Ammonia Trapped In Gravel?

[KISSfn]

When I first got my tank a month ago I did 7 days of fishless cycling with 4mg/l of pure ammonia. Then I was able to get some alleged mature media so I removed the water as close to the gravel as I could with an empty pitcher. The gravel was still saturated and there was probably around an inch of water over it. I assumed the mature media was my salvation so I added 3 Tiger Barbs one week and 3 Green Barbs a week later to lessen their fighting. (I know, I'm an idiot) Been having high ammonia the whole time which I have been battling with Ammo Lock and Prime. Even my tap water has 1mg/l ammonia! I have never vacuumed the gravel thinking I would lose bacteria. Is it possible that the 60 pounds of gravel is loaded with ammonia and a thorough deep gravel vacuum may solve my ammonia problems?? Thanks in advance!

 

[OldMan47]

It is not only possible that you have ammonia trapped in the gravel, a likely even worse situation is that the waste trapped in the gravel is producing fresh ammonia all the time. Do a proper large water change with gravel vac and put that darned ammo-lock back on the shelf. That stuff is worse than useless, it actually will remove some ammonia while doing nothing to prepare the filter for a biological load. Once the chemical filtration it provides becomes exhausted, the ammonia in your tank will spike very quickly and you will not be ready for it. To me, setting yourself up like that is dangerous. If you battle ammonia the traditional way, using water changes, you will quickly learn just how much water you must change to keep things under control and there is no way you will be surprised by a spike in ammonia. Even though it takes a bit more work, it strikes me as far safer than what you have been doing.

 

[waterdrop]

Agree, nice deep gravel cleaning with your gravel-cleaning siphon is the way to remove water during a water change. If you haven't been doing it then it may take a few times before it all gets better under control but that is definately the direction to be taking.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[KISSfn]

It is not only possible that you have ammonia trapped in the gravel, a likely even worse situation is that the waste trapped in the gravel is producing fresh ammonia all the time. Do a proper large water change with gravel vac and put that darned ammo-lock back on the shelf. That stuff is worse than useless, it actually will remove some ammonia while doing nothing to prepare the filter for a biological load. Once the chemical filtration it provides becomes exhausted, the ammonia in your tank will spike very quickly and you will not be ready for it. To me, setting yourself up like that is dangerous. If you battle ammonia the traditional way, using water changes, you will quickly learn just how much water you must change to keep things under control and there is no way you will be surprised by a spike in ammonia. Even though it takes a bit more work, it strikes me as far safer than what you have been doing.

Thank you very much OldMan47! A few more questions please. How large of a water change can I do with fish in the tank? Do water changes stress fish? Thanks again!

 

[KISSfn]

Agree, nice deep gravel cleaning with your gravel-cleaning siphon is the way to remove water during a water change. If you haven't been doing it then it may take a few times before it all gets better under control but that is definately the direction to be taking.

~~waterdrop~~

Thank you very much Waterdrop! Can I do multiple water changes/gravel vacs back to back at one sitting or will this stress the fish? If not able to be done back to back how much time must elapse before I should re-vacuum? Thanks again!

 

[waterdrop]

A common and very effective technique is to gravel vac down to an inch or two for the fish/plants (with large plants sometimes you don't want to go as low if it might break their stems.) Then refill the tank about half way (it does need to be roughly temp-matched and conditioned of course (chlorine are bad for fish, bacteria and plants, all three potentially and conditioner is very cheap insurance.) Then gravel-vac down to the same low level again just like you just finished doing! Then finally do your normal refill.

As far as non-double water changes, it's ok to do another water change a few hours after a previous one. This is needed sometimes by people who are in an overstocked fish-in cycling situation.

For very mature setups (for instance tanks that have been running several years) and have received decent but not quite good enough maintenance, both gravel cleans and filter cleans can be important to making a comeback.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[KISSfn]

Many Thanks Waterdrop!