Help, any ideas?

[Cableguy9872]

Alright First things first, my tank has been set up for a little over 2 months. I did a fish in cycle with 2 black skirt and 2 zebra danio. my water paramiters are as follows:
.5ppm ammonia
0ppm nitrIte
5ppm NitrAte
8.2 for PH

My tap water is
0 ammonia
0 nitrIte
0 NitrAte
8.2 PH

I use API Stress Coat for my treat my tap water. I feed my fish 6-8 flakes every other day. They all seem to be doing fine, I see no Signs of ammonia poisoning. I Have not cleaned anything in tap water, I have rinsed my filter with tank water along with a decoration.
I have the Eclipse 3 hood along with an UGF.
I was told by a LFS about 3 weeks ago it was ok to add more fish, so I added 2 neon tetras. They both died with in a week(I thought they created a mini cycle)

What would be causing my ammonia to stay up at or above .5ppm? I have been back to my normal 4 fish that I cycled my tank with for about 2 1/2 weeks now. I Have been doing PWC of 25-50% Atleast every other day. I wait a few hours and test it again, getting lower ammonia and nitrAte results each time. What would be causing my ammonia to get a reading around .5 or more still?

I am confused as to why I still have ammonia and would really like help. I Hope I provided all the information you need, but if not just ask!

I use the API Freshwater Master test kit to test my water, holding the tube about an inch away from white paper.

I Have not forgotten to put my dechlor in during any water change. Could the stress coat provide a "False" reading? Also what happens by putting to much into the tank? (I may have during some water changes put to much into each bucket)

 

[meegosh]

Could be you haven't completed your cycle yet. It could also be stuff trapped under your UGF that is decomposing and releasing ammonia. The neons that you lost were probably weak to begin with, I haven't seen many healthy neons at LFS's in quite some time. I had 10 at one point and they kept dying... 2 years later I only have three really bright, big and healthy neons.

I've never used Stress Coat so I am not sure how quickly it works or if there is any problems with overdosing or false positives. I am betting that it is not due to you overdosing the tank though.

 

[Cableguy9872]

Thanks for the advice, should do you think it would be good to give my gravel a good vac(I have done about 1/3 of it in the past week) Otherwise i havn't touched it(i was told not to) I got stuff out(no big chunks of anything, just orange colored water up from the rocks(waste) If my tank wasn't done cycling, it shouldn't still be showing ammonia though should it?(since its been about 2 months)

 

[BigJim]

Healthy neons are hard to find. A couple LFS near me don't even guarantee them any more.

Vacuum your gravel really well. You don't want stuff rotting down there. I don't know the size of your tank/filter, but I suspect you don't have a strong enough A-N-N cycle yet. Your fish don't produce my bioload, especially with your feeding regimen. Even though neons are small, you may have upped your bioload by 25% and started a mini cycle.

 

[fort384]

Neons are very finicky. Would not surprise me that they would die in water of .5ppm ammonia. My suspicion is that you just have not completed your cycle yet due to a pretty small bioload and very sparse feeding regiment. If the tap is testing 0 ppm Ammonia, eventually your tank should reach that too. You can try getting something to help it along... maybe some seed material from your LFS or I have used seachem stability (a bacteria supplement) with some success.

 

[Cableguy9872]

I was thinking of getting some Seachem stability(heard people have had decent luck with that) However wasn't sure what would happen if i were to put that into my tank if it has started the cycle process. I have a 29 gallon(forgot to mention that)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't my tank reach 0ppm ammonia anyway even if my tap water was 1ppm?(its not but just wondering)

I will probably go get some stability if it won't screw anything up in my tank

 

[fort384]

It wont screw anything up.

And yes, your tank would eventually still reach 0 even if your tap water had ammonia in it.

 

[Cableguy9872]

Awesome, I am going to switch to prime anyway, I'll give stability a try and see what happens.
Fort, do you think it will cause ammonia spikes and everything(so monitor my water closely and change it as needed?) or will it just help my tank cycle faster

 

[Cableguy9872]

Thanks for the advice to try Stability Fort384, I got it, started using it(day 5 more) My ammonia is gone!

Readings over the 5 days so far.
Day 1
A: .5ppm
Ni: (didn't test)
Na: (Didn't test)

Day 2
A: 1ppm(possibly tested wrong)
Ni: 1ppm
Na: 20ppm

Day 3
.5ppm
0ppm

Day 4
1ppm
.5ppm
10ppm
(Did a 25% PWC this day)


Day 5
0
0
0

Today is Day 5, did all 3 tests and everything came back 0, I am assuming this is a good sign seeing as how ammonia and nitrites are both gone!!

 

[fort384]

hmmm something isn't right...

You should have nitrate present in the tank. 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite is good, but if the nitrate is reading 0, the tests are suspect.

I would check it again...

 

[Cableguy9872]

I tested everything again, my nitrate isn't really one or the other(its inbetween 0 and 5, so there is a little bit there

 

[fort384]

ok... well it sounds good then especially if you reverified 0 ammonia and nitrites. Some detectable nitrate is good - the level probably just went down some since you did your PWC, which is good.

It sounds like you have a cycled tank!

 

[meegosh]

You could test some tap water that you treat with dechlor and let it sit out for a while. This will let you see how far off your tank's nitrate levels are compared to just straight tap water.

I agree with Fort though, sounds like you are done with the cycle for the most part.