Why Do I Keep Having Ammonia Spikes?

[tanzen]

I've had my 55 gal tank up and running, established, for over a month or two.

These are the fish i have in it:

1 male betta (Betta splenden)
1 pearl gourami (Trichogaster leerii)
1 green swordtail (Xiphorphorus helleri)
1 gold dojo loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)
1 red tail shark (Epalzeorhynchus bicolor)
6 glass catfish (Kryptopterus minor)
2 African dwarf frog (Hymenochirus boettgeri)
1 striped peacock spiny eel (Macrognathus siamensis)

And it is not a planted tank but i'm starting to think it may need to be.

It may be that my tank's overpopulated but i'm currently trying to sell all of my glass cats.

Every week i am having an ammonia spike close to 2 ppm. All of my fish act happy and are very healthy but my ammonia should be 0. I do weekly, sometimes twice a week (but never a large one), partial water changes ranging from 5% to 30% and it always goes down to zero the next day but then sky rockets less than a week later. I even vacuum my gravel every water change.

I thought it may have been that i was overfeeding my fish. So i cut down to only once a day and i'm almost absolutely sure they eat everything. So i dont know why it's doing this.

Now i'm questioning my biological filter so i've been adding beneficial bacteria (product similar to biospira but for ponds)

I have a marineland biowheel big enough to accommodate a 75 gal tank with 4 filter pads in it.

I use the API master freshwater test kit and these are my test results as of 5 minutes ago:

ph: 7.5
ammonia: over 1.0 but closer to 2.0 ppm
nitrate: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm

These results are from a strip test:

nitrite:0
nitrate:0
hardess (GH): 75 ppm (soft)
total alkalinity: between 120 - 180 ppm (within ideal range)
ph: 7.8


why is my ammonia so high all the time??

 

[gaz gun man]

how are you cleaning the filter media?

 

[tanzen]

how are you cleaning the filter media?

I've only cleaned it once with the advice from my aunt who's kept aquariums for probably over 20 years.
She told me to wash the pads off in the sink and to scrub off the entire inside of the filter.

 

[gaz gun man]

how are you cleaning the filter media?

I've only cleaned it once with the advice from my aunt who's kept aquariums for probably over 20 years.
She told me to wash the pads off in the sink and to scrub off the entire inside of the filter.

that would be where you're going wrong then

Filter media should only be cleaned in water taken from the aquarium, even then you just need to give the sponges a squeeze and swish about to remove most of the crud that builds up on them.

Chlorine and chloramine, which are found in tap water kill off the beneficial bacteria that develops from eating the ammonia (which would explain why you have spikes)

The best way foward would be to not clean the media now, until you see a decrease in water flow, which should'nt be for another month or two anyway. Do water changes and keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels.

You say you do anywhere from 5-30% water changes a week, how exactly do you do them? Ideally you should be looking at 20-30% changes weekly.

On a side note, is your betta happy in there? 55gal is alot of water for them, as they are'nt strong smimmers, nor are they the best community fish.

 

[tanzen]

how are you cleaning the filter media?

I've only cleaned it once with the advice from my aunt who's kept aquariums for probably over 20 years.
She told me to wash the pads off in the sink and to scrub off the entire inside of the filter.

that would be where you're going wrong then

Filter media should only be cleaned in water taken from the aquarium, even then you just need to give the sponges a squeeze and swish about to remove most of the crud that builds up on them.

Chlorine and chloramine, which are found in tap water kill off the beneficial bacteria that develops from eating the ammonia (which would explain why you have spikes)

The best way foward would be to not clean the media now, until you see a decrease in water flow, which should'nt be for another month or two anyway. Do water changes and keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels.

You say you do anywhere from 5-30% water changes a week, how exactly do you do them? Ideally you should be looking at 20-30% changes weekly.

On a side note, is your betta happy in there? 55gal is alot of water for them, as they are'nt strong smimmers, nor are they the best community fish.

well i've only cleaned the filter media once and that was a few days ago but i was having ammonia spikes before that too.
but thanks lots for the advice on the bacteria.

i do mostly 25% water changes weekly but if the ammonia explodes a few days later, that when i do about a 5 or 10% water change because i dont want to take too much of the bacteria away and apparently i'm doing a horrible job of it...



++but yea, my betta is extremely happy in my tank. He's swims all over it even at the bottom exploring everything, plays with some of the fish at times, eats like a pig, and isnt aggressive to anything. But sometimes he'll chase the gourami out of his cup.

 

[arobinson1984]

If you are having ammonia spikes then 5-30% water changes wont really be doing a lot of good.

You need to be aiming at much larger water changes, minimum of 50% but preferably more like 70-80%, you wont take the bacteria away by doing large water changes as 99% of the good bacteria lives on the filter sponge not in the water.

Another quick question, are you adding dechlorinator to your tap water before adding to the tank on water changes.

Agree with gaz, you shouldn't ever clean your filter media in tap water, the chlorine in tap water kills your bacteria so you'll effectively have a mini cycle again. Always use old tank water and just swill the pads and give them a gentle squeeze to get rid of the excess gunk that will stop the water from passing through the sponges.

Andy

 

[tanzen]

If you are having ammonia spikes then 5-30% water changes wont really be doing a lot of good.

You need to be aiming at much larger water changes, minimum of 50% but preferably more like 70-80%, you wont take the bacteria away by doing large water changes as 99% of the good bacteria lives on the filter sponge not in the water.

okay
thanks

Another quick question, are you adding dechlorinator to your tap water before adding to the tank on water changes.

yes i am

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with the posts from Gaz and Andy. Excellent diagnosis and advice.

~~waterdrop~~