Ammonia Sky High, Help!

[Deepatlantis]

Hi, my tank is brand new and has been set up for 29 days, planted and kept at 26C. I added fish (guppy and platy) on the 8th day and have been testing and doing regular 25% water changes every day or two depending on readings. Last time I tested I had 0.1 mg/l ammonia which was lower than it had been all week and nitrite was 0.25mg/l which was the highest it had ever been. I did a 30% water change and thought the cycling was going into the nitrite spike, but today the ammonia was through the roof I would say 3.0mg/l and nitrite less than 0.1. Needless to say I am freaked out by this as I have been watching the levels so closely and I have pregnant guppies about to give birth. I did a 50% water change immediately but I'm panicking. What is going on, can anyone please advise? The fish all look happy enough and weren't showing signs of distress.

I ought to mention nitrates are very very low.

Thank you for any advice you can give.

 

[fluttermoth]

Your cycle is probably just starting.
 
You'll need to do as many water changes as necessary to keep the ammonia (and nitrite) as close to zero as possible. If that means larger water changes, or more frequent ones, than that's what you'll have to do.
 
Do you know anyone with a tank that could give you some media from their filter to put into yours? That would give you a little colony of good bacteria to 'seed' your filter and would be a big help. Some fish shops might give or sell you some, if you ask nicely

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'd be doing a lot more than a 50% water change with a true reading of 3mg/l ammonia, given the 26C temp and presumeably hard alkaline water that livebearers need, a 90-95% change would be my plan of action.

 

[Sickbound]

^+1

If you go to your lfs and ask if they have some substrate or filter media that they would be willing to part with to help start your tank, that would be IDEAL. Otherwise your going to have to colonize your own bacteria which could take up to 6 weeks to be fully cycled.

I had a 15 gallon tank for a long time then I got a 72 gallon. I let the 72 gallon sit for a couple days with no fish in it, then I transferred literally EVERYTHING from the 15 gallon (including the fish) into the 72 gallon and the only kind of cycling I saw in the tank was .5 ammonia for 1 day (I had also gone out and purchased a few more fish).

adding filter media (even if it is a very small amount) can do wonders for your tank and is the quickest way to cycle your tank.


How many liters or gallons is your tank?

 

[Deepatlantis]

Thanks for all the advise guys. It's a 60ltr tank. I let the tank settle and did another 50% chance, ammonia is now around 0.6, I'll do another 50% change in a few hours when my daughter is in bed. LFS won't be open until tomorrow, but I'll go and talk to them. I need to get more nitrite tests too as I've run out.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Are you using liquid or strip tests? If strips, try to pick up a liquid test kit. It's much more accurate.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Not enough facts here for a tank being fish in cycled for at least 21 days
 
The tank is planted, what about that?
What is the pH?
What happened between day 9 and day 28? What were the readings?
What caused the spike?
What was the exact water change regimen. "doing regular 25% water changes every day or two depending on readings" isn't enough info, imo.
 
I made the mistake recently of reaching a wrong conclusion because I failed to get all the pertinent facts. I made some assumptions. I hope not to repeat that mistake ever again. I would hate to see it happen to others trying to help. As part of the effort to create an article on how to rescue a fish in cycle gone bad, I am working up an extensive questionnaire for people for try and fill in to help those who may give advice to do so having all the facts possible.
 
Guppies means more than one fish. Were any fish added since day one, did any fish die since then? How many and what size fish are in the tank. D we know?
 
A fish in cycle during phase one should take no longer, and likely less, than a full fishless cycle. This one is now in day 21, is this the beginning of a cycle? if it is, ow long woul that mean the whole process should take?
 
"The fish all look happy enough and weren't showing signs of distress."
How can this be at the levels reported? What about those who thing this level is really bad?  The OP reported .1 ppm of ammonia is followed by a 30% wc and then next thing is an ammonia spike to 3.0 in how much time? Surely the fish were exposed to ammonia rising from al,ost 0 to 3 ppm for ,ore than a few hours? Perhaps a few days? We don't know.
 
I am just going to watch this thread for a bit rather than putting my suggestions in. It takes a lot of effort to get things assessed properly which means having all the data and history which is absent here. But I will offer one warning. The research seems to indicate that, from egg to old age, the life stage where fish are the most susceptible to ammonia is as fee swimming fry. Livebearers are eggs and spend most of their time as yolk sac fry inside mom. We may spot a fry now and then with some yolk sac left, but this isn't the rule. So your fry really need to be born into as close to 0 ammonia levels as possible and stay that way for some time. Juveniles exhibit the highest ammonia resistance in terms of life stage. And this raises another point, should female live bearers be used for fish in cycling? Since most come pregnant, is there any chance a tank will be cycled with fish in before they drop fry?
 
I also wonder why we should assume that just because fish do best in a given hardness range (or any other parameter) that a new fish keeper would have them in such water? I know how many mistakes I made as a newbie. My water is close to neutral and on the soft side (GH was barely 6 dh) yet I kept swordtails for years, including wilds.