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Thread: Ammonia Levels
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18-07-2021, 11:34 AM #1
Ammonia Levels
Hi folks
My fish have been a bit up and down recently , a bit lethargic , and not moving around much , especially in the mornings . I havent noticed any flashing , and have checked for parasites and found none .
I do have some ammonia in the pond with a reading of 0.4 ppm , using my Hannah checker . Nitrite is low at 0.03 ppm
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Using Sids (Manky Sanky) chart , with a temp of 22 and ph of 8.0 I`m just below the acceptable range for free ammonia - which would be 0.46 .
Do you think my ammonia reading would be causing this lethargic behaviour , or should I be looking for something else ? Other than the lethargy , the fish look healthy enough , with no visble sores or redness , or anything .
Ive increased my trickle in/out , and checked my chlorine - which is good .
My pond is 2500 gallon with 12 fish - feeding around 100g per day . I have a drum filter and bio chamber with 200 l of k1 for filtration .
Thanks in advance .
Colin
2500 Gallon Fibreglass Pond
Draco Solum 16 , 400l Bio Chamber
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19-07-2021, 09:38 AM #2
Hi Colin, Ammonia is pretty high/close to max on Manky's chart..so could be just this making them lethargic. I would change more water, (as you are now), and cut food back for a couple days, and see if they perk up..cheers
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19-07-2021, 12:26 PM #3
I calculated that chart to show the maximum levels of ammonia that koi could live with without harm but it doesn't guarantee that they won't be P'd off by a level that high.
However, experience shows that only a few koi are sensitive enough to be upset provided the pond ammonia level doesn't exceed the values shown on the chart and most koi will continue with their normal behaviour. So, I would be surprised if a whole pond of fish would be sensitive enough to be lethargic especially if this behaviour was most apparent in the mornings.
Don't discount that the lethargy may be related to the ammonia level and reduce the feeding but it would be sensible to look for another reason. An overnight pH fall due to to carbon dioxide from fish respiration can cause fish to be stressed in the morning so what are your pH values as early as you can check it after day break and at sunset?
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21-07-2021, 10:00 PM #4
Thanks for the reply`s guys .
Just done some more scrapes , and found Trich - so treated with PP .
After cutting back on feeds and increasing the water changes , the Ammonia is down to 0.3 . I`ll keep an eye on it , but it seems to be going in the right direction .
The fish are still looking a bit sulky , and hanging around at the bottom of the pond , but its only just over a day since the PP was added , so I`ll keep monitoring them .
Thanks .Colin
2500 Gallon Fibreglass Pond
Draco Solum 16 , 400l Bio Chamber
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