Ammonia Issues, Please Help!!

[Scoobcake]

Here are my tank specs before I launch into my story:


30G freshwater aquarium
Heater I keep at 77 degrees
bubble wand
tetra whisper 40 filter with a penguin 350 running alongside
I do a 40-50% water change once a week


Inhabitants:
1 swordtail
1 bushy nose pleco
3 danio
2 kuhli loach
4 glass catfish


Ok so I had this tank up and running for about 8 months. Had some issues getting it going as it was my first stab at aquariums. Everything was fine and dandy but I recently moved. Upon moving I bagged all my fish, kept filters and decorations in a tupperware full of tank water, left the gravel in the tank with a tiny bit of tank water, and moved and set up everything in my new place. When i arrived I put in fresh water to about 50% level which I treated with Seachem Prime (same stuff I always use). I made sure the water was the same temp they were used to before as well. I then added the decorations and began floating the fish in their bags. I waited about 20 minutes and began adding the fish along with their old tank water. I used as much of the old tank water as I could. once i had all the fish in I topped of the rest of the tank with more treated fresh water of the same temperature. Everything seemed fine for about 3 weeks and then all hell broke lose. The snail I had started being less active and eventually died but I had lost a snail before for unknown reason so i didnt think anything of it. Next i lost one of my glass catfish and that is when I realized my ammonia levels in the tank were at 4.0. I realize I probably should have checked water chemistry everyday upon setting it back up but everything seemed fine. As soon as I realized ammonia was off I vaccuumed the gravel and did a 50% water change. I dropped the ammonia to 1.5 and didnt feed them that night. Today I checked and its back up to 3.0. Im wondering what might be causing this? Here is my list of suspects:


Overfeeding- I didnt really think about it but I have less fish now than I did before but Ive been feeding the same amount which is a little pinch of flakes and 4-5 of those tiny algae pellets every day and about every 5th day I would skip a feeding. As I said though I did not feed last night and ammonia went up.


Subpar cleaning- The water pressure at the new place is AWFUL. I use a python for water changes and it takes forever. When I vaccuum the gravel now I see it pull up the dirty water but I notice it will leave behind some flakes of food or other garbage. The extra flakes may also be a sign of overfeeding. I tried using a manual siphon but it was too strong and would completely suck up my gravel. Not really sure what to do about that.


Good Bacteria disturbed in the move- I took every measure I could to ensure it wouldnt happen but is it possible I still did using my above described moving technique?


Personally Im thinking its a combination of 1&2. Im not sure though


Oh also my nitrite levels have been 0 and nitrate at about 20-40 gradually
climbing until a water change.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Looks to me your on the right track here. Nothing much I can say other then test test test and change water like your doing.

 

[Bbarb27]

I agree you are on the right track.

Be diligent in testing for a nitrite spike soon and keep up with your water changes.

I use a regular siphon rather than a python and it sucks up my substrate if I use it completely upright. Holding the syphon tube at a angle seems to help a bit. A small siphon diameter will have less suction than a large tube. The only downside is that it takes a long time to do water changes with a smaller siphon, and it might not be enough suction to adequately clear the debris if you have a lot.

 

[Miss.Jo]

Yeah, sounds to me like a lot of your bacteria was starved and died, so your aquarium is re-cycling and you have a ton of fish in there (for cycling, not in general), all I can suggest is large water changes, very often

 

[Scoobcake]

Tested the PH today to make sure nothing was crazy with that and it is about 8.2 same as it was before. I didnt realize that the water test kits also pick up on "bound ammonia" from the seachem prime so I am looking into an ammonia disk that just measures "free ammonia". Anyone have any experience with those? Today the Ammonia is down to about .75. getting a bit better it seems. Will also try your advice on the gravel vac and/or invest in one with a filtering mechnism.

 

[Borderlesscott]

I have the Seachem alert in one my tanks, and I find it's very reliable - you can test if it's still working well by holding it over a bottle of ammonia, should change colour straight away, then turn back to normal after a few hours, I would keep testing just as well though as ammonia is more of a concern at higher Ph,s.

 

[Miss.Jo]

I agree ^^, they're very nice to have, I have one in all my tanks just because. They're only around 6-8 dollars and last up to a year. Not very useful at the moment as you know you have an issue, but in the long run will save you some test formula monies when you're just maintaining a tank

 

[Borderlesscott]

Remember that fish can go a few days without feeding every now and then, it hard to do as you feel guilty as hell, but better a hungry fish than a dead one. Over feeding was the thing I was guilty off when I first started, so hard to gauge just what you should be putting in, get some good quality food like New Life Spectrum flakes, more expensive than most but will help water quality and fish health.

 

[boadams87]

Sounds like your cycle started all over once you moved, did u throw your filter media away? They actually hold more bb than the water! You need to get that ammonia down to zero. If its at 3 then do a 50% will bring it to 1.5 then wait an hr do another 50% wc. Retest then do another 50%. Its not gonna hurt ur cycle.