Ammonia Issue, Is My Tank Not Cycled?

[Sumo2000]

I've had my tank for a couple months now and went through what appeared to be a normal cycle: Ammonia for a week or so then nitrites for about the same amount of time. Now I never show any nitrites and nitrate is about 5.0 normally (since I do water changes for the ammonia almost every day). The problem is that my ammonia keeps reading anywhere from .25 to 1.0ppm. shouldn't that be getting converted to nitrite, etc.? I thought I might have too many fish, or maybe not enough filtration? I have an AquaClear 50 Filter (200gph), I figured that should be plenty.

29 Gallon tank I have:
6 Redeye Tetras
12 Zebra Danios
1 Rubberlip Pleco
2 Kribensis

Is that too much? I thought I would be at once a week water changes by now.

 

[fatheadminnow]

I am not going to comment on the stocking of the tank, as I do not know much about that. But the amount of fish should not be the case in this situation.

You have plenty of filtration, almost 7x turn over, which is good.

But what I/we need to know is, are you adding any other additives to the tank, and if so, what are they?

Also, have you cleaned the filter media at all, if so, how did you do this?

-FHM

 

[Sumo2000]

The only additive I add is dechlorinator (Prime). I clean the filter once or twice a week by dunking the sponge in just-drained tank water in a bucket & squeezing it out a bit. I don't wash the ceramic media.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Okay, on that size filter, a majority of you beneficial bacteria are also going to colonize on the foam insert, not just on the biomax, so by rinsing it once or twice a week, you are most likely wiping out a lot of you beneficial bacteria, causing an ammonia spike.

You should clean the foam insert once a month.

I have an Aquaclear 20 and an Aquaclear 70, and I only clean the foam insert once a month.

I am 99.9% sure this is your problem to why you are getting a high ammonia reading.

-FHM

 

[Sumo2000]

Cool, I'll leave it alone for awhile & see if that helps.

Thanks tons!

ETA: should I add nother sponge to the filter? It has room for three sets of media, right now I have one sponge and two bio-media... what do you think?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Your welcome!

Yeah, I wouldn't touch the filter for 1 month.

Keep a close eye one the water parameters and I am sure you will see ammonia go down soon.

If you are still having an ammonia issue, say in 1-2 weeks, post back on here and we will look at the issue again!

EDIT: You might find yourself in a little mini cycle.

Since there was no NitrIte for the bacteria that process Nitrite, that might of wiped out some, but not all of the nitrifying bacteria.

But since you are getting a NitrAte reading, your nitrifying bacteria might be okay.

This might not be the case, but we will see over the next couple of weeks.

-FHM

 

[arobinson1984]

Also,

Do you regularly clean your gravel? As it may be bits of uneaten food etc which will break down in your gravel to ammonia.

Andy

 

[Sumo2000]

Also,

Do you regularly clean your gravel? As it may be bits of uneaten food etc which will break down in your gravel to ammonia.

Andy

Yea, I clean my gravel with every water change. I was wondering if I might be cleaning my gravel too much.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Also,

Do you regularly clean your gravel? As it may be bits of uneaten food etc which will break down in your gravel to ammonia.

Andy

Yea, I clean my gravel with every water change. I was wondering if I might be cleaning my gravel too much.

If you had an under gravel filter that would be a different story, but since you have a HOB filter, you do not have to worry about how much you clean your substrate.

-FHM