Ammonia Spike In 2 Month Old Fully Cycled Tank Help!

[darkangel79]

hi there guys i set up my new tank approximately 2 months ago and did the fish free cycle, checked all ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels before putting fish in. i did a 50% water change 24hrs prior to putting fish in and all was running fine no probs at all until 2 weeks ago when my water became really merky and cloudy and i discovered that i had a ammonia spike and a reading of 8ppm. have tried so many different things to get rid of the ammonia without any success, have done the 50% water changes daily and added established bacteria from a well established tank , used ammo lock, stability(bacteria Builer) and still reading 8ppm but have NOT lost any fish at all. I am so lost as to what to do next. anyone got any ideas?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there guys i set up my new tank approximately 2 months ago and did the fish free cycle, checked all ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels before putting fish in. i did a 50% water change 24hrs prior to putting fish in and all was running fine no probs at all until 2 weeks ago when my water became really merky and cloudy and i discovered that i had a ammonia spike and a reading of 8ppm. have tried so many different things to get rid of the ammonia without any success, have done the 50% water changes daily and added established bacteria from a well established tank , used ammo lock, stability(bacteria Builer) and still reading 8ppm but have NOT lost any fish at all. I am so lost as to what to do next. anyone got any ideas?

have you had your ammonia result checked by someone else..... test kits can go off or get contaminated, first thing to do is take a sample to the lfs and get them to test for ammonia and confirm your result. that being said cloudy water can be an indicator of ammonia so not a good sign

you need to find the cause of the problem, what triggered this, run us through every detail of what you did to the tank in the week or so before this happened. if your water changes aren't working then whatever has polluted your tank is still there and doing it so you need to work out what is it and get rid of it.

 

[darkangel79]

hi there guys i set up my new tank approximately 2 months ago and did the fish free cycle, checked all ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels before putting fish in. i did a 50% water change 24hrs prior to putting fish in and all was running fine no probs at all until 2 weeks ago when my water became really merky and cloudy and i discovered that i had a ammonia spike and a reading of 8ppm. have tried so many different things to get rid of the ammonia without any success, have done the 50% water changes daily and added established bacteria from a well established tank , used ammo lock, stability(bacteria Builer) and still reading 8ppm but have NOT lost any fish at all. I am so lost as to what to do next. anyone got any ideas?

have you had your ammonia result checked by someone else..... test kits can go off or get contaminated, first thing to do is take a sample to the lfs and get them to test for ammonia and confirm your result. that being said cloudy water can be an indicator of ammonia so not a good sign

you need to find the cause of the problem, what triggered this, run us through every detail of what you did to the tank in the week or so before this happened. if your water changes aren't working then whatever has polluted your tank is still there and doing it so you need to work out what is it and get rid of it.

yer i have taken sample of water to 3 different lfs and all confirmed same result.
i added my fish from my old tank which was 6-7 small tetras and was all running fine PH was stable at 7.0 and no ammonia , nitrite or nitrate. and have only ever added 2 new fish at a time approx a week apart minimum. i did have an undergravel filter but have since removed it as i thought that was the prob as i have ruled out all other possibilities ie no plants so therefore no dying/rotting plant matter, no dead fish, have been cleaning gravel with vaccumm and its clear and only feeding fish once every 2-3 days and have 17 fish in there in total and teh biggest being a dwarf coral gourami. I have 2 dwarf gourami, 2 black widows, 2 blue widows, 1 purple widow, 1 platy, 1 head tail light, 1 columbian blue tetra, 1 blood fin tetra, 1 ghost knife, 1 albino catfish, 1 brinze catfish, 1 bristlenose. and its a 70 litre tank.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

so you have a tank, and upgraded it to this one?

did you keep all the filter media from the old tank and put it into the new one?

what filter media are you using? when was it last cleaned/changed and how do you clean it and change it.

there's a few issue with your stocking by the way, I won't go into it now as there's more important things to sort first, but once your ammonia's settled you need to do a bit of research into the fish you have and make a few changes cos they won't all be happy.

 

[dabaers]

No nitrates? This says the tank is not cycled.
What type of tests are you using? strips? liquid?

Removing the undergravel filter may have removed too much of your bacterial filter, that coupled with the adding of fish may have caused your tank to cycle again.

Get yourself some prime or some amquel+, that will "inactivate" your ammonia/nitrates but keep them for the filter to use and help keep your fish alive while you do daily water changes until the tank cycles.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Removing the undergravel filter may have removed too much of your bacterial filter, that coupled with the adding of fish may have caused your tank to cycle again.

i thought that, wasn't sure exactly what had happened though so just trying to clarify.

and no nitrates doesn't always mean the tank isn't cycled, in this case maybe, but i have an 8g betta tank that's been running ages, and never has a nitrate reading cos it's so lightly stocked and fairly heavily planted and the plants absorb what little nitrate the filter produces. that's an aside anyway, with that many fish and no live plants it's a definate possibility.

 

[darkangel79]

so you have a tank, and upgraded it to this one?

did you keep all the filter media from the old tank and put it into the new one?

what filter media are you using? when was it last cleaned/changed and how do you clean it and change it.

there's a few issue with your stocking by the way, I won't go into it now as there's more important things to sort first, but once your ammonia's settled you need to do a bit of research into the fish you have and make a few changes cos they won't all be happy.

yes i did have a 22L tank but upgraded to this one. yes i used the filter media from old tank hence the filter from established tank , it is rinsed in a bucket of tank water when i do a water change. but since ammonia reading came back so high have had to use a aquaone zeo pad ( ammonia remover) and that also gets rinsed in tank water with each water change ( every 2nd day).
My fish all seem quite content with one another.

No nitrates? This says the tank is not cycled.
What type of tests are you using? strips? liquid?

Removing the undergravel filter may have removed too much of your bacterial filter, that coupled with the adding of fish may have caused your tank to cycle again.

Get yourself some prime or some amquel+, that will "inactivate" your ammonia/nitrates but keep them for the filter to use and help keep your fish alive while you do daily water changes until the tank cycles.

i am using liquid tests and i had several tests doen during cycle period and did not add any fish until ccyle was complete ammonia > nitrite> nitrate.
had no choice but to remove undergravel filter as it was not filtering properly and was holding #### underneath the plate.
I have been using stability which is much the same as prime daily after water changes but hasnt made any differnce as yet.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

so you have a tank, and upgraded it to this one?

did you keep all the filter media from the old tank and put it into the new one?

what filter media are you using? when was it last cleaned/changed and how do you clean it and change it.

there's a few issue with your stocking by the way, I won't go into it now as there's more important things to sort first, but once your ammonia's settled you need to do a bit of research into the fish you have and make a few changes cos they won't all be happy.

yes i did have a 22L tank but upgraded to this one. yes i used the filter media from old tank hence the filter from established tank , it is rinsed in a bucket of tank water when i do a water change. but since ammonia reading came back so high have had to use a aquaone zeo pad ( ammonia remover) and that also gets rinsed in tank water with each water change ( every 2nd day).
My fish all seem quite content with one another.

ok how old was the media from the old tank and what was it? carbon inserts if not changed regularly enough will fail and release the toxin's they're removed back into the water (which is why a lot of people don't use them full time) an old sponge could start to deteriorate and cause the die off of the bacteria so you'd then get your ammonia spike.

 

[darkangel79]

so you have a tank, and upgraded it to this one?

did you keep all the filter media from the old tank and put it into the new one?

what filter media are you using? when was it last cleaned/changed and how do you clean it and change it.

there's a few issue with your stocking by the way, I won't go into it now as there's more important things to sort first, but once your ammonia's settled you need to do a bit of research into the fish you have and make a few changes cos they won't all be happy.

yes i did have a 22L tank but upgraded to this one. yes i used the filter media from old tank hence the filter from established tank , it is rinsed in a bucket of tank water when i do a water change. but since ammonia reading came back so high have had to use a aquaone zeo pad ( ammonia remover) and that also gets rinsed in tank water with each water change ( every 2nd day).
My fish all seem quite content with one another.

ok how old was the media from the old tank and what was it? carbon inserts if not changed regularly enough will fail and release the toxin's they're removed back into the water (which is why a lot of people don't use them full time) an old sponge could start to deteriorate and cause the die off of the bacteria so you'd then get your ammonia spike.

the media from old tank was approx 4 mths old and was filter insert for an aqua one AR126 it was filter wool cover attched to a charcoal bag. the ammonia remover pad i have in there now is 4 days old as they are recommended to be changed every 3-4 days to stop captured ammonia re entering the tank

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's the charcoal then, it's removed ammonia from the tank, got old, stopped working and spat it back out again. this is prescisley why people don't use them as every day filtration.

remove the charcoal, just use sponges, floss or ceramic media.

you'll need to keep doing daily water changes and use the ammonia removers if you like but remember to keep changing them. hopefully in a day or so it'll start to come back down to normal

 

[darkangel79]

it's the charcoal then, it's removed ammonia from the tank, got old, stopped working and spat it back out again. this is prescisley why people don't use them as every day filtration.

remove the charcoal, just use sponges, floss or ceramic media.

you'll need to keep doing daily water changes and use the ammonia removers if you like but remember to keep changing them. hopefully in a day or so it'll start to come back down to normal

i am no longer using the old filter media in the new tank for that reason, i have the ammonis remover pad, a brand new charcoal bag and also a zeolite ammonia remover granual bag. its just really frustrating me as i have done everything possible. I am going to discontinue the ammo lock though as i believe that it is locking up the ammonia and holding the readings high. but my tank water is crystal clear now which i guess is a good sign and all fish are doing ok, no evidence of any fin or gill damage at all, they all look healthy.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

so you've now got all new media in your tank then? in which case it's cycling. stop using the ammo lock as this will stop the process. you need to do daily 40% water changes, you'll have an ammonia spike, nitrite spike and then it will settle. good luck and i hope all your fish make it through.

 

[darkangel79]

so you've now got all new media in your tank then? in which case it's cycling. stop using the ammo lock as this will stop the process. you need to do daily 40% water changes, you'll have an ammonia spike, nitrite spike and then it will settle. good luck and i hope all your fish make it through.

thank u for your assistance , u have actually been more help than the lfs lol which these days doesnt suprise me in the slightest.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

so you've now got all new media in your tank then? in which case it's cycling. stop using the ammo lock as this will stop the process. you need to do daily 40% water changes, you'll have an ammonia spike, nitrite spike and then it will settle. good luck and i hope all your fish make it through.

thank u for your assistance , u have actually been more help than the lfs lol which these days doesnt suprise me in the slightest.

aye, plenty of lfs's are absolute rubbish, bear in mind they only pay minimum wage so generally get school kids working there, most enthusiasts and clever fishy people simply couldn't afford to work there so you don't always get high quality advice.

another thing you can do is if you know someone with a fishtank ask them for some media from their tank and put that in yours, there's a pinned topic at the top of this forum with a list of members who will donate some too so look if there's anyone near you.

if you can put some mature media into your tank it will make a massive difference. i hate to be negative but without it there is a chance you may loose some of your fish in the next few weeks

 

[darkangel79]

so you've now got all new media in your tank then? in which case it's cycling. stop using the ammo lock as this will stop the process. you need to do daily 40% water changes, you'll have an ammonia spike, nitrite spike and then it will settle. good luck and i hope all your fish make it through.

thank u for your assistance , u have actually been more help than the lfs lol which these days doesnt suprise me in the slightest.

aye, plenty of lfs's are absolute rubbish, bear in mind they only pay minimum wage so generally get school kids working there, most enthusiasts and clever fishy people simply couldn't afford to work there so you don't always get high quality advice.

another thing you can do is if you know someone with a fishtank ask them for some media from their tank and put that in yours, there's a pinned topic at the top of this forum with a list of members who will donate some too so look if there's anyone near you.

if you can put some mature media into your tank it will make a massive difference. i hate to be negative but without it there is a chance you may loose some of your fish in the next few weeks

so do u reckon i would be better off putting some mature media inside my actual tank inside a stovking that way it actual cycles through my tank and gets cuaght in my new filter media or just drop mature media straight in filter area