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table 1 The Ammonia reading you get from test kits is actually the sum of Total Ammonia - which is made up of Ammonia NH3 + Ammonium NH4. At low levels of pH (lower than 6.0), ammonification occurs. Remember, pH is an inverse count of Hydrogen (H). At low pH, you have more Hydrogen. At high pH, you have less. At these low levels of pH (high acidity), the ammonia NH3 'absorbs' (for lack of a better word), an extra Hydrogen ion -> becoming NH4 or ammonium. The reason Ammonium is less toxic to fish and shrimp is because NH4 with that added Hydrogen H ion is now less permeable to the gills of fish & shrimp. NH4 is also excreted across the gills via a carrier mediated process in exchange for sodium Na+. Ammonia toxicity is also influenced by temperature: The lower the temperature the less toxic it becomes. Or to put it another way - NH3 toxicity increases with temperature and pH. Table 2. Un-ionized NH3 as a percent of total ammonia (by temperature and pH). Percent NH3 of total ammonia Temp pH 6.5 pH 7.0 pH 7.5 pH 8.0 pH 8.5 20C / 68F .13 .40 1.24 8.82 11.2 25C / 77F .18 .57 1.77 5.38 15.3 28C / 82F .22 .70 2.17 6.56 18.2 30C / 86F .26 .80 2.48 7.46 20.3 Assuming a temp of 28C and a pH of 7.0 - if 5ppm of ammonia is present this results in only .03 ppm ammonia. However, in a Tanganyikan Cichlids tank with a pH of 9.0, that has a Total Ammonia of 5 ppm, your ammonia level is 2.06 ppm! This now becomes toxic for the fish. But, at a pH of 6.0, and 10 ppm of Total Ammonia, the ammonia is only .007 ppm. Eventhough we have MORE ammonia. So be cautious when performing water changes in a low pH tank, as the low pH has an adverse affect on the nitrifying bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite. Because of the acidity these bacteria populations can drop so low that any change in alkalinity can cause the Total Ammonia reading to rise quickly. While the pH stays low the Total Ammonia reading is nearly all ammonium, but if you do a water change or add an alkalinity buffer to the system, the ammonium can be quickly converted to ammonia, potentially causing ammonia poisoning. It is good to note here that, as per the very top picture (table1) ... nitrifying bacteria that convert ammonia NH3 to Nitrate (NO3) does NOT convert Ammonium NH4 to a less toxic form. The bacteria isn't present in sufficient amounts in such low pH environments to process it. Ammonium NH4 is ever present in a low pH tank that has living creatures in it. NH4 is in there ready to be converted into NH3 at the first sign of added alkalinity during water changes. Hence, why we always tell you to match water parameters and add it into the tank slowly (drip it in if you can), don't dump in buckets of new water all at once. So in summary, the combination of low pH (<6) and cool temperatures that the shrimp live in can mean that high ammonia levels are not toxic to them. But be careful !!! Any change in the pH buffer that increases alkalinity will cause the toxic ammonia to immediately convert from NH4 to NH3. There you go. Hopefully that is a more precise explanation to aid your understanding. And by the looks of your googling, the majority of the fish keeping world still don't know as 1, 2, and 3 is almost there but not quite. The ideal spot to be is just above 6.1 to 6.5, where bacteria still function, and ammonia is less toxic. Throw in a cool temperature into the mix and that's where we want to be. I wonder how many times our shrimp die in hot temps, (say due to hot weather ... maybe even a broken heater) not because of the heat, but because our low pH tanks have no functioning bacteria to cope with the sudden change in toxic NH3 ammonia due to the rise in temps??? Food for thought. Hmm ... this should be an article itself.

Yes, you can have a cycle even below pH 6. If u google search for "nitrification bacteria low pH" you will find many research articles about this. The majority are regarding wastewater treatment, but they still involve the nitrosomas bacteria. The short version is that last I checked they still aren't sure how it is accomplished, but guess that the bacteria have adapted an ammonium transport mechanism. This is thru natural selection and takes a few generations (of bacteria, so not all that long). If you take bacteria that grew up in pH 7 and dunk them into pH 5.5, then they will probably all die off and you won't get a cycle. If you start a tank at pH 5.5 and just wait and wait, maybe you will get a cycle in 3 months, or maybe not. My idea, which has also been proposed on other forums like plantedtank by others, is to raise the bacteria with media separately in a jar with high temperature and pH, and then slowly bring down the pH while constantly making sure that the cycle doesn't stall. Once you get it down to the desired pH, you can introduce it into the tank and this saves you from wrecking your buffering substrate. I haven't done this yet, but maybe next time. I would not use an insert substrate for bee shrimp because tap water is not trustworthy. It can suddenly change one day. My own tap is sometimes 35ppm and sometimes 150ppm. Further, all pH measurements at low TDS are not trustworthy because the solution is not strongly buffered, and so test kit solutions can push the pH around; even meters are slow to respond and don't always read correctly. Regarding testing for ammonium, an idea I had was to use a test kit for NH3, which is much more sensitive, and just add a drop of base (NaOH) to the solution to make the pH >8. (This is also an idea I haven't bothered to try yet)

Thanks JayC, as you say it does tie in with what I had read, sort of, though I did try to summerise the ridiculous amount I have read over the years so part of that will be my bad or misunderstandings. I think I have it now, as you say I had got bits! It certainly ties in with my experiences as well and when the Ph went over 6 disaster. I am trying to very slowly reduce the Ph back to its 'natural' 5.5 but assume anyway that it cycled and that killed the shrimp and when it gets lower the ammonium won't harm them anyway. This assumes I have understood of course, Ph rises ammonia (toxic) then reducing Ph it will revert to ammonium (not toxic) so the shrimp shouldn't be affected by the change from toxic to non toxic as the Ph very slowly drops?? Just don't test me Professor JayC............... I definitely agree your posting should be an article even if you just copy/paste it as is! SORRY to take over your thread Warpp8787? Really pleased to see it has made things clearer for you, and that you can see you can carry on with it as it is set up already if you want to (and it is virtually ready to go as is), but if you decide to still change the setup that is fine also and it is easier before you have the shrimps! Simon

Makes sense now - thanks so much for taking your time! Couldn't have asked for a better answer ?

Maybe make it an article then! I just glanced over it but seems like some very good information, and from what Simon said - - then a few people might benefit from it!

+1 for staghorn algae as well.

Update: Still feeding the Oil Infused Bug Bites. A few shrimp( the two farthest along with the disease) still show signs, but look much better. No more deaths. Also, tons of babies showing up. I counted 15 earlier, most are black crystals...... probably should have left those out??, oh well! Just did a 2 gallon water change, Added some Shrimp Fit, Baby Shrimp, BacterAE, and Marks Shrimp Tanks Montmorillonite Clay. Water Parameters: PH: 6.4 GH:5-6 KH:1-0 TDS 115 Temp:68f Ammonia: 0ppm

With that in mind I may wait until my things arrive, equipment to get an actual PH reading and such. If my PH is..lets say between 5.5 and 6, I may keep this substrate, but only leave the tank to mature and grow biofilm as there is not much point trying to establish a nitrogen cycle. Then doing water changes via dripping if required. That is if my PH didn't sink to oblivion, in that case I will go with the inert gravel. With all this info now I got a quite clear picture of how to approach both scenarios, given that my PH is still in a somewhat ideal range of 5.5-6. As I intend to keep taiwan bees of some sort (still undecided on what exactly, could even bee taibee or taitibee) it would be quite ideal for them. Thanks again for all the help!

Chameleons are indestructible provided you keep the temperature up. for instance i left a couple hundred in a sealed Styrofoam box full of rotting plants, peat moss and bog wood for 10 days by accident when moving house and still managed to get at least 50 survivors out of water that smelled and looked like sewage.

Okay, thanks. I looked that one up but wasn’t sure if that was the right kind of algae. I will cut off infected plants and lower light to 8 hours a day and see if it does anything. The plants on the back of the tank are the ones that are infected and they face the window. I’ll keep those blinds close as well and see what happens.

Hey dreamblue, I think it’s stag horn algae. Found this site, check it out. https://fishlab.com/staghorn-algae/ It uses flourish excel as the treatment method. I use that in my tanks too (actually trying to remove bba) and it’s a good product. I would also reccomend reducing your lighting times. If you normally have background light to a certain extent, maybe try dropping to 10 hours a day.