What to do about ammonia in fish tank - fish is sick.?

Question

I just moved to a new area and the tap water is different than my last place. I've had this betta for about 8 months and it's my first fish. The water at my last home had a rather high PH as does this place (7.8), but this tap water has higher levels of ammonia, which I believe is making my fish sick. I purchased Prime water stuff to take out chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia but can't seem to get the ammonia levels below 1.0.

What do I do? Nitrates and nitrites are good, but ph and ammonia is high. I don't want to stress him out anymore, but I don't want a dead fish either. Help

Answer 1

buy some bottled water in stead of using tap its natural with no unbalance to it if you use it then use i galon of water to i galion of tank size  

Answer 2

Betta's are very hardy fish. Get a bucket and fill it with however many gallons you tank is and let it sit for two days. Then take your Betta out of the tank and do a COMPLETE water change. put the aged water in the tank and then leave it for 20 minutes. You can put your Betta back in now. for now on use aged water because all the chemicals evaporate or treat the water first. The chemicals can harm your fish if the don't sit for a while. GOOD LUCK!!!  

Answer 3

My ammonia levels were off the chart.  I was changing out 15-20% of my water everyday until it was back at 0.  I have heard that is the best way to do it.  That chemicals are sometimes unpredictable.  

Answer 4

Prime detoxifies ammonia into ammonium.  Ammonium is harmless to your fish ONLY if your PH is under 7.0.

Don't let your PH fluctuate, fish don't react well to sudden and or erratic changes in PH levels.  Bettas can handle a higher PH but I would be wary if your ammonia reading is still that high.  If you need to lower your PH , do it slowly because too much PH down can burn your Betta.  (remember low PH is acidic :))

Try a decent (40%) water change, that may improve things.

I hope that helped, good luck!!