Bleh Ammonia!

[Amunet]

My 125gallon tank is in crisis right now.
There is about a 0.5 ammonia reading and I'm not sure what to do.
I THINK it may have been caused b/c the plants in the tank were starting to die and die quickly. The decaying matter may have caused the ammonia to skyrocket which in turn caused the pH to crash and to stall the beneficial bacteria.

I've done 2 water changes so far. I did them every other day and changed out 50% of the water.
I've also added baking soda to help w/ the crashed pH until the ammonia gets under control.
No nitrite reading and nitrates are coming in around 5-10.

About how long will it take for the beneficial bacteria to do their thing? UGH I hope it's not going to be a mini-cycle, but I'm afraid that may be the case.

Would cleaning the filter out maybe help some? I cleaned it about 3 months ago so I'm sure it may have been gunked up by all of the plant stuff in that time. Or would leaving it be for now be best? And by cleaning out I mean w/ dechlorinated water of course.

Any help and advice would be great. I have to keep the water changes to every other day since the tank is so large and that is a heck of a lot of water. Plus it's cold here and it takes at least a day for the temp in the tank to get back up to where it needs to be.

 

[Amunet]

Hrmm.... it may be a piece of wood in the tank. It's not mopani like the other 2 pieces and when I took it out, there were some soft spots in the underside of it.
The tank water has turned to a yellowish color for some reason. No idea if this could be the problem, but I took the wood out anyway.
Going to clean out the filter tomorrow probably once I get some more dechlorinator.

 

[Amunet]

Alrighty, now I don't think it's the piece of wood. I cleaned off most of the soft spots, and it was really just a little bit and only really right at the surface. I doubt that little bit would cause this much trouble.
The discolored water must be b/c of gunk buildup in the filter.

Still planned on cleaning it out tomorrow. Hopefully that will help fix the ammonia problem.

 

[Curiosity101]

Hmm, I can't see the ammonia taking too long to come back into line. Do what you can for now and just test again in say 12 hours... at least then you can judge whether it is going up or down.

I do reckon that a very gentle clean of the filter may be in order aswell cause you want to give the bacteria the best chance of multiplying as possible. So if it's all gunked up I can't see that helping. Plus the gunk is likely to be rotting organic matter that they might well use before the ammonia already present in the water meaning the ammonia in the water will stay at 0.5ppm.

 

[Amunet]

*nods* Wasn't going to do a really deep clean on the filter. Just try to loosen up some of the gunk if that is a problem.
Haven't checked the ammonia today so we'll see if it has gone down, stayed the same or what.

 

[Amunet]

Ok so it's not the piece of wood that I took out. Looks like the ammonia is up a little bit and the water has gotten more yellow. Has to be the filter.
I didn't get a chance to clean it today. Had a doctor's appointment and was just a busy day in general so couldn't get to it.
I def will tomorrow though. Still keeping my fingers crossed that this is the problem and will fix itself quickly.

 

[Amunet]

Just a quick update on the problem. I checked the ammonia last night and it was up to a 1.
I cleaned out the filter today. It was pretty gunked up w/ gooey gross dead plant stuff. I cleaned most of the gunk off but still left enough to keep whatever bacteria is on there happy.
Did a 40% water change and the ammonia is now down to 0.25. Hopefully when I check it again later it will be back down to 0.

 

[myrtle]

Are your plants true aquatic plants? A lot of shops/online retailers sell non-quatic plants as suitable for aquariums which will rot and die causing the problems you've encountered. Just a thought.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah, they're all true aquatic plants. Vallis, swords, anubias, and a few others.

So the ammonia is staying at around 0.25-0.50.... close to 0.25. Not sure what else to do other than water changes. Fish seem to be fine so far, but I know it's only a matter of time before things can turn bad.

Maybe the beneficial stuff just needs to catch up a bit. That's what I'm hoping at least.

 

[Amunet]

Alright, some good news finally.
It looks like the ammonia is going down. Just tested the water and it is almost at 0. It's just barely an off yellow color (the test water). So yay
Hopefully tomorrow the water in the vial will be nice and yellow with no trace of green.


So lets see..... ammonia builds up b/c of dying and decaying plant matter.
PH crashed b/c of the ammonia buildup.
Decaying matter gunks up the filter and the beneficial bacteria has stalled b/c the pH has crashed to such a low level.
Get the pH back up with baking soda.
Clean out the gunk in the filter.
2 days later, ammonia is almost back down to 0.

Rejoice!

 

[myrtle]

Good news for a change! Glad it's sorted itself out, or rather you've sorted it out!

 

[This Old Spouse]

Were you cleaning the filter out with every water change in the old water? I've read on here in various and numerous posts that's what should be done, and that's how I've been doing it.