Ammonia Spike?

[bash]

Have had my tank since the middle of November so is about 8 weeks old. For all of January the stats have been fine, Am 0, Nitrite 0 & Nitrate 10. I've had a few fish die in the last week/10 days but can't work out why...all stats have been OK throughout this; that is until last night. Did a 70% water change today and stats are still Ammonia 1.0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, same as last night.

Is this normal???

 

[tom130691]

min was simular after adding fish the spike usually is a few days behind
and the levels varry day today mate but when ever ammonia or nitrite are over .25 you have to do a water change
ive done 3 in 4 days

 

[bash]

Have just done another large water change so will give it an hour before I test the water. While doing the change I moved my rock and saw some baby platies under it...I must be doing something right Just hope I didn't disturb them too much.

 

[fatheadminnow]

A water change should not trigger an ammonia spike.

Do you add a water conditioner to the water that you add back to the tank?

What test kit are you using?

Do you do gravel vacs on a weekly basis?

Yes, water parameters do vary from time to time, but not that much. Granted, you tank is still young and not yet that established, however, an ammonia reading of 1 ppm is unlikely unless something has gone wrong?

What size tank are do you have? Have you made sure that no other fish have died, and if is, do you remove them from your tank rather quickly? A dead fish that rots in a tank (this does not take long after death) can cause a huge ammonia spike, especially if the tank is small. A small tank obviously has less water volume which means less area for ammonia to disperse, which leads to an ammonia spike.

In a established tank (6+ months old) ammonia and nitrite should not stray from 0 ppm at all. It has been a long time since I ever had in issue with my establish tanks, just because the bacteria are so well established.

-FHM

 

[roadmaster]

I too would wonder what conditioner is being used to treat the new water before adding the new water to the tank.Would also check to see if ammonia is present in the tapwater if tapwater is being used for water changes. If ammonia is present in the tapwater, I would want a water conditioner such as Prime or Amquel+ that detoxifys ammonia,chlorine,and chloramines.

 

[bash]

Ahh sorry I wrote my original post a bit wrong. Water has been fine(although have had some fish die in the last 10 days), did a check using API liquid kit (60ltr tank) and ammonia was up at 1.0 so I did a water change, retested and still at 1.0 so did another water change last night. Tested today and still at 1.0 so have done another water chnage and just about to test it now. I use a de-chlorinator when doing water changes.

The longest a dead fish would have been in there would be about 4 hours. I have changed to an external filter but I ran the old filter alongside this for a week and then put the old filter media into the new filter...could this have caused it?

 

[fatheadminnow]

Okay, seems like the dead fish are the cause of the ammonia spike.

Are you 100% sure that every dead fish was taken out of the tank? If not, then that is why your ammonia is still at 1 ppm.

-FHM

 

[bash]

Okay, seems like the dead fish are the cause of the ammonia spike.

Are you 100% sure that every dead fish was taken out of the tank? If not, then that is why your ammonia is still at 1 ppm.

-FHM

I have accounted for all apart from one zebra danio but have stripped the tank and it's definately not in there. Water stats are now: Am 0.25, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10. How big water change should I do?

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[fatheadminnow]

When fish die, it does not take long for them to break down and decay. When this happens, their bodies will literally fall apart and float around the tank.

I would do a good gravel vac and, which will probably suck up the remains of the dead fish.

I would do at least another 50% water change, which will knock .25 ppm down to.125 ppm.

-FHM