Ammonia levels through the roof!

[aliroset]

Ok so about two weeks ago I came back vacation after perfectly stabilizing my 60 gal freshwater tank. I left strict instructings for all of the tank matienence for my boyfriends dad to take care of. He fed them 15 brine shrimp cubes and 3/4 of my 46 gram flakes and half of my betta pellets!!! The fish looked almost dead and there was a solid layer of food in and on everything. I have 25 fish most all will stay small except my two angels which are only about 3'' long so my tank is far from overpopulated as far as inch to gal ratio goes. My ammonia test kit only goes to 6 ppm it has been at atleast that or higher for two weeks for about 5 days it has been in bacterial bloom and the ammonia is not lowering. I just keep putting twice the dose of Prime and lots and lots of live aquarium bacteria until the bloom started. Im also not feeding them they all have extended tummies anyways. My Purigen should be here tomorrow. I put two layers of ammonia absorbing stones in the filter I have a huge filter so I just layered as much stuff as i could in it hoping to promote bacterial growth. I also have four large lillies and 9 peacock ferns, Im trying to let the algae grow hopefully that may help. mI have no idea what I can do to now, Help! Thank you!

 

[PB_Smith]

you need to be doing partial water changes daily, 30-50%.

 

[Tank Girl]

You need to do a big water change and vacuum all the debris out. That's just WAY too much of a mess to leave for the biofilter to breakdown.


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[aliroset]

I have vaccumed out my tank mutiple times, aswell as rinsing my filter with tank water. Ive done a few 50% water changes but we dont want to stress out the fish too much.

 

[mikem691]

I would do 75% back to back about an hour apart. The stress from the water change is nothing compared to ammonia being that high.

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