Ammonia won't go down

[Samlancaster]

Hi wondering if anyone can help I've got a 200l tank that has 2 gourami 3 ballon mollies 7 tetras 6 tiger barbs pleco, small catfish and 2 clown loaches seems a lot but mostly small fish . My ammonia always seems to sit around 0.50 on scale and can't get it to go down I've tried doing bigger water changes around 40% every few days and nothing I do regular water changes the tank has been set up for roughly a year . Yesterday I noticed that my water has become very cloudy seeing as my ammonia was high anyway I went out and brought another pump so I currently have 2 pumps running in my tank and nothing seems to be working my ammonia has been like this for sometime now I've already lost a few fish from this
Thanks

 

[Trainer_Ruby_]

Next time you do a water change take the cartridge out and clean it off in the old tank water and it should help a little bit and make sure you're getting all leftover food and wast from under your substrate


Keep calm and drum on

 

[Samlancaster]

Thanks for reply on every water change I always rinse my filters out in old aquarium water I have recently completely changed my filter media and all my foam pads could this be the problem ?

 

[Caliban07]

Thanks for reply on every water change I always rinse my filters out in old aquarium water I have recently completely changed my filter media and all my foam pads could this be the problem ?

Looks like that could be your problem. You have thrown away a big chunk of your good bacteria that we're keeping your fish safe from ammonia. The new filter pads will colonise again soon and your ammonia should read 0 again. In the meantime you need to keep up on water changes and regular testing.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[Samlancaster]

Ahhhh how stupid you know what never thought of that I should of just my old pads where falling to pieces does that explain my water being really cloudy aswell then ?

 

[coralbandit]

Sounds like you are in a'mini cycle' from chucking your old media.
Fortunately the tank,substrate,and surface of anything under water will house the BB you need.
Hopefully they rebound quickly and re populate your filter.

You are also right that your stocking sounds like a lot for a 200l(50g)........

 

[katiekelsey]

I made the same mistake a few years ago. Only change one piece of media at a time. If you keep the tank too clean you're cleaning out too much of the beneficial bacteria and there isn't enough left to break down the ammonia. That's why your tank got cloudy, you have a bacteria bloom. Do smaller frequent water changes for the next several days and the cloudiness should go away. It took my tank about 1 1/2 weeks to clear up.