high ammonia levels

[yago]

I know everyone has heard this before,before,before! I am having a difficult time with a 55 gallon community tank with hogh ammonia levels. I have been keeping tropical fish along time, and have had this problem before. I have allways been able to repair the problem, but this time i dont know! I have a 330 penquim and a 400 emperor both with bio-wheels. Ammno chips and carbon in the filters. I feed 1 time aday for 1 minute and keep the tank vaccumed all the time for fecal and lost food matter. I have live plants that are growing well, and only 35 inches of fish in the tank.Also a airstone. I have been changing the water 25% almost everday! But still i maintain almost a 4.0 on the ammonia test. I have used ammonia lock to keep it to this amount. I thought maybe someone was pouring bleach in the tank at night. Please help, I am at a lost. Yago

 

[xray]

How long has the tank been set up. It could by a cicle if it is new. Or a mimi cicle if it is not. Did something happen to destroy your biofilter. Obviously its not doing its job, you may have to wait for it to regrow. In the meentime keep up the water changes to try to bring it down. Wish I could help more.

 

[An t-iasg]

I have never had a big tank (my tanks are 5 gallons, lol) but I'll expand on xray's line of thought: How long has the tank been set up, and did you use any medicines (antibiotics) that killed off your good bacteria? Was this tank ever cycled? (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 20-40ppm nitrates, but probably less if you have live plants.)

I don't know about filtration in a large tank -- but it does seem to be adequate. Keeping ammo chips in your filter will only prolong the cycle. They shouldn't be used long-term; it's better to let the tank cycle on its own. That does mean daily water changes to get the fish thru the cycle. Instead of 25%, try closer to 50-60% every day since your ammonia is high. Only vaccuum your gravel very lightly for now, and only vac about half the tank each time -- the good bacteria are cultivating in the gravel. Also, more good bacteria are growing in your filter media so don't rinse it right now. Let the good bacteria colonies grow on it undisturbed. Later on, if the media gets cruddy, you can swish it around in a bucket of removed tank water, as you syphon it out for a water change, but for now, don't rinse anything in the filter.

What kind of test kit are you using? The test tube kits are more accurate than the strip tests. How old are your test kits?

What kinds of fish do you have? Some fish are bigger waste producers than others. I just started a tank last week with a little pleco, and I can't believe how much waste he produces!

 

[Menagerie]

[center:17b9d2e61e] Welcome to AA, yago!! [/center:17b9d2e61e]

 

[Frisckey1]

There are a couple things to consider:
1) what type of test kit are you using. If using a nessler based system, you'll often get false positives after using ammo-lock. Switch to a salicylate based test kit (By A.P. - the liquid reagents). You may be testing positive for ammonium.

2) is there any ammonia from your tap?

3) do you perform filter maintenance all at once? like cleaning both filters on the same day?

4) any aerosol cleaning agents being used in the home?

5) is it only ammonia - or do you ever get positive nitrIte test results?

 

[Menagerie]

How are your fish doing? Are they acting stressed? Bring a sample of the tank water to your LFS and ask them to test it. This will confirm your readings, or indicate a problem with your test kit.