the safe one .... so I guess using prime is my only option . Unfortunately I can’t put Harriet ( the giant blackmoor ) back to her old tank as in her old tank there are rainbow fish and livebearers that she may eats ... so i hAve no other option than doing a fish in cycle .

Does adding that quick start stuff bring down ammonia levels? My tank is reading .25 ppm ammonia because I messed up and added 12 platys and a beta within the fist 48 hours of starting the tank

Thanks so much. This was extremely helpful. my fish are behaving in a very distressed way and it's probably an ammonia spike, so this gave me some ideas on what to do.

We lost our fish..... But have plants, the plants look amazing, algae however is starting to grow, ammonia levels still above 6. Doing 50% water changes as of tomorrow every day. I don't feel there is any beneficial bacteria here. Can I buy some to add?

My fish are showing signs of ammonia poisoning but the levels only read .25, the tanks is 73°F and the ph level is 6.8. One of the fish has already died. I've flushed the tank twice, and I don't have access to anyone else with a tank. What do I do?

My tank was cycled for about a month to a month and a half. Did a gravel cleaning as well as cleaned some of the decor. I also changed about 25% of the water. Now my tank is cloudy and has been for a few days. I went to the my local aquarium store and they told me it was free floating algae. I purchased something to correct it, of course it didn’t work. I am considering making additional water changes every few days until it clears. Thoughts or suggestions?

Is it ok to get filter media from petsmart? I bought 2 guppies, 2 mollies, and one dwarf catfish last month. The first guppy died, so I bought another one. This week, a molly died, then both of the guppies, and then catfish last night. I’m left with one molly! Please help me :(

My issue is that there is chlorine AND ammonia in the tap water that I use to do the water changes. I’m not going to use RO water. I have the ability to store water for the water changes. Can I just put some Zeolite in the tap water buckets for approx. 24 hours before using the water for my aquarium?

There is a lot of information about the cycle. A tank will only build up bacteria to the level of it’s bioload. When adding new fish in a new cycled tank you can also add some more starter bacteria. But nobody talks about how much time it takes after adding new fish. 3 to 5 juvenile peacocks every 2 weeks, assuming water parameters are ok?

My dojo has ich and I've followed advice but she still doesn't seem to be getting better. Its a freshwater tank and she's a freshwater loach, so I don't think the addition of salt would be beneficial. Help!!!

Has anyone used salt technique ?? Curious

I have brand new tank just re filled it with brand new mountain spring water.. never had fish yet… have plants in there… but ammonia has stayed high for a month… I have filters everything and it’s not working… I’m not putting fish until I get ammonia down if it’s possible…

I’m running into an issue of EVERY time I do a water change I get a bacterial bloom that lasts for a day or so. I’m not sure what to do because they say if you have a bloom, then you’re supposed to leave the tank alone. But what if my tank is having some ammonia or nitrite issues?

I have a 2 month old tank, I have seachem Purigen that kept my parameters stabilized until I added fluval stratum about 2 weeks ago, and now my ammonia stays at .25-.50 I do water changes and add seachem prime and I added zeolite in my tank as well. But everything seems the same, I ordered some duck weed in the hopes of it helping. What else should I do? I had a betta in there and I moved him in a small bowl and I do full water changes everyday which seem to stress him out

How long does it take a fish to recover. My ammonia was at a 4 and is now at .25. 2 of my fishes recovered fully and one has not gotten better or worse. Any advice?

What happens when you don't have fish 🐟 in your fish 🐟 tank and you sail heve amomoa in your fish 🐟 tank now

I have a Siamese fighting fish and I can’t get the ammonia to go down and I have him in a 10 gallon tank and I have live plants . I also have 3 neons that share his tank.

I have a 30 gallon long tank What fish should I look into cleaning my tank. I am going to get platys and guppy’s with Cory catfish

I'm just beginning. I'll be setting up and cycling soon. After the tank is cycled, should I do a water change before adding fish? After adding fish, how often should I test my water? Thank you!

IS THAT SHALE IN THE TANK? I’ve asked 200 people if I can use it ??

Hey l just set up a new planted tank only have a small anuba petite on dragonstone and a big java fern in the background and a moss hut house from my old tank , I’m noticing white algae what do I do?

my betta is having black lining around his fins and i believe he has started biting his tail. i’m not exactly sure what to do. my tank is 3 gallon because my parents refuse to get anything bigger. i was looking into getting a moss ball to help or switch to live plants but i’m not sure if i can with a 3 gallon.

Is it possible to add beneficial bacteria from a bottle? Like API Quick Start?

Can ammonia make my goldfish turn cause my one little cutty and clumsy ping pong goldfish turn black so i take a research they said it because of ammonia that they can burn fish skin

Suddenly lot of my guppies and mollies are died at a same day its due to ammonia strike should i do 60 % water change now ? I have a sponge filter only !

Hello, So right now my tank smells bad and has bubbles on the edge. Is this a cause of a ammonia spike?

A few fish? Im getting cichilds 6 hoping thats a few... i know they need to be in 10...

Just water-changing Other advices not practical for home tanks.

you are very professional, I love your video>> Thank you

Can ammonia kill my Anubis plants ? And how do I do lower the ammonia level and I do have a api test kit I Have added prime and nothing

My tap water is at .50ppm and ph is almost 9.0. Is my water safe to do a water change with?

Would Zeolite help to keep the ammonia from spiking too high? Or is that just more of a marketing hoax?

Awesome video thank you for your straight to the point explanation of things without going into long drawn-out talk about how your day is going! 😊

Everyone says use stuff from other tanks, useless to a first timer with no other tank

I had recently restarted my aquarium. I had lost about 5 fish in two weeks. I brought a water sample to my local pet store, and they said there had been an ammonia spike. I bought the testing kit for pH, nitrates, nitrite and ammonia, and after performing a 65% water change, the ammonia level was at about 0. I also ordered some AmQuel to keep on hand as back up. My question is " how often should I check the water conditions to avoid that this doesn't happen again?' Any suggestions are surely appreciated. I have 2 fish left, and they appear like they are going to survive unlike the other 5 fish that are deceased.

Very informative thanks for the no nonsense advice.

What do you do if you don't have fish in the tank and you sail have amomoa in your fish in the tank

How do I help my fish that have ammonia burns?!? :(

This happened to me put I put my dads filter sponge so fish don’t get sucked up so I think that was able stop the aminos from getting worse

I had a small pleco fish in a brand new 10 gallon tank with a red eared slider but the turtule did not bug the fish alot it mostly left it alone but i have filter that was going and i fed my pleco that one wierd waffles thingy and cucumbers the things i didn't have was just the heater but one day at the morning like 4:00 i saw the fish keep going to the surface and i had a float dock for my turtule and my pleco went to the floating dock which i never saw do that then a few mins later i saw it was floating in the surface upside down then when i touch it it was still alive then when it was 12 pm of the morning the time i woke up i found it dead can anyone explain why did this happen

very helpful, thank you.

Is it 1 table spoon or 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons? Ok with gold fish?

Starting up new 55 gallon tank. Been less then a week. No fish yet, only live plants. Doing daily 50% water changes. Have a good OASE Biomaster Thermo 350 filter. Testing ammonia daily. Aways in 2.0 range. Will add Seachem Purigen. Will Seachem Prime conditioner be beneficial as well?

How to remove ammonia once u have already added fish.Please help.

So... I have absolutely no idea how to take care of fish and aquariums, however I bought 2 african clawed frogs... Day 1 and 2: everything was perfect. Day 3: I realised the aquarium was too small. The water smells kinda bad. Day 4: ok, so the water is cloudy and smells like a little swamp. The frogs stayed all day long on the surface of the water. Day 5: prepared 40 l water on the balcony for dechlorination, the frogs are still on the surface of the water. Day 6: changed the water and started looking for bigger aquarium. Frogs are happy on the bottom. Day 7: ordered new aquarium, prepared new 40 l on the balcony. Day 8: new fish tank!!! The frogs are happy, the water is clean and they have a new friend inside - a golden fish. Maybe I also need a filtrating pump too? Day 9: we have a new pump - JP 033F (hope it's good enough), added 40 l more (I have space for another 40 l)... So far everybody is alive, I'm not sure if the pump is working properly, I'll see in few hours. :)