Ammonia Issue

[unknowntbeast]

The other day I transfered 6 danios to a 20 gallon tank that already had 5 fish it in. For some reason the stupid bacteria couldn't handle it that great and it's been hovering around .25 ppm. Aside of water changes like crazy its not being processed. I moved them so I could do a good cleaning in the smaller tank and properly cycle it (I set it up before coming to the forums). So I have the smaller tank at 5 ppm trying to regrow that bacteria, while the larger one seems to be going through a mini-cycle(?) HELP! What do I do?

 

[Darkerwhite2]

Honestly i think all you can do is water changes and keep an eye on that level, which it looks like your doing so good on ya. Keep it up.

Was the 20G already fully cycled? I can see why it spiked, you doubled the bio load so the bacteria will need to catch up and multiply. So I would suggest just really keep up the water changes.

 

[fatheadminnow]

I agree^

You should not double the amount of fish you have in a tank at one time. At most, add 1-2 at a time and then wait at least one week before you add anymore fish. That is if all your level are good.

All you can do, like stated above, in the 20 gallon is just keep doing water changes.

-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

In theory, the bacteria can double their population in about a day. What happens in the real world is that it tends to move more slowly when the bio-load is changed. On a mature tank, not a newly cycled one, you can usually get away with a weekly increase of maybe 40 to 50%, but no more, without having any serious water chemistry problems.

 

[Darkerwhite2]

^ Agreed Oldman47, and I realize that bacteria's growth rate is exponential but with only 20G and an addition of six fish I think did cause the mini cycle. I'm still waiting to find out how long it had been cycled for from the op. Also wondering what the other 5 fish are as the bioload could have been near its max for the filtration.

Either way I hope things are settling out for them.