Ammonia spike in previously established aquarium

[daisycat]

We have kept a tropical aquarium for the past 5 years and have had no major incidents in spite of two house moves.

In preparation for a new larger aquarium we relocated our aquarium to another room and in doing so disturbed the gravel (this has happened 3-4 times before with no ill effects), unfortunately a bacterial bloom followed and soon the fish began to die (fish that had all previously survived at least one of the house moves). On day 5 (after the first death) we read up about this and decided it was a cycling problem and an ammonia spike was causing the problem (don't ask how we got this far without knowing about cycling the fish tank...).

Bought a water analysis kit and the Ammonia was off the scale. Nitrite was 0, pH around 7+. At this point 3 corys had died so we added ammo-lock and made a 10% water change. Over the coming days we did not add food, made 10% water changes (without disturbing filter or gravel) and two armoured catfish died.

We are now on day 14 and the ammonia is still off the scale and nitrite remains at 0 despite the bloom having cleared around day 7-8. We have not done water changes this week.

What should we do now - further water changes, empty the filter? The remaining fish (two pengassius catfish and two plecos) and our fly river turtle are all ok and we have not had deaths since day 7. We thought the ammonia should be coming down by now but the cycle seems to be stuck. We are desperate to bring the ammonia down obviously as we worry for the health of the remaining animals. Also, in preparation for cycling the new tank (which we intend to do via the fishless method) would like to know what went wrong.

Am also concerned as to whether to euthanase one of the plecos who is very physically damaged (all fins shredded and having trouble swimming) - any advice?

I hope this is the right forum to have posted in, it is quite emergent to us and we do not want to cause any more damage.

Thanks in advance.

 

[tstenback]

Do a 50% water change right away. If the ammonia is off the scale then it will soon cause more problems. I would try to find out why the pleco is in such a state and try to treat that instead of euthanization. Is it still eating?

 

[daisycat]

I believe the pleco has literally been eaten away by the high ammonia levels (although it has only affected one of the two plecos, but the affected one is a different type). It seems to still be trying to eat but not managing too very well. It is swimming but not very well and I don't see how it can repair itself - does anyone know if it will grow back the bits that have been eaten away by the ammonia?

I don't understand why the bacterial bloom went away but the ammonia levels have not dropped? Surely the lack of bloom means the colony has established itself to an appropriate level - in which case, why is the ammonia not dropping?

 

[daisycat]

Have done the 50% water change and Ammonia is *STILL* off the scale???

 

[Fat Boy]

Hi Daisycat, i'm very soory to hear about your problem, I totally agree with Tstenback about doing a daily 50% water change, also when you clean your filter do you wash it with tap water or with old tank water.? If by tomorrow you see no change see if your LFS will look after your fish until you ammonia is under control. I wish you ( and your fish ) all the best.

 

[daisycat]

Thanks Fatboy.

When we clean the filter we usually use tap water, BUT we did not actually clean the filter during this tank move. We just unplugged it and moved it to the new location (so bacterial in there should be fine???), so I am assuming there were a lot more bacterial colonies in the gravel then I realised as we had to completely remove the gravel from the tank in order to move it and I assume this disturbance caused the imbalance.

I guess we will persist with the water changes and hope for the best now.

 

[Fat Boy]

I think your problem is that you've lost all your good bacteria by removing all your gravel and by cleaning your filter with tap water. Ask your local LFS or if you have a friend who also keeps fish for some gravel from an established tank to help yours along ( Doesn't have to be much ) HTH.

 

[daisycat]

As in my prev post, we did NOT wash out the filter (did not even empty and refill it) when we moved the tank so that should have seeded the new tank just fine. We also kept around 40-50% of the original water and did not wash the gravel off just drained it into buckets and then put it back in the tank so not sure that adding more gravel would help as all the gravel currently in there (plus wood) were from an established tank...A bacterial bloom came and went so there must be something going on in there...

...This is just so frustrating as we seem to be doing everything right but it is still very very wrong...

Thanks for your advice fatboy, it is appreciated...any other ideas?

 

[Fat Boy]

I'm no expert daisycat, but alot are on here, here is some advice from the pro's.

Can a Cycled Tank Un-Cycle Again?

Even in an established tank you can get ammonia or nitrite "spikes", usually because something has killed off your beneficial bacteria. This could be for several reasons:

1. You forgot to dechlorinate your water when you did a water change. Chlorine kills bacteria!

2. You over-cleaned your tank, particularly the filter media and gravel, particularly is you didn't dechlorinate your water and particularly if the gravel or filter were out of the water a long time.

3. Some filter companies recommend you change the filter media every month (Well they would say that, wouldn't they??? ). Not only is this an expensive waste of time quite often (filter sponges usually just need a rinse in some old tank water), you could be removing the beneficial bacteria. If you want to replace a filter insert, leave the sponge or floss in the tank for a week or so beforehand.

4. A power-outtage stopped your filter or pump from working for a couple of hours (bacteria need oxygenated water to survive).

5. You over-loaded the bacteria in your tank's ability to break down the fish waste, for instance by suddenly over-stocking your tank, particularly with messy fish.

6. A tub of food has fallen into the tank and gone bad, thus overloading the beneficial bacteria's ability to cope.

How to Save the Day (and the Fish) with an Un-Cycled Tank

OK, so you didn't do Fishless Cycling or you did scrub out your matured tank and now your fish are dying and nothing's breaking down that ammonia and nitrite. What do you do now?

Here's what I do to give my fish the best chance:
1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero).

2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change.

3. If at all possible, get some matured filter media and/or gravel from a matured tank and put it in your tank, suspended in an old stocking. This will hopefully impregnate your new tank with the beneficial bacteria. One lady successfully used floss from a relative's fish pond to colonise her new tank! (you have to be careful that what you use is clean and free from pathogens, of course).

4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria.

5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible.

6. If you have delicate fish in the tank, such as plecos, corys or other bottom dwellers, tetras, pencilfish etc. try to re-home them temporarily, such as asking the Local Fish Shop to look after them until your tank is cycled (after all, chances are that they got you in this mess in the first place).

7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis.

8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia.

9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water.

I really hopes this helps.

 

[Sky042]

sounds to me like the bacteria colony was killed off during the move. likely the gravel didn't have enough water and dried out and depending on the length of the move the lack of water flowing through the filter would have killed the bacteria in there. I'm afraid it sounds like you're at square one. Try to see if you can get some bacteria from a LFS. Worst case scenario pickup some cycle or if you can find it bio-spira would be better.

 

[Mesome]

I would add cycle as directed on the bottle and keep up on the water changes. Eventually you'll get it down again. What type of filter are you using?

 

[daisycat]

Thanks for all the tips.

The move took about 1-2 hours...

We have a fluval 200 (?) external filter with biomax, carbon, peat and sponge filters.

Could the bacterial bloom have been from something not at all useful? I was convinced because we had the bloom there must have been enough bacteria in there to start something off.

 

[Stryker]

one thing peeps seem to have missed. After a 50% water change there is NO way the ammo can be off the scale! technically you could keep fish without filters if you did daily 100% water changes (heheheh not recommend it).

Please test some tap water for ammo and let us know the result.

 

[daisycat]

Hi Stryker.

Yes, I am a scientist and did this yesterday after I was sick of seeing dark green everytime - was eventually convinced the kit was faulty or something. However, much to my sadness the tap water came out at a lovely 0...how is this possible?

 

[Thai_Fish]

One thing to keep in mind is that ammo-lock doesn't remove ammonia per se. It simply turns it to a form that is harmless to fish. As such, it'll still show in the test results.