Ive Got A Sudden Ammonia Reading...

[darrel69]

Ok, i did have a 120litre tank, stocked with young malawi's and fully cycled for about 6 mths. Ammonia & Nitrite was always at 0, and Nitrate was always 20 or below.

Then just over 3weeks ago, i moved everything (water,fish,filter,substrate,decor) from that tank to my new 190litre tank. I then left it for 24hrs before fully testing all the water parameters, and they all came back very good.

A week later, i added 3 new fish, although i had to take 1 back 3 days later. So there is 2 new fish added to my original stock. Still, everything was ok, my water parameters hardly budged.

Then, about 4 days ago, i got a new external filter ( i already had a juwel built-in internal filter and a fluval internal 3+). So, i ripped out (carefully though..) the ugly, crap, built-in juwel internal (keeping my fluval3+ as that was holding all my clan of bacteria fulled media that i have had for nearly 7mths).

However, yesterday i was doing my routine test, and was suprised/shocked/annoyed to get an Ammonia reading of 0.25/0.50 !!

Now ive got to think what has caused it. Im thinkin it has something to do with the filter mess about ??? What do you lot think ?

Also, refering to the filter part, i used to rely on my fluval 3+ to pump air bubbles into the water to oxygenate it. Now, since ive got the external, i use the spray bar instead (i could only use 1 as they would clash). So i blocked the air thingy on the fluval, and had it running at the back, bottom end of the tank. Its definately still running, as i can slitely see the flow and i can feel it also, but without the air bubbles blowing out (hope you know what i mean). Do you think this could have anything to do with it ?

Any help would be great as to what you think could have caused it, also to what should i do ??? I havn't fed them since, i did a 30-40 % water change earlier...

Thanks.

 

[WILDER]

Might of not been enough benefical bacteria to cope with the load of fish in the tank.
Did you squeeze the juwel sponges onto the other filter sponges.

 

[darrel69]

Did you squeeze the juwel sponges onto the other filter sponges.

yes, although there wern't much, as the juwel had only been running for 2-3week

 

[darrel69]

I may have found the cause... ive just this minute, found one of my fish dead !!

The funny thing is, im sure (but not 100%) i saw that particular fish alive when i first had an ammonia reading cppl of days ago....

Im not sure if the ammonia (which is only 0.25, and aint been any higher) has killed the fish OR the fish has caused the ammonia.

 

[backtotropical]

I think it is likely that if you removed the Juwel filter and didn't keep the media which was inside, you will have lost a proportion of your bacteria colony and are experiencing a mini-cycle. It should only last a couple of days at most. The irradication of the bubbles from the Fluval won't have any effect on it.

I would recommend increasing water changes for now to reduce the stress on the fish until everything is back to normal. Sorry to hear you suffered a fatality.

Cheers

BTT

 

[darrel69]

ok thanks, i also think im going through a mini cycle for some reason. i'll just leave it for a cppl of days to see how things go, doing water changes when needed.