I make a mistake

[pkmoazzam]

my 45gal tank freshwater media has been matured for 2 years till I planted too many osmocote root tabs like 45 tabs under the gravel and now it causes ammonia spikes like 1.0ppm. I was doing 90% WC with seachem prime and still at 1.0ppm. How long for ammonia be back to normal?

the tank has"
the tank has:
6 amazon swords
3 anubias nana
1 anubias barteri
1 moses balls
1 java moss
4 java fern
1 Echinodorus 'Hadi Red Pearl'

about 20 tropical community fishes
8 ghost shrimps and 5 cherry shrimps
3 african dwarf frogs

they seems ok, not see any of them suffer.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You will probably get ammonia readings for weeks, basically until the root tablets have completely dissolved. Your best bet would be to use a gravel cleaner and try to suck the root tabs out. Then let your filter recover before adding anything else.

Use an iron based aquarium plant fertiliser and avoid terrestrial plant fertilisers because they have different ingredients and the terrestrial fertilisers regularly kill the fish.

 

[Byron]

I agree with Colin. Another issue is probably nitrate, which you do not mention, but I suspect nitrate is high. Terrestrial plant fertilizers are not safe for use in an aquarium. The plants need somewhat different nutrients to begin with, and you are safer with substrate tabs like Flourish Tabs or one of the European brands.