Ammonia! Why!

[ThisGuy]

a bit rushed so forgive compression. Everythings fine in my tank for a month. BOOM wake up and my amonia is off the cahrts. so i did a 25% water change, it got better as the day went on. next morning BOOM! right back to a toxic level! a few fish hovering at the bottom of the tank or drifting atop not using any effort. "God D***" I thought! so i did another water change and added some ammonia reducer, again stabilized for the night. next morning BLAM! right back into toxic level. the first water change i did i used my siphon vacuum to clean the gravel as i drained the water, the next day i did the same but there wasnt much to pick up, the third time i went deep into the gravel and pulled up a ton of cloudy water. still the ammonia keeps going higher. I dont want to do another water change or add more ammonia remover until i know why this is happening. Yes i cycled my tank correctly. i feed my fish a good amount and a flake never hits the floor without being immediately picked up (quick little dudes)

I have used test strips for everything, my waters a bit hard but not to hard. help please.


Ammonia ppm as of now 0.3 ppm

 

[This Old Spouse]

Any problem with plants rotting? Have you accounted for all your fish?

 

[ThisGuy]

i have some plants that look healthy but break easy. and there is one fish that was never heard from again... but ive torn the place apart and havent found him

 

[This Old Spouse]

That happened to me too — missing fish — and it may count for your ammonia spike.

And, you really should get a full liquid test kit. The strips are historically pretty inaccurate. I wish I had more info for you. Can some of the more experienced folks chime in please?

 

[karin]

No,you have to do water changes while you figure out what is going on. Whatever it is, you are in a fish-in cycle. So you do need to change water daily or you will lose all the fish. Lets hope it is a mini-cycle. Mini=cycles are common in new tank set ups. Just work through it and you will be fine. You may not find a single cause. (although debris in your gravel could very well be the problem). If it is a mini cycle, you should be able to rebalance in a week with daily water changes that keep the ammonia at zero.

Common issues
Over feeding
Not vacuuming gravel
Washing filter material too vigorously

 

[ThisGuy]

how much water would you say? out of 50gal

 

[karin]

You goal is to keep the Ammonia at .25 or lower. So if it is at .3 now a 20% change should work. But it really is a matter or testing every 12 hours and responding accordingly.

 

[Lolly123]

As the others have said, the strips are awful and I wouldn't rely on those to give you an accurate reading.

Have you checked your filter at all, in case there is rotting matter in there, could the dead fish have been sucked into the filter?

Sometimes the gravel can hold a huge amount of rotting plant matter and food if it has been left a long time without decent gravel vacs, I encountered a similar problem on a family members tank and had to syphon out all the gravel from a 4ft tank and wash it, the waste that came out with it was astonishing. It may not be the problem but it's worth having a good look to see if your gravel bed might be hiding a lot of nasties.

I would defo keep up with the water changes, to keep that ammonia as low as possible.

How long has the tank been setup? Sometimes new tanks can go through mini cycles.