Need Help With Ammonia!

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whereskob

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Hi i am new to this and always looking for advice and new understandings

i was successfully running the tank with a few angels, 2 parrot cichlids, neon tetras, 2 ramfins, 4 tiger barbs and a catfish when i started noticing the oncoming of a bacteria bloom, took my water to get tested and my local tropical fishtank guy said i had a big ammonia spike most likely due to overfeeding. i was continously following the strict regime of nutrafin cycle supplement every 2 days and ammo lock and a minimal amount of food. after a few days i noticed all the fish up the top of the tank gasping which was due to the ammonia, that night i lost my two parrots, 1 ramhead and most of the tetras. since then its about 3 weeks later and i have been foloowing the regime and havent lost any since but i still have a big ammonia spike as i keep testing the water down the fish shop.

my main question is what am i doing wrong to keep the ammonia so high? also i am using an AquaEL Hexaset with aquael pump but the way the tank filters the water seems a bit naff, as it goes up the filter through a filter sponge to the other side and over a drop overflow but i get such a massive buildup of gunky white material in the side that should be filtering clean water through, is the sponge rubbish and i need a new one? i just made the mistake of taking out the sponge with the filtyer turned off to clean it (in the water i had taken from the tank) and it caused all the white buildup to go back down the filter tube and flood back into the tank cause it to look very very murky

i really appreciate anyones help, i can attach photos if nessecary
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Hi and welcome to the forum! :)
Just to help kick start the help that I'm sure the more experienced users will give you, I'll just ask the common questions that seem to help diagnose the problems.

Did you cycle your tank? If you did, was it a fishless cycle or a fish-in cycle?
What are your specific current water parameters, including ammonia?

If you give us this information it will help some of the experts to figure out what's gone wrong and where, and how to go about fixing it.

EDIT: Also, pictures of this 'white gunk' might also help as well. :)
 
How big is your tank and how long has it been running?? honestly i just wanna point out that u probably know already u should not keep neon tetras with angelfish becuase they will prob get eaten however if there are small and u raise them together there is less of a chance. also parrot fish get pretty big and they can eat minnows at a small size! which im sure your neon tetras are like what 1.5 inches? i feed them to the oscars and the parrots at work all the time so that def not a good idea to have them together. also tiger barbs are KNOWN for fin nipping the angelfish or anyone with long flowin fins so watch out! lol im guessing the ammonia is due to overcrowding or from not an established biofilter but let me know how big the tank is and whatnot and we can norrow down some causes.! :)
 
the tank is about 60 litres i think, all the filters ,filter media etc are AquaELs own brand that come with the setup
http://www.waterways-direct.com/shopexd.asp?id=6470
http://www.idealo.co.uk/compare/2322...set-ii-60.html

remaining fish 1 ramhead, 3 angels, 4 tiger barbs, 1 catfish, 2 neon tetras

i did a fishless cycle, checked my water levels and they were perfect readdy for the fish to go in originally, this has developed over time. nothings eaten anything yet as they were all quite small when they went in

ill attach a photo soon as some more builds up as i tried to clean some of it earlier

and thanks for the help! :)
 
Your problem is that your tank is far too small for the fish you have. I expect your ammonia problems are because your filter can't cope with the amount of fish.
Angel fish, for instance, can grow to 6" long and a foot in height. What kind of 'catfish' is it? As there are over 2,400 different species of catfish; some that grow to only an inch long and some that grow to 6 feet!
And I don't even know what a 'ramhead' is!
You need to either rehome some fish, or get a larger tank.
In the meantime, lots of huge water changes with warm, dechlorinated water is the best thing you can do.
 
wow! lol that tank is tiny for your fish def get a bigger tank if you want angels! thats the main problem right there no matter how much you clean that tank its just not gonna work :( get a bigger tank or get rid of the big fish and have small community fish :)
 
Oh goodness! Your tank is heavily, heavily overstocked! As fluttermoth said, you either need to rehome some fish ASAP or get a bigger tank! If you want to keep them, I'm quite sure you'd need around 200 litres for them, but don't quote me on that!

Getting your stock list down to something the filter can cope with is your best bet, though, as soon as you can. Good luck with everything!
 
thanks for all the help back guys really appreciate it! :)

My local fishtank guy is a buddy and said id be all good tho, doesnt look crowded in there at all, theyre all baby size at the moment anyway so should this spike still happen?

its quite tall and the barbs and one angel seem to keep theirselves up the top, whereas the other angels,red tails and the catfish hang around the ship at the bottom

am currently taking photos but iphones and reflections dont mix! the photos will follow this ina few minutes it was spotless the other day but when doing some maintenance the filter dropped a lot of gunk back into the tank and its slowly clearing it back out

thanks for the input!
 
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No offence meant but your local fishtank buddy needs a quick lesson in fishkeeping!

Can't remember if you said your tank was cycled first but it doesn't look like it was, the health of your fish is seriously in danger, if he or your local shop can take the fish off your hands I'd recommend that straight away.

edit: have read you did a fishless cycle, thats great, but the Angels will not be suitable for this size tank.
 
ok i understand everyone saying this tank is too small, i shall look into getting rid of some. but what is the white build after the filter media? im thinking if i was to buy a power filter or could i even buy a better form of filter media (ie not the big grey sponge) or even just a new one? because it was quite old when i first got the tank
 
First thing is to go and buy a new filter, the internal Fluvals should be fine if your tank is cycled, there should be enough bacteria in the gravel or leave the old filter running until the new one gets established.
Your fish will take time to grow if you decide to keep some of them but your Angels will defo need rehousing at some point.
 
i went out and bought a new filter sponge, it seemed that as it was quite old it had broken down and was allowing the white gunk to not be filtered properly.

as for rehoming the fish.. how do you explain fish stores packing about 30/40 fish into a tank with no side effects? the tank doesnt seem crowded at all, i understand when they fully mature i may have one or two big fish and ill come to that when i reach it but at the moment there is plenty of space!
 
1; the fish in your LFS aren't in there very long; if they were, they would end up sick or stunted.

2; the shops have massive great sumps and filtration sytems that you can't see, so the actual volume of water is much larger than what's just in the actual tank

3; growing fish produce a lot more waste than an adult fish of the same size would.

4; if kept in too small a tank, the fish don't grow to their proper size; they become stunted and stop growing; this is where the wretched 'fish only grow the size of their tank' myth comes from. You won't know that the fish have become stunted until it's too late; that's why we recommend that fish aren't put in tanks that are not large enough to contain them for the whole of their life.

I don't see the point in coming on here asking for advice and understanding if, when more experienced fishkeepers than you tell you things, you're just going to say, "oh well it seems ok to me"
 

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