Ammonia levels high need help!!!

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Bates1990

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
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173
Location
Texas
Okay so I have a 100 gallon wave front aquarium and I have had it set up for like 2 or three months and the water has been cloudy the whole time but it's getting worse, so I did a water test and the nitrates are through the roof and so is the ammonia! I just did a water change yesterday of 25 gallons and also cut down on feeding and nothing has changed. I've never had a problem like this in the year that I've been doing the fish thing so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
What are the test results?
What are the fish?
What filters are you running?
Imo if its as high as you say it is you need to do 50-75% water changes and no food

Nice tank.by the way
 
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Alright I know these fish will get bigger but they will be rehoused but I have a 7 inch redtail catfish ,a 6 inch , a 7 inch clown knife ,two 7 inch oscars and 2 7 inch pleco. And the ammonia is like 8.0 ppm and the nitrates were like 40ppm. None of my dish are acting weird or anything I'm just worried it will effect them eventually. So should I do another water change of 25% every couple days or should I do like a 75% water change.
 
Yea it cycled for like a month and a half and it's had fish these fish in it for like 2 months
 
Bates1990 said:
Alright I know these fish will get bigger but they will be rehoused but I have a 7 inch redtail catfish ,a 6 inch , a 7 inch clown knife ,two 7 inch oscars and 2 7 inch pleco. And the ammonia is like 8.0 ppm and the nitrates were like 40ppm. None of my dish are acting weird or anything I'm just worried it will effect them eventually. So should I do another water change of 25% every couple days or should I do like a 75% water change.

What are you using to test with?
 
You really shouldn't change the bio wheel or the filters that often. They contain the "good bacteria" that break down your waste. When you take out that bio filter, you're basically starting over.
 
That's what the wheels are for the carbon filter cartridges need to be changed because they collect way to much garbage if you don't change them then the filters barely work cause it gets clogged.
 
Did you double check the test? Is the kit outdated? I can't believe the numbers are that high and those fish are looking good and kicking. I'd do at least a 75% water change if it still test that high for now. Then work on getting rid of some of the fish to lower the bio load. When you replace the cartridge do you do both filters at the same time? And how do you wash them?
 
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Bates1990 said:
That's what the wheels are for the carbon filter cartridges need to be changed because they collect way to much garbage if you don't change them then the filters barely work cause it gets clogged.

You should just rinse them in old tank water after a water change
 
moomawkm said:
You really shouldn't change the bio wheel or the filters that often. They contain the "good bacteria" that break down your waste. When you take out that bio filter, you're basically starting over.

Great advise :) 12 posts and kickin lol
 
I'm sorry I'm not goo with abbreviations lmao yea everything was 0 lol but it started getting cloudy
 
That's what the wheels are for the carbon filter cartridges need to be changed because they collect way to much garbage if you don't change them then the filters barely work cause it gets clogged.
You only have to rinse them off...filters don't "go bad" they just collect a lot of junk...wash the junk off and you have a "just like new" set of filters...
 
Bates1990 said:
I'm sorry I'm not goo with abbreviations lmao yea everything was 0 lol but it started getting cloudy

75% water change, re test an hour after if its still high do a 50% they need to come down or you will loose those fish. Don't feed and just keep testing and water changes. If the ammonia doesn't come down after the 75% change there is probably something wrong with the ammonia bottles
 
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