Why cant I get this right

[Love_MyFish]

Hey guys, I have a few questions... I did a cycle with fish before reading the forum, sorry.

1) Why even after water changes can I not get my ammonia down by much? I do atleast a 50%. (PH) 7.6 (HRPH) 7.4 (AM) 4 (NI) 0 (NA) 0

2) I may have over fed in the begining but i dont want to vac the gravel right?

3) will anything help to boost the cycle?

4) any other advice?

PS. I seeded from a LFS plant aquarium that had a few fish in it

 

[Tim Wheatley]

You are not through the cycle yet, you need to do some water changes to get that ammonia down asap.

The ammonia could be up because you maybe didn't use water conditioner, you over fed (?) and left the food to rot or you have something dead in the tank.

Yes, you do want to vac the gravel in my opinion, or your ammonia levels will be too high and kill the fish before the cycle completes. The fish probably already are burned.

Time.

Just patience, really. It's important to remember that in that little clear box we keep we are trying to simulate a flowing river, it takes time to setup our mini ecosystem and even when we do it needs constant support and monitoring. No quick fixes are available and any chemicals or pills which claim to help usually just make things a whole lot worse.

 

[Love_MyFish]

Over fed???

You are not through the cycle yet, you need to do some water changes to get that ammonia down asap.

The ammonia could be up because you maybe didn't use water conditioner, you over fed (?) and left the food to rot or you have something dead in the tank.

Yes, you do want to vac the gravel in my opinion, or your ammonia levels will be too high and kill the fish before the cycle completes. The fish probably already are burned.

Time.

Just patience, really. It's important to remember that in that little clear box we keep we are trying to simulate a flowing river, it takes time to setup our mini ecosystem and even when we do it needs constant support and monitoring. No quick fixes are available and any chemicals or pills which claim to help usually just make things a whole lot worse.

I use prime with all WC. I vac half the tank and I used the Aqueon® Aquarium Water Changer. It hooks to the sink vacs than you reverse the flow to replase the water, i love it.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

How big are your water changes usually? Water straight from the tap can sometimes kill good bacteria if it's added all at once and in too great a quantity and that can start you cycle over.

 

[Lawngnome]

The ammonia could be in your tap water itself.

 

[Love_MyFish]

WC

How big are your water changes usually? Water straight from the tap can sometimes kill good bacteria if it's added all at once and in too great a quantity and that can start you cycle over.

There is a trace ammount in the water with the prime there is 0. I have done mostly 30%. a couple of 50%

 

[Love_MyFish]

Ammonia

The ammonia could be in your tap water itself.

There is a trace amount in the water but with prime 0.

 

[saltwatertogo]

How long has your tank been set up? It's ok that you started with fish your tank will still cycle even if you loose your fish. Be very careful of how much food you put in the tank. Make sure they eat every little bite you put in. Feeding ever other day will help too during this time. A normal cycle takes 6 to 8 weeks. if your levels get really high a PWC will help to lower these levels. Tell us more about your tank and filteration system. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Fishman

 

[BigJim]

1) You may have to do several large PWCs to lower your ammonia levels. Remember that your fish are putting out ammonia and there may be other sources also.

2) I think this might be the source of your ammonia problems. Vacuum the gravel well.

3) Try getting some filter media from a tank with a larger fish population. Live plants use ammonia as food and limit the beneficial bacteria populations in a lightly stocked tank.

 

[XimeD]

+1 on the gravel vac. The cost of not doing the gravel vac outweight the benefits at this point. If your gravel is not too dirty you can do a light gravel vac (ie just the top layer). While there is some bacteria in the subtrate/surfaces, most of the beneficial bacteria in the tank will be in the filter so don't worry overmuch about doing gravel vacs.

And, as stated do as many PWCs as you need to, to bring that ammonia down to below 0.25ppm. Make sure to match the water for temp and pH, and it wouldn't hurt to test your tap water for pH, NH3, NO2 and NO3.

Edit: lol a lot of people beat me to it, while I was writing this post

 

[Love_MyFish]

My Tank

How long has your tank been set up? It's ok that you started with fish your tank will still cycle even if you loose your fish. Be very careful of how much food you put in the tank. Make sure they eat every little bite you put in. Feeding ever other day will help too during this time. A normal cycle takes 6 to 8 weeks. if your levels get really high a PWC will help to lower these levels. Tell us more about your tank and filteration system. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Fishman

I have a 29G tank running a tetra ex 70. It filter 411G an hour. I have a rainbow shark a couple danios and 4 snails.

 

[Love_MyFish]

out of the tap

+1 on the gravel vac. The cost of not doing the gravel vac outweight the benefits at this point. If your gravel is not too dirty you can do a light gravel vac (ie just the top layer). While there is some bacteria in the subtrate/surfaces, most of the beneficial bacteria in the tank will be in the filter so don't worry overmuch about doing gravel vacs.

And, as stated do as many pwcs as you need to, to bring that ammonia down to below 0.25ppm. Make sure to match the water for temp and ph, and it wouldn't hurt to test your tap water for ph, nh3, no2 and no3.

Edit: Lol a lot of people beat me to it, while i was writing this post

Readings from tap water.... (ph) 7.4 (am).5 (ni) 0 (na) 0

 

[XimeD]

Readings from tap water.... (ph) 7.4 (am).5 (ni) 0 (na) 0

I too have 0.5ppm ammonia in my tap water. Have in mind that what most dechlorinators do, is to bind the ammonia so that it is non-toxic to fish until the biofilter can take care of it.

If you are using the liquid test kits (which are much more accurate than the strips), the bound ammonia will still show up in your test giving you a "false positive". So, since your tank is not cycled and you have that 0.5ppm ammonia this might be the "lowest" reading you could get in your test kit so aim for that. In my cycled tanks I usually wait 24hrs after PWCs to take ammonia measurements, if I take them right after I will see that 0.5ppm that is not "real" (meaning it is there but not relevant to the fish)

The downside of the ammonia in your tap is that while your tank is in the initial stages of cycling (it looks like yours is since you have no nitrites), then prime will bind the ammonia but you don't have enough bacteria yet to take care of the ammonia in yout tap water + ammonia from fish waste so you will likely need more frequent PWCs depending on your bioload. I had to do twice daily 50% PWCs for a couple of weeks while my tank was cycling (I too cycled with fish cause I didn't know better at the time)

If you don't have one, get a python cleaner, it is worth it!

 

[jenatron]

Are all of your fish accounted for? I've seen you post a few times before and you always have crazy ammonia readings. Make sure there are no missing fish decomposing in your tank somewhere.