Ammonia before water changes

[elliebellie]

Does anyone check their ammonia levels before water changes? (I'm talking about uncycled tanks) What is the norm? I Have my boy in a 2.5 AGA and I change his water every 4 days, here is the ammonia reading from right before I changed his water today:


It look really close to .50 in real life. Is that high? Should I be changing his water more frequently?

[Oldfishlady]

How long has the tank been running and what kind of dechlorinator are you using, also have you tested your source water for ammonia?

Are you removing any uneaten food and do you vacuum the substrate at least every week, this is a filter tank correct?......any live plants and is the Betta the only livestock in the tank.

How much water to you change every 4 days?

[elliebellie]

It is uncycled and unfiltered, and I am doing 100% complete washing-out-everything-in-super-hot-water changes. The betta is the only livestock in the tank. I am using prime.

[Oldfishlady]

It may be the prime...it can cause skewed results with the API ammonia test kit and what you are seeing may be ammonium and not ammonia...the test kit can't tell the difference between the two and ammonium is safe...watch the Betta and his behavior should tell you in some cases as well as the fins

In a 2.5gal unfiltered tank I would do twice weekly water changes...1-50% and 1-100% to maintain water quality since it will not establish a true nitrogen cycle without a filter or some type of aeration for the bacteria along with enough surface area to colonize.....