Really Need Help!

[Dark Wolf]

"I have been checking everyday since and the nitrite is now back to 0ppm but the ammonia has shot up now to 5ppm"

Am i the only one who sees a problem with this? If your nitrite is 0, and ammonia is 5, then there is a lack of nitrites, or nitrates. With high ammonia but no nitrite, this suggest that your ammonia is not getting converted properly, did you put anything in that could have killed off the nitrites?

 

[Bullrock74]

So, before adding fish, the 8 ppm level of ammonia would drop to zero and also your nitrites were at zero? If so, then that would indicate a cycled tank. Adding the bettas at that time would not have been a problem.

So, this implies that something killed your colony of bacteria. I would just leave the bettas in the tank and do a water change each day keeping the ammonia level below 1 ppm. If you have a Ph of 6 or so, this ammonia level is not life threating to fish. At higher Ph levels, ammonia is much more toxic.

Hopefully, before long you will see that a water change is not needed because the ammonia level is zero.

 

[Debbie_19]

"I have been checking everyday since and the nitrite is now back to 0ppm but the ammonia has shot up now to 5ppm"

Am i the only one who sees a problem with this? If your nitrite is 0, and ammonia is 5, then there is a lack of nitrites, or nitrates. With high ammonia but no nitrite, this suggest that your ammonia is not getting converted properly, did you put anything in that could have killed off the nitrites?
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No your not the only one who can see a problem with this. I clearly see the problem too.lol. I can't think of anything that i have added that would kill off the bacteria. Only think i have added is amono lock and API salt for freshwater. But there must be something that killed it off over the last week as the nitrites were very high at the beginning of the week now they are zero and ammonia has shot up. Sounds very strange to me to but thats what has happened. As i said i will just keep up the water changes and keep adding the amono lock till the ammonia has dropped. l

The only reason i can think of is because of thr PH drop. Ive heard that ammonia eating bacteria slow down alot when the PH drops so it could be the fact that the nitrite eating bacteria may have managed to catch up and reduce the nitrite to 0ppm when the ammonia eating bacteria slowed down (which could have been due to the PH crash) or at least thats my theory for the moment.

 

[Debbie_19]

So, before adding fish, the 8 ppm level of ammonia would drop to zero and also your nitrites were at zero? If so, then that would indicate a cycled tank. Adding the bettas at that time would not have been a problem.

So, this implies that something killed your colony of bacteria. I would just leave the bettas in the tank and do a water change each day keeping the ammonia level below 1 ppm. If you have a Ph of 6 or so, this ammonia level is not life threating to fish. At higher Ph levels, ammonia is much more toxic.

Hopefully, before long you will see that a water change is not needed because the ammonia level is zero.

Thanks Bullrock will do.

 

[CruX]

"I have been checking everyday since and the nitrite is now back to 0ppm but the ammonia has shot up now to 5ppm"

Am i the only one who sees a problem with this? If your nitrite is 0, and ammonia is 5, then there is a lack of nitrites, or nitrates. With high ammonia but no nitrite, this suggest that your ammonia is not getting converted properly, did you put anything in that could have killed off the nitrites?

I finished a fishless cycle about 2 weeks ago (took about 4 weeks with some mature filter media) Everything seemed fine for a week and i added in 9 female bettas last Thursday. (The tank is a 21 gallon) I checked the water stats on Saturday night and the nitrites had shot up. I done a largeish water change and added some salt into the water. I have been checking everyday since and the nitrite is now back to 0ppm but the ammonia has shot up now to 5ppm. I have been doing loads of water changes and adding some amono lock to try and detoxify it abit. The fish seem ok just now but really worried about them. I do not have anywhere to move then and cannot take them back due to the fact they were shipped to me from about 400 miles away from where i live.

Just so annoyed because my tank was def fully cycled before the fish went in. I thought mabey the nitrite spike was just due to the fact the fish were added and when it reduced to 0ppm i was happy but don't understand why the ammonia has now shot up. I have used decolrinater everytime i have done a water change and have not cleaned the filter media. The only thing i can thing of is the fact i tested PH llast night and it had fallen to about 6.6 and it is usually 7.5. Could this have caused a stall.

Looking at the time line of things, the filter was processing 8ppm of ammonia through to zero and zero nitrites in 12 hours, suggesting the filter was cycled, then after adding fish the cycle went wrong with Nitrites spiking and then ammonia.

So with my detectives hat and magnifying glass on one would assume that the bacteria that converts the nitrite to nitrate was killed and then the bacteria that processes the ammonia died.

One would imagine that if the tank suddenly stopped cycling then the ammonia would spike before the nitrite spiked, unless the colony started to die off in between the last dose of ammonia being processed and the introduction of fish to provide ammonia. Therefore I deduce that the bacteria colonies were indeed killed at this time which leaves me to suspect none other than chlorine as the perpertrater. It is usual to perform a large water change at the completion of a cycle in order to dilute nitrates, is it at all possible that you delayed on adding the dechlorinator to the water just long enough to let the chlorine murderise the colony? [/Sherlock Holmes]

If it isn't this then I am out of ideas and I have just been informed by telegram that so it Holmes and Watson.