Ammonia Level Problems...sigh...

[Shmicklet]

I Have a 55 gallon tank, it has been set up for about 6-7 weeks now I have used bio spira on it, it appeared to work as there was a bacterial bloom, but at the time my tank was overcrowded so my ammonia continued to rise anyways. That was about 2-3 weeks ago. Three days ago I finally found homes for most of my fish and I should now have a decent amount of fish in my tank. I'll tell you the specs and fish.

Specs:

55 Gallon Tank
65 Pounds of gravel
10 fake plants
1 large two-piece castle
Fluval Filstar XP2 filter with all media including 1 pack of bio-chemstars (filter added about two weeks ago,before that was a cruddy aqua-tech overhang filter)
Stock lights

Current Fish:
4 Guppies
6 Zebra Danios
1 3-4 inchBlue Three Spotted Gourami
1 full grown Dwarf Gourami
1 4-5 inch Plecostomus
2 Otocinclus Catfish
2 Mystery snails
Apporox 10 baby guppies ranging in age from 5 weeks to 1 week.

Feeding:
Once everyother day.

Okay so yesterday I did a 50% water change, cleaning almost all of the old poo out so we can get a fresh start at this, the ammonia was still at 1 when I finished. So the bacteria had ammonia. Today it rose by about .25 and tomorrow im sure it will be at 2. Why am I still having this problem? I do use a little Prime so my fish don't die, but not as much as the instructions say, just enough so my fish dont look stressed.

I have a theory that maybe the Prime is the culprit, being that it is made up of complex salts and salt kind of inhibits the bacteria from multiplying as it does to ich and other parasites. Could this be the case? Im just so tired of this, I found homes for 13 full grown guppies and I'm still having an ammonia problem... Sigh...Any help would be appreciated.

 

[minxfishy]

Hi, with the tank only being set up 6/7 wks and the amount of fish you have (even though you have re-homed some) its not suprising to see you have ammonia problems - which may well turn to nitrite problems once the ammonia has been sorted. Unfortunatley it doesnt look as though the bio-spira worked too well - as is sometimes the case if it wasnt stored correctly (in transit or by the LFS).

For now, you have to continue to do daily 50% water changes, sometimes more than once a day, until you get your ammonia down to 0.25ppm, preferably 0, but for the cycle to complete 0.25 is the maximum recommended level for the fish to be in.

After your water changes, test the water about 1 - 2 hours later, if the level is still higher than 0.25, then do another 50% water change. You will of course need to dechlorinate the water but also try to match the temperature of the water going into the tank to that of the water inside the tank as closely as possilbe to avoid any shock to the fish. Although not normally necesary in normal water changes because you dont remove that much water, in this instance its best to temp match the water.

Do you have a liquid test kit? If so, please can you post the nitrite levels too, this will give an indication as to what stage of the cycle you are at, also nitrate too if you have it.

 

[Shmicklet]

Hi Minxfishy,

I actually just ran out of testers for nitrate and nitrite, I had strips, but this time I am going to get the liquid. The strips are worthless.

I do try to match the temp. for the fish. (I've become used to 50% water changes, ) I go by touch, is that an appropriate way to do it? They seem to be happy afterwords.

As for the bio spira, I had a bacterial bloom, but maybe they all died off or something? Can too much ammonia kill bacteria?

 

[minxfishy]

Yep touch is a good way to test the temp of the water

Too much wont kill it, but can stall the cycle process. You may find you will need to keep up these water changes for several weeks Im afraid, as soon as you can get the liquid test kit, let us know your results, I think you may well have nitrite problems too as is normal with what is effectively now a fish-in cycle.

Dont worry, as long as you keep up these changes, hopefully your fish will survive and live long happy lives.