Ammonia Spike...never happened before?

[sakari]

Okey Dokey...30g freshwater tank..established for 4yrs+...we are running an AquaClear 110 ( more than enough filtration)...currently have the following fish: HUGE sailfin pleco, tiny tetra, algae eater, emerald cat, orander and a black moor...fairly religious about pH testing, but not ammonia...have been, shall I say, a little lax in the feeding dept...usually every 2 days...think the lg.pleco ate my other black moor and my panda cat...no remmnants or skeletons to be found...added a new blk moor, yesterday, and fed them...notice about 1hr later the water was really cloudy...tested pH, a little high 7.6 and then I tested the ammonia... it was at .50...have not tested the ammonia since adding the "goldfish"... changed 5g of water and my husband cleaned up the gravel, a bit, and the filter and about 7 more gallons of water...pH was still 7.6 and the ammonia went UP??? Now at 2.0ppm....What??? Need some advice before my tank becomes a mortuary Did have some Prime...not sure how old it is...also, my ammonia teat kit is 4yrs old ( 01/2005 ) Could the test kit be giving false readings? Should I test my tap water for ammonia, too? We have very hard well water

 

[mfdrookie516]

I would first either take a water sample to an lfs or get a new test kit.. being 4 years old, you may be getting a false positive reading... or you could try testing some distilled water with it, if it gets a 0 reading, its probably ok, but id still either test it with another kit or have somebody else for re-assurance...

 

[sakari]

Thankx for the advice...chkd the ammonia level this morning, before I left for work...it's down to 0.25ppm...fish seem fine...did test my tap water...it's ok...I do have distilled water for my fountain, so I'll chk tonite & will also pick up a new test kit today...according to our lsf, we probably lost alot of good bacteria in our filter....no one EVER told us to clean/rinse in dirty tank water...we have always used tap water...now we will know better.