Ammonia Spike

[sproutyrouty]

Hi guys having a bit of trouble with an ammonia spike in my tank.
It's a 30l tank that's been established over a year now currently stocked with 2 cardinals and 4 platys.

I changed the gravel 100% around 2 weeks ago which saw a spike in ammonia and nitrite so I was doing my water changes etc around a week ago both went back down to 0.

Then all of a sudden my ammonia is around 0.25 again and it just won't drop any ideas guys obviously I'm continuing my WCs. I recently lost some fish and want to add to my tank again but don't want to do it till its back to normal.


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[PB_Smith]

100% substrate change = tank needs to cycle again.
that is what is going on, it needs to cycle.


for future reference, you should only change 50% at a time waiting a couple weeks in between. You can use a divider and literally remove half the gravel without it getting mixed up.

 

[sproutyrouty]

I was going from pebbles to gravel but it seemed to cycle out pretty quickly I presume because of the bacteria in the water and filter.

It was fine for a week and then boom 0.25 and it just won't go away pH is normal 7.6.


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[ScotJudd]

In an established tank everything contributes to the tank cycle, everything is coated in bacteria. However, if your filter is the correct size for your tank then nearly all the working bacteria is in there. Water changing, with dechlorinated water, and substrate changing should not affect the tank cycle. I think it more likely that the disturbance of the gravel or pebbles has dislodge trapped waste or food which the filter has struggled to cope with.
It will settle down again but in the short term I would use Prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite. Small daily water changes, 10 %, will also help it to stabilise.
If it was stable before then it will be stable again but I wouldn't add any more fish until then.


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