Ammonia Out Of Control After Weekly Waterchanges, Help!

[upsy daisy]

I have a 54l tank with some java ferns, 5 platies and 4 albino glowlight tetras. As a declorinator I use API's Stress Coat+.

After my fishless cycle went nowhere I was prepared to do the fish in cycle with frequent waterchanges. At first I did about 4 - 3 waterchanges a day, then 2 a day, 1 a day, 1 every 2 days, and then eventually water was fine without chaning for a week.

But now I have noticed a disturbing pattern: every time I do the required once a week waterchange, everything goes totally wrong, well, namely ammonia goes sky high and for the next 3-4 days I have to do about 4 waterchanges a day again till everything settles down, and it does settle down, eventually.

I wait a week from the last time I changed the water, do a waterchange again and yes, just as expected, water is full of ammonia again in about an hour after the water gets changed.

I can even tell when the water is wrong, because it gets all cloudy inside and the plant roots seem to "turn" white and there is white powdery gunk/ sediment around the filter, filter cradle and on the leaves.

I am getting physically tired of carrying all the buckets and stressed out as well. Why is this happening? I thought that maybe it was because the filter was not well established or something, so today I did a weekly waterchange without even swithching the filter off and without opening it and cleaning it, but still water is full of ammonia.

Any advice?

 

[PDSimon]

Is the ammonia noticbly converting to nitrite?

Sounds like the filter needs a clean...

Do you add anything else to the tank? ferts?

 

[Gvilleguy]

Since the initial cycling, have you checked your water source for base ammonia readings? Maybe something changed in your water supply?

 

[upsy daisy]

The nitrites stay at 0, only ammonia goes up.

No, I do not add anything for the plants at all.

Does the water need to be changed weekly even? Maybe I need to change it less frequently?
I mean, today I tested it prior to waterchange and it all was normal. Then about an hour after the waterchange ammonia was right up.

I will test the tapwater, it has always had a strong chlorine smell, though.

 

[fluffycabbage]

sounds very odd, you defo need to be testing your tap water! are you cleaning your filters too or leaving them alone?

 

[PDSimon]

Do the fish show any signs of high ammonia? my ammonia is 1ppm but the fish are all fine... it's because my fertiliser is making it give an incorrect reading. the fact that no nitrite is showing afterwards is suspicious... as if the ammonia reading is wrong.

Have you tried double dosing the tapsafe and/or checking your calculations and measuring equipment.

 

[upsy daisy]

Do the fish show any signs of high ammonia? my ammonia is 1ppm but the fish are all fine... it's because my fertiliser is making it give an incorrect reading. the fact that no nitrite is showing afterwards is suspicious... as if the ammonia reading is wrong.

I don't use anything whatsoever for the java ferns. I was under impression they were low maintenance and would be totally fine just with whatever is in the water.

When ammonia goes up the fish are slowing down, acting lethargic; I can tell straight away when things are wrong. Usually platies act hyper when they see me and swim towards me happily, bet when ammonia is up, they float around disinterestedly, as if in slow motion.

Have you tried double dosing the tapsafe and/or checking your calculations and measuring equipment.

I am measuring the correct amount of dechlorinator, my husband and I have double checked and made sure that there is no mistake in that.

I just tested the tap water and tank water simultaneously, tap water reading is ok, but the tank is cloudy and yellowish ( I am using Nutrafin/Hagen test).

I cleaned my filter thorougly last week, squeezed out the sponges in the bucket of the fish water from the tank and cleaned out debris from the top part of the filter (impeller and other bits and bobs I cannot name). This week I didn't want to do it in case I upset the critter colonies, because I wasn't sure what was causing ammonia to go up following the weekly maintenace thing.

 

[arobinson1984]

Are you giving the sand/gravel a good deep clean weekly? any rotting food which could be getting disturbed during a clean?

What filter is on the tank?


Andy

 

[upsy daisy]

Are you giving the sand/gravel a good deep clean weekly?
I really am, I dig that syphon in and wiggle it to make sure that it gets deep cleaned. I usually get about 50% water exactly for this reason, to be able to clean up as much debris from the gravel as possible.

What filter is on the tank?
It's INTERPET PF1

Thank you for your ideas, everyone!

But what is this white-ish stuff in my tank when ammonia goes high? Does anyone know what I am talking about?
This morning I looked into the tank and the environment inside looked just right and at home, if that makes sense but right after the water change it went pearshaped almost straight away. It's this white deposit in the fine roots and on the leaves. What is that? Almost like calcium or something.
I have never actually tested the water hardness, maybe this has something to do with it?

 

[fluffycabbage]

When ammonia goes up the fish are slowing down, acting lethargic; I can tell straight away when things are wrong. Usually platies act hyper when they see me and swim towards me happily, bet when ammonia is up, they float around disinterestedly, as if in slow motion.

mine do that when the bubbles are off and readings are fine!

 

[Rainbow67]

I have a 54l tank with some java ferns, 5 platies and 4 albino glowlight tetras. As a declorinator I use API's Stress Coat+.

If your tap water is treated with chloramine then your water conditioner will release ammonia as it breaks the chrloride bond is broken.

A cycled filter should handlle the released ammonia without harm to your fish.

You filter doesn't sound as if it is fully matured yet, so you actually might be better off having less frequent water changes until your tank becomes more mature.

Also as long as the filter is doing it's job then it is best to leave the filter alone for a while.
The more thoroughly you clean out the filter the more you actually harm the bacterial colony.
"thorough" filter cleanings are actually counter productive to the health of your tank.
Any brown gunk you find in your filter is actually full of the bacteria you need, so whilsts it's a good idea to unblock your filter sponges and intakes from this brown stuff, it's also a good idea to leave some of it on your sponges, especially if your tank hasn't properly cycled yet.
And when squeezing your sponges ......do it gently and don't wring them out.
If you are finding that too much plant debris is cluttering up your filters, then you may be better off removing the offending plant and changing it for one that doesn't create so much debris (Amazon swords and anubis are good debris free plants)

Also don't feed too much food to your fish......they won't starve, many tropical fish can suvive for 2 weeks without any food at all, without suffering any ill effects.

Hope this helps.

 

[OldMan47]

As Rainbow almost said, a test of the tap water in the bucket after dechlorinator is added may tell you where the ammonia is coming from. In my own tap water, I measure close to 1 ppm of ammonia in a fresh bucket of dechlorinated water. If you find the same thing, try doing smaller water changes. It would be quite unusual for a reasonably stocked tank to need a full 50% water change every week. If you did 20% instead, the high ammonia in the new water would not raise the tank water ammonia as much and the filter could then just deal with it. There is no need to get every bit of the substrate clean every week. Instead clean one area well, the next area the next week and so on. You will still give everything a good clean over the course of a few weeks and you will truly get each area that you attack almost spotless. You can also do it with less water being changed.
This approach is not for everyone, but it can help if you have ammonia in the dechlorinated tap water.
As you surmised, java ferns and similar low maintenance plants do not need any artificial fertilizers to grow well and thrive0. They also do not need the CO2 that plant people talk about all the time. I have grown them for years with no added fertilizers and no added CO2. They grow a bit slower than they do in my high tech tank, but that means I just don't need to trim them as often.