# Water quality control with a new cichlid owner



## SirWookster (Feb 9, 2015)

Hi all, 
First post here so go easy on me. I'm currently running a 60 gal Cichlid tank, Silica sand bottom mixed with crushed coral, Lace rock, and an RW-8 pump moving water in a gently wave pattern. I have 6 total fish, the tank is 3 weeks old, with a fishles cycle and one week into having live fish. I have two Haps, and 4 Mbuna. I know haps and Mbunas don't always mix, but currently the Mbuna are too busy whoopin on each other and protecting their little piece of rock to worry about the free swimming haps. Heres my problem. My tap water is hard, that's good for cichlids. At the same time it uses a large amount of chloramine (3.8-4.4PPM) MY ammonia tests have all been under .05 PPM until I read on a cichlid FB group that cichlids require large weekly water changes. So I did a 20% change on Saturday. No siphoning, I use current to pull detritous into the filter, just a water change. Immediately the ammonia spiked to .2PPM. I am using prime and I know it canverts free ammonia into a less hazardous form, but my tests don't detect that. How do I test for ammonia in a new tank with chloramine in the tap? thanks in advance.


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

i really dont think that your tank is cycled after only 3 weeks


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## SirWookster (Feb 9, 2015)

well, to fully disclose, this was a blackwater amazon tank before. I had something introduced into the tank that killed anything Tetra. Leaving only the plecos and corys alive. I transferred them, went to a sand substrate. Took two old filters from an established tank and ran them in front of the filters in the current setup. Threw some detritous in there and waited for ammonia to reach zero. did a water change and waited a week. Had ammonia 0 NO2 0 and No3 at under 20. Then I added 3 fish. ammonia peaked at <.05 after a week. added 3 fish two days later. Then did a 20% water change. Used prime to condition tap water and Ammonia readings spiked. Did a lot of research and looked up the local water company statistics. That's where I found the 4.4PPm level of choramine. The tank seems sufficiently cycled. Only time ammonia has raised is during the water change. My question is how do I do regular water changes with such a high Chloramine level in the water?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The Prime will handle the chloramine/ammonia. You know to expect an ammonia reading from your experience testing (your tests DO detect the ammonia associated with chloramine) and only become alarmed if the reading is higher than the usual baseline.


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

SirWookster said:


> well, to fully disclose, this was a blackwater amazon tank before. I had something introduced into the tank that killed anything Tetra. Leaving only the plecos and corys alive. I transferred them, went to a sand substrate. Took two old filters from an established tank and ran them in front of the filters in the current setup. Threw some detritous in there and waited for ammonia to reach zero. did a water change and waited a week. Had ammonia 0 NO2 0 and No3 at under 20. Then I added 3 fish. ammonia peaked at <.05 after a week. added 3 fish two days later. Then did a 20% water change. Used prime to condition tap water and Ammonia readings spiked. Did a lot of research and looked up the local water company statistics. That's where I found the 4.4PPm level of choramine. The tank seems sufficiently cycled. Only time ammonia has raised is during the water change. My question is how do I do regular water changes with such a high Chloramine level in the water?


ok. your first post left out some important info.


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## SirWookster (Feb 9, 2015)

sumthinfishy said:


> SirWookster said:
> 
> 
> > well, to fully disclose, this was a blackwater amazon tank before. I had something introduced into the tank that killed anything Tetra. Leaving only the plecos and corys alive. I transferred them, went to a sand substrate. Took two old filters from an established tank and ran them in front of the filters in the current setup. Threw some detritous in there and waited for ammonia to reach zero. did a water change and waited a week. Had ammonia 0 NO2 0 and No3 at under 20. Then I added 3 fish. ammonia peaked at <.05 after a week. added 3 fish two days later. Then did a 20% water change. Used prime to condition tap water and Ammonia readings spiked. Did a lot of research and looked up the local water company statistics. That's where I found the 4.4PPm level of choramine. The tank seems sufficiently cycled. Only time ammonia has raised is during the water change. My question is how do I do regular water changes with such a high Chloramine level in the water?
> ...


Sorry about that. I went with the basics because I figured I didn't want to do a long drawn out question and waste everyone's time. I guess with it being my first post I should have clarified I wasn't a new hobbyist. Although I'm dealing with a doozy of a noobie issue right now. What do you do when you discover your three year old daughter at some point in the middle of the night last night, "Fed" her ten gallon guppy tank a hard boiled egg....broken in half? My god, the smell. the horrible horrible smell.


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

hahahahahaha. oh man!!


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I know my reply is late but remove as much of the hard boiled egg as possible and increase the frequency of your water changes. You may also need to rinse the filter media in some used aquarium water to remove any gunk that the filter may have picked up.


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