Ammonia Review and Concern
Thank BV. The problem is that I have already spent money on regular conditioner and I don't think I have the receipt anymore and I would hate to buy more and not use the other. Sounds cheap, I know, but I guess it's how I feel
. I am considering doing biweekly 5G w/c because this would decrease the levels of ammonia the fish are exposed to, but it would make them exposed longer.... not sure. I got this information from
Chlorine, article "Chlorammine == Ammonia?"
The concentration of the released ammonia will be related to the concentration of the original chloramine. I can't remember the details, but the resultant concentration depends on whether you have mono or di-chloramine (NH2Cl or NHCl2); John Kuhns says it is likely the later. Anyway, the resultant ammonia concentration is something similar to the chloramine concentration. So, I think we are talking about 1 to 2 ppm (mg/l) of ammonia (to be diluted according to the % water change). For 50 % change you can have 1 ppm of ammonia. The amount of this that is toxic to fish will depend mostly on pH but also on temperature. (There is an equilibrium between toxic NH3 and non-toxic NH4). Worst case is high pH and high temperature.
At 8.5 pH and 86 deg, 20 percent would be toxic NH3 (~ 0.2 ppm). This is a
lot and roughly corresponds to lethal dose for 1-hr exposure. This does not
apply to all fish; goldfish can live in windex
I then, when looking for that equilibrium temperature, I found this site,
Free Ammonia Calculator, and it asks for pH and ammonia readings. I do not have a pH test kit, so unfortunately until I get one I cannot know for sure.
I used the input of temperature = 25 degrees C as this is my tank temperature. I used an ammonia reading of .5ppm as that is what happens when I change my water. I then varied the pH to go in 0.25 intervals from 5 to 9, to make sure I cover the likely (and even not so likely) range pf pH in my tank. The calculator gave me these results as well as others:
# (pH); #ppm (free ammonia)
5 ; 0.000028432544659620436 ppm
6 ; 0.00028418000730272226 ppm
7 ; 0.0028273375624625605 ppm
8 ; 0.026904166723663372 ppm
9 ; 0.1812613343556084 ppm
I also created a graph of these findings so when I get a pH tester kit I can quickly guesstimate for myself what the free ammonia reading is. As you can see, the higher the pH, the higher the free ammonia levels, and the max, at a .5ppm total ammonia reading is less than .2ppm. This is a scary level, as is, for me, anything over .1ppm. The results can bee seen in the graph. I ran the series of inputs for a .25 ammonia reading but it is exactly half of the .5 reading (go figure
).
NOTE: The graph uses a 30% error allowance that I add in later, as I am not entirely sure if I trust this calculator that much, as well as to allow for temperature fluctuations, especially during the w.c..
Having said this I am not too too worried about my fish. Mind you I keep a very good eye on them after the water change and if I ever see anything go wrong, I will get my butt down to my LFS to get some prime, or at least some ammonia neutralizer. Hopefully I can catch any behavioral anomalies like red gills, frantic breathing, surface habitation before any deaths occur- so far even the smallest of guppy fry and neon tetras have been fine.
Thank you for your concern BV- it spurred me to do some research and find out about this ammonia stuff. I am not using this and saying ammonia is ok, more as a guideline to know when I will really be in trouble, and to know that in general there is likely less toxic levels of ammonia in my tank than shown by my total ammonia test kit.