Help - Ammonia And Don't Know Why

[br3ach]

I am getting ammonia all of a sudden at aroun 0.25 and not sure why.

I am stocked after fishless cycle as follows:

1 male gourami
1 feaml gourami
8 rummy nose tetra
8 neon tetra
4 chery barb
1 bristlenose plec

95 litre tank, fluval U3 filter

I have done two 15% water changes today, one of which was gravel vac and still have a problem ammonia reading. Any advice would be great.

Thanks

 

[bagu]

did you add them all at the same time?

 

[shelaghfishface]

what are readings for nitrate and nitrIte?
you will have to do more water changes ti get it down, 15% wouldnt really be enough, possibly more like 30-50 would make a diiference, but thats not to stay it will keep it at 0 ( if it takes it there at all)
you may have to do them for a few days
try to match the temp of the water closely when adding it back and remeber to use declorinator


* please excuse the spelling, i know what i want to type, but my fingers are having none of it )

 

[br3ach]

Thanks for the replies.

I added them in two batches, with a week in between.

The levels of nitrite are 0, I haven't tested for nitrate but will do shortly.

I have always added declorinator, more than necessary at times to be sure and always o my best with mixer tap to get temp right. Not sure what I could have done wrong.

 

[bagu]

how big water changes? and how often?

i dont think it cycled fully, or too bigger bioload from the fishes =[

do a heft water change

 

[shelaghfishface]

well its good that nitrites are at 0 anyway, get some sizable water changes done and post the nitrate results- its probably a spike that can be shifted by doing this
you say the tank has been running for 6 months.. have you done regular water changes in this time and has the stocking ever been heaveir?
have you been overfeeding? any chance there could be a dead one in there somewhere? do u gravel vac? ( lots of ammonia spikes are caused by the muck in the gravel, hence the reason that its so important to keep on top of them


gosh i ask too many questions, sorry

 

[arobinson1984]

It seems like you are just experiencing a slight ammonia spike.

After a cycle, if you add too many fish at once, the filter needs to build up more bacteria to cope with the new increased 'bio load' (ammonia produced by the fish)

Just do a few decent sized water changes and you should notice over the next copule of weeks that the ammonia will stop building once the filter has established the bacteria it requires.

Andy

 

[degsod]

It seems like you are just experiencing a slight ammonia spike.

After a cycle, if you add too many fish at once, the filter needs to build up more bacteria to cope with the new increased 'bio load' (ammonia produced by the fish)

Just do a few decent sized water changes and you should notice over the next copule of weeks that the ammonia will stop building once the filter has established the bacteria it requires.

Andy

i thought that the idea of the cycle was to create this bacteria. By adding 5ppm of NH3 into the tank and it going in 12 hours to zero is many time the bio load of the fish in question.

Once the tank was cycled did you do a big water change? did you continue to add NH3 to the tank upto 1 day prior to doing a water change and adding fish?

 

[arobinson1984]

I guess it depends on if the op did add 5ppm of ammonia, I know people who have fishless cycled with just 1ppm of ammonia / flake food and then you would experience the spike if too many fishes were added together,

Also agreee what degsod said regarding if you added ammonia upto the point on a day before adding fish, if not some of the bacteria may have died off without an ammonia source.

Andy

 

[br3ach]

My tank has only been up and running around two months now but I managed to speed the whole fishless cycle along with media taken from an established tank.

Yes I did add ammonia to the tank until the day before to make sure the bacteria were kept happy.

Checked for 0 ammonia before adding my first batch of fish and then did roughly 75% water change before adding anything in.

The ammonia spike does sound the most logical reason for the increase but I don't want to harm the fish in any way while my filter adjusts. How often should I do water changes and at what percentage?

I am filling the tank using a hose and adding declorinator directly to the tank as the hose is filling. Could this be causing problems with the existing bacteria in my filter possibly?

 

[degsod]

I guess it depends on if the op did add 5ppm of ammonia, I know people who have fishless cycled with just 1ppm of ammonia / flake food and then you would experience the spike if too many fishes were added together,

Also agreee what degsod said regarding if you added ammonia upto the point on a day before adding fish, if not some of the bacteria may have died off without an ammonia source.

Andy

Good point never thought of people doing 1ppm or using fish food for ammonia, dosingto 5ppm makes more sense.

 

[br3ach]

Bump

Should I be changing water more than once a day? I am not sure what is the best way to fix this.

Thanks

 

[degsod]

Bump

Should I be changing water more than once a day? I am not sure what is the best way to fix this.

Thanks

Only if needed, I would check the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels every 12 hours if they continue to spike then I would do a 20% water change and check the levels again, if they are still there, do another water change and check again.

It sounds like the tank was not fully cycled. How many days did your tank take to cycle?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

your goal is to keep ammonia and nitrite below 0.25ppm, better to keep them at 0 if you can manage it. start off with a 50% change, test the water 1 hr after the change and see where it is, if you still have ammonia or nitrite then do another water change and get it down. Test the water 12 hrs later, if you have ammonia again then do the same again.

After a couple of dys it'll settle or you'll get a feel of how many changes you need to do to keep it healthy.

either your media seeding didn't work properly as is possible or you just added too many fish for the amount of bacteria on your media. When you added ammonia after the media seeding did you test the water 12 hrs later, if so what were the results?

 

[Schmill]

Agreed, this sounds like a tank that either hadn't completed it's cycle, or else was cycled at a lower level than 5ppm, and then had a bioload put on it that is higher than it was cycled at.

As for how much water and how often to change it; I would change 50% when you see any ammonia reading. As for how often, you will need to judge for yourself.
Do a water test 1 hr after your water change to make sure ammonia reads 0, if it doesn't then do another 50% then.
If it is zero give it a few hours and then test again, if it's not zero do a water change.

After doing tests repeated every few hours you should get a feel for when the ammonia levels are rising enough to show on the test kit, and that is the point when you then should do a water change.

I might also just be worth doing a bucket of water, adding your dechlor, letting it stand for an hour, and then doing an ammonia test on it so that you know for certain your test is good, and what you are aiming for.

Good luck!