Ammonia levels??

[Cjnicol]

This morning I noticed one of my fish at the top of the tank gasping for air. Worried at why he was doing this I immediately checked my water, and found the following results.
Ammonia - 0.5 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 40 ppm
Ph - 7.8
As soon as I realized my ammonia levels were high I did a 50% water change and re tested, giving me much better results and my fish had settled down and were looking a lot better. I've never had this happen before, I am relatively new to the hobby but I'm sure my tank was cycled as I have also had 0 nitrites and ammonia and about 20 ppm nitrates steadily before this happened. The only thing I have done lately is added another 2 x fish to the tank and cleaned one of my filters out reasonably thoroughly on my last water change which was about 3 days ago. Any advise to help me out with any of this would be much appreciated. I really don't want to loose any fish.

 

[garfy]

When you cleaned your filter out did you use current tank water to clean the pads out?

 

[Cjnicol]

Yeah, rinsed it all out in a bucket of water which I had taken out of the tank

 

[kwandrsn]

More info on tank and livestock and whatnot

 

[garfy]

More info on tank and livestock and whatnot

Yes tank size and type and numbers of fish would be very helpful.

 

[Cjnicol]

The tank is 55 gal. At the moment I have 2 x crabro, 2 x electric yellows, 2 x red peacock, 2 x borleyi, 1 x yellow tail acei, 1 x blue peacock, 1 x giraffe cichlid, 2 x clown loach, 1 x synodontis catfish. Hope this is enough info, let me know if u need any more?

 

[Cjnicol]

Just did another test this morning and levels are as follows.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
Ph - 7.8
Looking alot better, but still a bit worried. Any more advice on what happened yesterday would be good. Thanks

 

[Crawdaddy]

You said one of your filters, what type and how many filters are you running?

 

[Cjnicol]

I have a large external canister which I havnt cleaned yet and a reasonably large internal filter which sits in the corner of the tank. The inter filter is the one I cleaned.

 

[Crawdaddy]

This might be a strange question, but when was the last time you cleaned the canister? And, did you check to make sure it's running properly?

 

[Cjnicol]

The canister is only a month old so I havnt cleaned it yet, I was going to wait a little while before I clean it to try and build a bit of bacteria in it. Should I be doing this or should I clean it do u think?

 

[Crawdaddy]

The canister is only a month old so I havnt cleaned it yet, I was going to wait a little while before I clean it to try and build a bit of bacteria in it. Should I be doing this or should I clean it do u think?

Has the tank only been up and running for a month? Or is this just a new filter that you added?

 

[Cjnicol]

Tank has been up and running with the old filter for about 3 months. Added the new filter about a month ago because I started adding a few more fish.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Tank has been up and running with the old filter for about 3 months. Added the new filter about a month ago because I started adding a few more fish.

It sounds like you might have had a mini cycle after cleaning the one filter. Keep up with monitoring it, and water changes as needed.

 

[Cjnicol]

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it

 

[Cjnicol]

Just did another test on my tank and got the following results.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
Ph - 7.8
This is now nearly 3 days since the ammonia spike. Do you think I will get another spike? Any reason why my nitrates are increasing? Anything I can do to keep nitrates down??

 

[garfy]

Just did another test on my tank and got the following results.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
Ph - 7.8
This is now nearly 3 days since the ammonia spike. Do you think I will get another spike? Any reason why my nitrates are increasing? Anything I can do to keep nitrates down??

Water changes will bring your nitrates down.Do a 50% water change daily until your Trates are below 20 and then after do one 50% water change every week and they will stay there.I do a 50% water change weekly and my nitrates stay below 10 but you must be committed or they will rise again.

 

[Cichlid-dude]

I would keep testing for a few more days and make sure the ammo doesnt spike again. Like someone said before you probably had a mini cycle from cleaning the filter too well and the other filter didnt have the beneficial bacteria to keep up with the bio load. If it were me id wait another 2 weeks or more to clean the canister filter and make sure you just rinse the media in tank water and put it back in. I think that your in the clear now though. Good luck with your tank!

 

[Cjnicol]

Hopefully! Thanks for you're help!!