Whoops! Amonia mistake, What should I do?

[R.K. Castillo]

I made a big mistake when I added ammonia   I was using the tester wrong and kept getting back 0 for ammonia and kept adding and adding ammonia   

When I finally tested it correctly it was sky high!

Should I start all over with new water?  

Or should I just let it run and the ammonia levels will go down?

[Pete Schuhmann]

What size system do you have? Do you have fish yet? Do you have nitrites yet? What is the level of ammonia in ppm now?

[R.K. Castillo]

Right now I have a small system, 30 gallons to 2 5 gallon buckets to nft system.

No fish yet and the water testing color checker is dark green or 8.8 but that's as high as it goes so it might be higher.

No nitrites yet

[Alex Veidel]

I would do a water change and try to bring that ammonia level down a little. I've heard around 4ppm?

[Pete Schuhmann]

s

Since you have no fish and your system is so small I would change your water and start over.

 

[Rob Nash]

star over, add sea weed.  ...shop for a larger set up.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Yeah man, start over...or at least "over" enough to where you've diluted the NH4 to between 2 and 4ppm. Beyond 6ppm you really make it tough for nitrifying bacteria to 'go forth and multiply'...At only 30 US Gallons, it's not gonna take much to get you on the range...You could sure stand a bigger bio-filter R.K...it's gonna be the most important component of your particular set-up...So don't skimp on it...

[R.K. Castillo]

How much bigger Vlad?  Another couple of buckets?

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Well, there's a couple of ways to look at this (usually I think it's a good idea to design your system around your bio-filter, since it will pretty much determine everything else)...Using the rule of thumb; 1 cubic foot of media per pound of fish maximum...might not be wholly applicable since your running NFT and will be removing a good deal of solids (or at least you should be with NFT) There is much plant essential elements locked up in those solids, so in essence by removing them, your removing nutrients from the system as well...I'm taking a wild guess in thinking your fish tank is 30 gallons? So 4-5 lbs of fish is probably max...How many holes do you have exactly? I imagine you'll be keeping short term crops like lettuce and some greens eh?...

So how many plants were you planning?

[R.K. Castillo]

A couple in each bucket and lettuce in each hole in the NFT pipes.

[abi]

I've done the same thing, but in 60l ! Readings of more than 8ppm, after two 50% WCs. there're already plants in there too, feel such a doof! continuous WCs now until down to less than 6ppm..

[Arvind Venkataraman]

Its best to chuck 2/3 the water out hopefully into a garden. Its going to take more than a few weeks to bring the ammonia levels down in your system, just letting it run. In all fairness you could keep running the system, it will simulate your fish.