Ammonia up after gravel vac and 40% water change?

[Gretie22]

Hello there.
Yesterday morning the ammonia level was 0ppm but the stones where looking a little grubby so I did a gravel vac and changed 40% of the water. Today I tested the ammonia and the level is up to 0.50ppm. When ammonia levels are high you would usually fix it by water changes, but that seems to be what's caused the ammonia level to rise. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

 

[phishfriend]

Need more info. Tank size, stock, how long have tank been running. Ect.

 

[Gretie22]

It's a 30g tank with 2 goldfish, been up and running 5 months now. To be fair I think I just got abit carried away with the cleaning and got rid of to much of the good bacteria. I stupidly cleaned the filter at the same time as doing my gravel vac.

 

[blert]

Have you tested your source water?

 

[Gretie22]

Yeah it's fine (0ppm).

 

[Borderlesscott]

It's probably what you said, to much cleaning, probably kicked you into a mini cycle. Keep up the water changes until your bb is back to normal.

 

[Mrc8858]

It's probably what you said, to much cleaning, probably kicked you into a mini cycle. Keep up the water changes until your bb is back to normal.

I agree.. when ever you vac the substrate you kick up lots of trapped debris so if its been awhile since you have then you will only want to clean a small portion of the substrate at a time. Also not quite sure what goldfish you have but more then likely just the 2 are overstocking the tank since lb for lb they may be the dirtiest, largest Bioload in the aquarium hobby lol.