why do I have ammonia NH3?
Aquarium help > New tank syndrome & NH3 > why do I have ammonia NH3?
All aquarium livestock produces ammonia, how much build up depends on how many animals are kept and how much you feed versus how efficient your filters are. This is why it is so important to slowly introduce livestock over many months to your aquarium allowing avoiding new tank syndrome ; it allows the biological filter bacteria to breed that consume the harmful ammonia as it is produced.
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[MISSING: System.API.no-headers]All aquarium livestock produces ammonia, how much build up depends on how many animals are kept and how much you feed versus how efficient your filters are. This is why it is so important to slowly introduce livestock over many months to your aquarium allowing avoiding new tank syndrome ; it allows the biological filter bacteria to breed that consume the harmful ammonia as it is produced.
Leading causes of ammonia issues are listed here
- too many fish
- too much food
- dead fish
- insufficent filtration
- pH or temperature going up
- benefitial bacteria colony claposed
When too many fish are introduced or too much food is added to a new aquarium it causes free ammonia to rise. If allowed to rise too far the ammonia will reach toxic levels and kill the fish. This is often referred to new tank syndrome the following page will help to understand how to reduce and remove ammonia.
People with mature aquarium aquariums say they don't have ammonia this is false, all aquarium have ammonia being produced constantly if they have live stock. They may not register ammonia as the filters are keeping up with its production, however sometime bacteria colonies can be affected and population’s crash, this can be caused by water parameter fluctuations or pollutants; when this happens the same rules apply here as to removing ammonia as a it does to new aquariums and ponds. On ponds blocked filters are a leading cause of NH3 issues.
It is therefore important to understand what is safe with ammonia levels.