Ammonia problem

[NewFishGuy]

I'll apologize now for the long post.

Okay, I'm am OFFICIALLY concerned at this point. I have been having a problem with Ammonia, and can't seem to get a handle on it.

I started my tank in October of last year. I did a fishless cycle on the tank and watched the Ammonia spike up to 10 ppm before it finished the cycle and the Ammonia dropped down to 0 ppm.

I then added fish a couple at a time until I had what I waould consider a max bio-load. I know that what I have now will eventually need a slightly larger tank and am expecting to set up a 20 gal FW when I make my 90 gal SW so that I can use my 10 gal as a SW qt tank. The fish that are in there now are quite small and total out at no where near 10 inches.

Well....I had a problem a couple months ago that I posted on here also about a albino cory cat that I had disappear and later found his body floating inside a decoration and starting to decay. This threw my ammonia levels up to about 6-8 ppm. I got him out and did some large water changes and got the Ammonia level down to .5 ppm.

That is the lowest I have been able to get it. Since then, it has risen to a steady 4 ppm. Every once in a while it drops to 2 ppm and sometimes rises to 6 ppm, but is usually steady around 4 ppm. This has been a couple months now. I am so scared of what it is doing to my poor fishes gills.

I do a thorough gravel vac with a 20-30% water change pretty much every dy at this point. No help.

About a week ago I bought a Bio-wheel Penguin 150 for the tank and have been running it along with the Top Fin power filter 10 that came with the tank since then. No help.

I am reluctant to use a chemical like Ammo-Lock in the tank because I have never put ANYTHING in it and wanted to try to keep it that way, but am starting to think twice about that. I also have some elevated Nitrite and Nitrate levels. ANy Suggestions on non chemical solutions?

Again, sorry for the long post. TIA for any help.

 

[Blucat]

ammonia, nitrate removing media

 

[mattrox]

Your tank is starting to cycle again. Daily waterchanges are in order I am afraid, but hold the gravel vac.

The large spike in ammonia may have killed the cory rather than the cory causing it?

Did you have a pH crash and it kill all your bacteria? The tank taking so long to re-cycle is also a cause for concern. What de-chlorination are you doing? What test kit are you using? And what are the exact reading right now? You need to determine why the cycle is taking so long. What factors eg temp, pH etc are different now than when you originally cycled?

When I cycled I didn't let ammonia go above 1.5ppm and it took 4 weeks.

 

[NewFishGuy]

The cory disapeared a few days before the ammonia spike started....It wasn't till the body started to decay that the ammonia spike happened.

the ph has been stable since the 1st cycle ended 6 months ago...never went up or down.

If it is agoing through another cycle then I am REALLY concerned because of how long it is taking. I put the new bio wheel on to get more bio filtration in the tank.

Temp is steady at 78 deg. Always has been the same.

The only thing that I can see different is the Ammonia and Nitrite spikes. Like I said I an doing 20-30% water changes daily and not seeing any difference. I will even do a ammo test IMMEDIATELY after dong a water change and not see a drop in the Ammonia level. I have been doing gravel vacs because I was over feeding at first and thought that there was maybe still food int he gravel that was causing the high Ammonia levels. I am STILL getting a LOT of garbage out of the gravel when I vac it.

Until a week ago I was filtering 10 gal/hr .. now I am filtering 160 gal/hr. I am hopeing to get the bio-wheel up and doing it's job soon. Will useing some TLC bio culture starter help...I still do maintenance doses of it, but would a larger dose help to start getting the cycle done again?

I'm not sure what is going on with the tank. I am at work right now so I don't have the numbers. I will try to test when I get home and post them tomorrow.

 

[mattrox]

If you do a 25% water chage your test kit (or your eye, ie colour change) may not detect the difference. To go from 2ppm to 1ppm you need to do a 50% change. Also the same for 6ppm to 3ppm.

I have found that almost any product I try to get a faster cycle makes a negligable difference. Can you get a hold of some SAFE old filer media from somewhere?

 

[Rosemary]

Have you tested your tap water (if that's what you're using)?

My tapwater contains varying amounts of ammonia and nitrite, that could be a factor for you too.

Some water conditioners like Amquel+ and Prime remove ammonia for you.

 

[NewFishGuy]

I'm glad you metioned the tap water...I did test it and it is 0 on everything......thanks for the ideas.....any others?

 

[SteveM]

Just a shot in the dark, but have you done any medication to the tank? Some meds will kill off your bacteria.

A natural way to get rid of the ammonia would be plants - some fast growing stem plants like hornwort will use it up real fast, even without bright lighting.

And I think I'd do larger water changes, maybe up to 50%, to get that ammonia and nitrite down.

 

[NewFishGuy]

Nope. Never had any chemical other than water conditioner in the tank. That is why I'm cautious to use any chemicals on the Ammonia. On the other hand....even though I don't know the cause of the ammonia problem, I am about ready to use something like ammo-lock that convers the dangerous ammonia to a non-dangerous type. I'm sure my fish's gills have had about all they can take of ammonia.

 

[mattrox]

If you had a sharp pH drop, bacteria numbers could decline. If the ammonia content rose too much (6ppm might do it) it can also affect your bacteria. You might just be going through a mini cycle again.......