Ammonia spike, need some advice

[jcarlilesiu]

Hi everybody, here is the situation. I have a 10 gal tank with all the things you see below in it. As you can tell, I have a pretty hefty bio-load. I was consistantly running about 40 PPM nitrate despite weekly 30% water changes. I deceided to try and get them down for the sake of the fish. Last week I did 3 25% water changes in 6 days. It worked, I was able to get my nitrates down to about 8 PPM. I just tested my water and here are the readings:

Ammonia: .25 PPM
Nitrites: 0 PPM
Nitrates: 20 PPM

It looks as though I took out too much nitrates and essentially put a hurting on the ability to control the Ammonia, hence a sort of re-cycle starter. Now my nitrates are back up and my fish are looking kind of stressed (aggressive, heavy breathing). My question is, should i do another water change in order to get the Ammonia down, which ultimatly could take out more nitrates and further the delima and hurt the established cycle more. Or should I allow the tank to take its course and allow the Nitrates to rebuild to get rid of the Ammonia, and re-establish the cycled status. your help is greatly appriciated.

On a second note, my filter media is extremely dirty, I intended on taking it out and rinsing it tonight as it is backing up into the back part of the HOB filter, i.e. creating a 'dam'... Based on what i said above, im afraid this can also remove necessary nitrates and further the degression of the cycle.

help!

 

[rich311k]

Change water, the water changes should not effect ammonia at all. Did you clean you filter?

 

[jcarlilesiu]

why should i change the water if it isn't going to bring down ammonia? I had to clean the filter just now, it was so clogged up it was over flowing backwards

 

[rich311k]

The water changes will bring down ammonia. Did you put all new media in the filter?

 

[jcarlilesiu]

no i just rinsed the existing filter to clear out some mulm, and put it back in....

i just noticed also that the tank is at 91 degrees... my heater is malfunctioning i turned it off... its like armegedon in there... i feel like a surgen... i just added 1 ice cube in the HOB filter to cool the water a bit.. and added a few drops of declor i don't know what else to do haha

 

[jcarlilesiu]

you all are probably like ICE! WHAT?! but im adding a really small cube every 10 minutes to slowly lower the temp

 

[jcarlilesiu]

im afraid now to do a water change because the temperature change would be too drastic as the water is already at room temp... i could try and get it to the right temp

 

[Zagz]

What Rich meant is that water changes would not bring on an ammonia spike. It could be the gunk in the filter backing up rotting and causing the ammonia to spike. Do another water change to get the ammonia down. As for the nitrates going to high all the time, cut back on your feedings a bit. Despite the fish seeming to always be hungry, that is what they do LOL. Ice periodically to bring down the temp slowly is fine, keep an eye on what the temp gets to. Good luck!

 

[jcarlilesiu]

thanks zags... i did another 25% water change, and added a little bit cooler temp of water during the change... the temp is now showing 88... the heater is turned off. I rinsed out the filter media... now we just pray.. i feel like a doctor talking to a family, thanks for your help

 

[rich311k]

Test your water again. Your levels should be much better. Good Luck!! I like how much you care about your fish.

 

[fantasticaqua]

much like baking cooking, if you mess with it to much you will ruin it. Take your time and let the system contro itself. But watch that filter, change it every month if you can.

 

[Zagz]

Filters don't necessarily have to be changed every month, they should be rinsed in old tank water when doing pwc's. If you use filter floss, you can change that every month, just don't change the bio sponge or bio filter that you use. Btw filter floss can be purchase from walmart for much cheaper than the lfs, it is 100% pure polyester pillow filling.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

thanks everybody, i typically do rinse it in old water from the partial water changes, but sometimes it clogs up really fast. I think alot of the plant matter gets in there from decaying leaves and such... should have washed it out sooner. this morning everybody looked happy, the temp was back to normal but i havn't had the oppurtunity to test the water again, ill do it tonight

 

[rich311k]

You could put a prefilter on your intake to get the heavy stuff before it gets to your filter.