My First Ammonia Spike...

[Darth]

Hey guys, just got a little darker than 1 ppm reading. Did about a 40% water change, all good now. Wondering though, I have an Ambulia in there that had a dead stalk on it, when I touched it it disintergrated. Cut it right back though. Could this be the mystery cause? Only got 2 BN plecs in the tank at the moment, both didn't really seem to care about the spike, doing what they always do. Any ideas?

 

[arobinson1984]

Has the tank been cycled?

Andy

 

[Darth]

Has the tank been cycled?

Andy

Yeah dude, was kind of a half fishless, half fish in cycle. But I had about 6 BN in there but took 4 out last week when the plants went in....

 

[arobinson1984]

If the tank is cycled, one of the main causes for ammonia spikes can be insufficient substrate cleaning.

If you have gravel substrate then it needs a good deep clean weekly, failure to do this will result in excess build up of food and waste in the gravel causing ammonia.

Rotting plants can cause ammonia but I'd be surprised if a few rotting stems caused a 1ppm spike in a cycled tank.

I bet your cycle was hard work with 6 BN's lol

What size is the tank?

Andy

 

[Darth]

Yeah... they made things interesting... The tank is 150L, worried about the spike cause I was going to get my new fish on friday. I'll give the substrate another good clean, maybe i'm not doing it right, kinda new at this