Ammonia problem

[Carinea]

I am having an issue with the ammonia in my 4 month old aquarium. It has been at 0.50 for the past week (checked everyday). My fish, who have all been in there for about 3 months all look healthy- no spots, torn fins and are swimming fine. I have a Betta and everyday this week I have changed the water/vacuumed the gravel and the next morning there is a new bubble nest. The water is crystal clear and has no smell. I was guilty of over feeding-not anymore though. I use Prime water conditioner (cap full w/3 gallons water)and API freshwater master test kit. Anybody got any idea why my ammonia is staying at 0.5-not going up or down?

10 gallon
Inhabitants-2 Hatchetfish, 1 Cichlid and 1 Betta

Ph-8.2 (strangely unchanged-as when ammonia goes up Ph should go down,I think)
Nitrites-0
Nitrates-20* (My tapwater is around 20 as well)*

 

[librarygirl]

Hm. Have you done anything differently? Cleaned/changed filter media or added new fish or anything?

You could test your tap water to see if there's ammonia in there (sometimes the municipalities change up things) but assuming the tank was already cycled then the bacteria should have consumed the ammonmia by now even if it were coming from the tap unless you tested too soon after a water change and it wasn't converted yet. You vacuum the gravel so that's good. Have you rinsed your filter media in old tank water during a water change recently? Sometimes food and waste can get caught in the media and build up and cause spikes; swishing it around in old tank water during a water change can loosen some of the debris, maybe that would help. There's no chance of a dead fish being caught somewhere right?

 

[Carinea]

Thanks for your help-I tested my tap water and the ammonia-0 but that was a while ago and come to think about it I believe they do dump ammonia after it rains and it has been raining for about a week-if this is the reason for my increased ammonia-what should I do, should I just use more Prime???. I haven't changed, cleaned or rinsed the filter since I got it and was actually wondering if I should?? No dead fish, I have been fortunate to have the same 4 out of 5 I started with, I lost one of my hatchets to carpet surfing early on/

 

[librarygirl]

Yep, could be the rain. You could test the tap water again just to see if that's what it is. If so, then there's no sense in doing water changes and adding the ammonia back in, just add some extra Prime and your bacteria should convert the ammonia within 24 hours. If not, then there's something else going on.

Don't change the media totally and don't rinse in tap water, just swish it a bit in old tank water during a water change and put it back in.

 

[Carinea]

Sounds like a plan-will do
Thank you for helping me with this