Urgent: high ammonia??

Hi all,

I'm having a problem in one of my tanks. the reading for the water are as follows:

Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 40ppm Ammonia: 1ppm

Now that ammonia is what is worrying me, I have just done a water change, yesterday it was around 1 - 2ppm, so I used some AmQuel+ as I was told it removes, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nirates. I was asured is was not an Ammonia lock fluid.

My fish seem happy, they are as lively as ever, but that Ammonia level is worrying me. I am going to keep adding the AmQuel+ and doing 20% water changes every day, until it falls.

Is there anything I should be doing as well, or something I shouldn't be doing?

Thanks,

I forgot to add the tank is planted already so I have a lot of live plants

The water is very well air-rated too, as I have a large air stone on 24hrs a day as well as my Fluval2Plus filter, which has an air intake.

The test I'm using is:

Freshwater Master test Kit from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, Inc

That doesn't help. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals used to offer Nessler kits but I don't know what they have now. As I said before, check whether the color change is clear to yellow or yellow to green. A yellow to green color change is a salicylate kit and what you need to use with

its a Yellow - Green

so that means that the treated ammonia will not show up then?

sorry I'm new to fish keeping, only been doing it for about 6-7months, and very new to this testing

No problem. Right. Treated ammonia should not show up on your kit. You're watching your fish too, which is the most important thing. They may not show signs of poisoning from low (and still undesirable) levels of ammonia, but you'll know at a glance if things have gotten bad.

aye, I just want to clarify, if they start gasping at the surface and loses their colouration, then that would be chemical posioning,

will this be the same as for ammonia posioning?

Symptoms of ammonia poisoning are similar to many other chemical poisoning signs. Ammonia tends to cause reddish or purple gills, gasping at the surface, unusual movements (most fish become less active but some dart, shimmy, or show escape behaviours like jumping), and loss of appetite. Signs of stress like color changes or clamped fins are also not uncommon. Higher levels of ammonia can cause red streaks in the skin or fins, excess slimecoat production, and finrot.

Prime and Stability make an excellent combination for water conditioning.