Ammonia Spike!

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

What could cause an ammonia spike in a year old tank? The only thing recently added has been two small plants. I feed them a normal amount once a day, and do weekly water changes. I woke up this morning and the tank was cloudy all of a sudden so I tested the water and the ammonia is 1 ppm?! I dont get it...

 

[xoedusk]

Check your tap water's ammonia.

Any dead fish?

Clean the filter lately?

Do a gravel vac. Water changes to keep ammonia down. AmmoLock?

How are nitrites?

Did you forget to dechlorinate your water when you did your last water change?

 

[WILDER]

Ammonia reading.
Over feeding.
Lack of maintainance.
Debris building up in the substrate.
New fish filter can't cope.
Overstocked.
Meds can cause a ammonia reading.
Filter wants a clean as it blocked.

 

[DazedNCoNfUsEd]

I think it was debris buildup. I added the plants after i did a water change last weekend and this weekend as I was vaccuuming I found what looked like little pieces of the plants gathered up behind this ornament. But I got it all up now so hopefully everything will clear up. And I did use Ammolock. Is there another product out there to detoxify the Nitrite in the water? Because thats just as harmful right?

 

[ItsMyThing]

I had an ammonia spike in my five gal just the other day. Couldn't figure it out. I had just done a 50% water change the night before and used a gravel vac. After puzzling until my puzzler was sore, I removed the bio-wheel filter and took it apart. What do you know?! Black slime in the filter tube. Cleaned it out and ta da! No ammonia!

The safest way (for your fish) to eliminate excess nitrite in your tank (imo) is to do a water change. I'm not a big believer in adding chemicals.