Help ammonia spike!

[RedOnTheHead]

So for the last 2 weeks my ammonia in my tank has been in the harmful zone and I have been doing water changes at 50% to 60% every 3 to 4 days and adding in ammonia reducer and it remains the same. I also seem to be battling an algae bloom. I have not lost a fish but I have a pleco that I have not seen since I put him in lol. He is with cichlids and has three or four hiding spots that I cannot see into that he could possibly be but I have yet to see him. He is only 2" still so he is sneaky. I have sand substrate but on my last couple water changes I have been trying to search for him in the sand and try shaking a few decorations to lure him out but no luck so I hope he did not die and that is my ammonia spike. Any ideas how to lure him out of a deep crevice in a decoration.
Also how should I go about my ammonia problem. Up my water change amount or frequency? Try another type of ammonia reducer or add more live plants.
I am debating a new filter that's bigger but I want a bigger tank in 5-6 months and don't want to waste money on one that'll be too small once again.

 

[dalto]

Sounds like something happened to disrupt your cycle.

The only thing you can is large daily water changes until it gets back going again. Don't be afraid to change the water more often.

Ammonia binders won't hurt either but they are not a substitute for the water changes.

 

[toolman]

We really need some more information to help much.
What size tank do you have?
What is your stock?
What filter do you have?
What are your water conditions?

If you have hob filters, I usually run two on each tank anyways. Your tank could be overstocked or your filter could just not be keeping up with the fish waste. Hopefully your plecos is not the ammonia source.

 

[toolman]

We really need some more information to help much.
What size tank do you have?
What is your stock?
What filter do you have?
What are your water conditions?

If you have hob filters, I usually run two on each tank anyways. Your tank could be overstocked or your filter could just not be keeping up with the fish waste. Hopefully your plecos is not the ammonia source.

 

[Coyne]

You should definitely confirm the status of that missing fish. Take out and inspect everything that you can't easily see into. Hold them just at the water's surface so that, if it's alive, it will still be in the water during inspection.

 

[RedOnTheHead]

20 gallon hex
3 cichlids 1 shark 2 pleco, all 1-2" currently
Aqueon 20 , up to 30 gallons
Everything but ammonia is testing fine with strips

 

[mimiheart]

What kind of shark? I don't know of any that do well in a 20 gallon. Plecos can also get quite large, depending on type.

See if you can get a liquid test. The strips aren't that reliable.

 

[RedOnTheHead]

Red tail. They are tiny now and I plan on getting a 60-75 soon for them. I will have to grab one from petco tomorrow.

 

[V227]

If you are going to go for a 75 gal. Research the Aqua Clear 70 or 110, or one of the larger marineland bio wheel models.
Even with a larger power filter there will still be the initial cycle spikes.
I wouldn't use chemicals to control the ammonia. I agree with the other members WC' s are the best.
Good luck

 

[Potluck]

20 gallons isn't big enough, I saw you posted your upgrading to a 60-75 gallon, I run 2 aquaclear 110's on my 55 but when I upgrade to a 90 I will be running a canister leaving my aquaclear's running on the tank as well as the canister to establish the canister to prevent a bigger cycle, as far as bio wheels go to me they are absolute junk unless you modify the crap out of them i despise cartridge filters, I would go with the aquaclear or a nice canister.

As far as your ammonia, I will repeat this until I'm blue in the face, if you don't have seachem prime go out and get some tomorrow, do a 20% water change don't touch your filter or substrate when you vac treat the new water you're putting in the tank with prime (if using a bucket put the recommended amount of prime in the new temperature matched water that's going back in the tank) so say you do 20% on a 20 gallon that's 4 gallons I would just do 5 gallon and add 0.5ml of prime or 1ml as I always use 0.5ml more, prime is the best water conditioner as it locks ammonia and turns it into ammonium.

 

[RedOnTheHead]

So you can never filter enough is what seems to be a thing. Sounds good but with my kid I have no room for an extra filter. I'll have to go get some of that today and look at Aqua clear filters.

 

[Druinz]

Theres no harm in overfiltration, the only thing is that at some point there is a case of diminishing returns where your tank wont produce enough waste to fully sustain the entire filter worth of bacteria, but it gives you headroom to expand. Good luck with your tank, I hope your pleco is fine!

 

[Potluck]

Actually over filtration can impact the fish if theres to much current and your fishes like calm water other then that I run almost 4x the recommended turnover rate.

 

[RedOnTheHead]

Wow yeah I'm trying to avoid getting s bigger filter because on my hex tank it's only gonna fit the one made for it and still keep the lid on, even if I took the lid off it wouldn't fit a bigger one. I've managed to get the ammonia down to manageable to nothing. Algae seems to be clearing up. My pleco I found him stuck dead in a ornament rip

 

[mimiheart]

Wow yeah I'm trying to avoid getting s bigger filter because on my hex tank it's only gonna fit the one made for it and still keep the lid on, even if I took the lid off it wouldn't fit a bigger one. I've managed to get the ammonia down to manageable to nothing. Algae seems to be clearing up. My pleco I found him stuck dead in a ornament rip

You can look at adding media to your filter if you can't add another filter. You could also see about adding a sponge filter, which only requires an airline and airpump for outside equipment.

 

[Potluck]

I'm pretty sure an aquaclear 50 will fit, you can always trim the plastic if it isn't that much wider, aqueon filters are not good, sorry to be blunt but I will never go back to a cartridge filter again even though you can modify them and eliminate the cartridge with a aquaclear Sponge, and a bag of aquaclear media, for that size you would get a bag you are certain will fit, there's videos on YouTube of how to modify a filter, aquaclears are absolutely amazing and you can also mod them to make them even better than they already are, but you have to be careful because when you mod a filter you risk it over flowing, But the dilemma is you have a filter on your tank right now that has beneficial bacteria that has grown onto it, you can't just remove that filter to put on a new one because you will have taken out all of your beneficial bacteria and your tank will recycle so you're kind of in a bind. So you really need to run 2 so the new one gets established.

Look up modifying aqueon filter on YouTube or Google