Ammonia Problem

[abe]

I got a little behind on my fish keeping; with the holidays, working, and I totaled my car too. So being a little preoccupied, I forgot to clean out my tanks. Unfortunately, what triggered my memory was noticing I had some sick fish

I cleaned them all out Monday, with a normal 25% water change. The ammonia in my 40g tank was at .5 ppm, so I did a 50% water change the next day, still at .5 ppm. Today I did around a 75% change and my test reads .25 ppm.

This is what confuses me.. This is an establsihed tank, and is about 2 years old. Today I also tested for nitrite and nitrate and they were both at 0. Shouldn't my tests be picking up something there? Could something be killing off my bacteria?

The tank is SLIGHTLY cloudy right now, so hopefully that means a bacterial bloom. I'm still confused though.

 

[Breeze7050]

Is there by chance a dead (eek, I hope not) fish in there that is causing the ammonia to rise? How long did you go in between your water changes? Did you vacuum your gravel at the last water change? Have you added anything new lately?
Sorry to hear about your car! Ugh.

 

[abe]

I think it was 3, maybe even 4 weeks since the last change. I've been a bad fish momma

I thought maybe there was a dead fish somewhere, but I can't find it if there is. I have sand, but I vacuum it every time I do a water change, and I even stirred it this time in case there was something buried somewhere. I also cleaned out the filter, nothing hiding in there. I just hope it's getting better now, I lost a ram & a cory so far. Everyone seems to be doing well (except the other ram) though despite the ammonia.

About my car, ehh it's ok. I'm insured, so on the bright side I get to go car shopping, heh.

 

[Breeze7050]

LMAO about the car. As you said, hey at least you get to go car shopping.
You mentioned cleaning the filter - how exactly did you do that?? What type of filter is it? Im sure all the bacteria are fairly well set up in a 2 year old tank, but did you run the filter under tapwater or anything like that?

 

[abe]

It's an aquaclear (hang on back). I cleaned the filter out w/ plain tap water, but I rinsed the sponges in tank water.

 

[cane76]

you should be getting a nitrate reading i would get a new master test kit just to make sure your getting accurate readings

 

[InaneCathode]

Eek, you might have killed your filter with the regular tap water. Cholorinated water kills germs.

 

[aaronc]

Am I right in saying you cleaned the filter body with tap water but the sponges with tank water?

You may have reduced your bacteria a bit, as they will live on the inside of the filter body. But as long you never touched the filters with tapwater and you got the filter back in and running quickly then you shouldn't have killed all of the bacteria

Aaron