New tank. High Ammonia levels-help!

[ChrisAF1983]

I am having problems with my ammonia levels with my newish tank. Ammonia levels are currently at 4ppm. Here are the details.

The tank is 10 gallons. I currently have 2 glofish tetras and 1 bloodfin tetra. I had another bloodfin but it died in about 3 weeks. The tank has been setup for about 5 weeks. I did not do a fishless cycle.

After the fish died I bought an API complete test kit. At that time on 10 December the readings were:
PH: 8.8
Ammonia: 4-8 ppm
Nitrites and Nitrates : 0 ppm

Because of the high ammonia levels I did a 50% water change. I then left the tank untouched for 2.5 weeks. Just yesterday, the readings were:

PH: 8.4
Ammonia: 4 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: between 0 and 5 ppm.

I also added a does of PH down because I read that tetras like somewhere between a PH of 6.5 to 6.8

A couple other notes: I am having a diatom bloom. Also, there is absolutely no growth on the bio-wheel that is part of the filter.

So, my questions are:

-What should I do about the high ammonia levels?
-Should I do anything about the diatoms or wait to clean them until the cycle is over?
-Is no growth on the bio wheel an indication of something else wrong?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I'm setting up my new 90g tank but these are problems I've had already


If you have a 4ppm amonia and you do a 50% water change your amonia is going to be 2ppm which is still to high. You need to keep doing 50% once a day until your at .25. It won't affect your bacteria or the cycle if you don't vacuum up the gravel just the water. You basically got yours down to 2 and waited til it raised back up to 4. Your tank could be over stocked like mine is ( which is why I'm switching to a 90). The diatoms is something happening in my new tank it's just from setting up a new tank and your nitrates or ammonia being high. Get that back down if you can and keep checking your levels daily until it's down to .25. I do 20% water changes just to keep it low enough. I lost 3 fish in one day before I figured out how fast my fish made the ammonia go up.


A) do a 50% change today. Wait 20 min and check your levels

B) if your down to 2ppm do another 50% today that should get you to 1

C) if your at 1 do another 50% tomorrow than another 50% in 2 days and your levels should be good

Than make sure your cleaning your gravel enough so that the poop on the bottom is gone and not sitting there for weeks and make sure u don't have any rotting plants or leftover food. All will bring your levels up very fast

Good luck, I hope I was able to help

 

[Brookster123]

Are you using tap water conditioner? Prime??

 

[ChrisAF1983]

Yes. I am using tap water conditioner with each water change. Not using Prime. I am also adding a capful of bio-boost weekly. Should I use Prime or Ammo-lock, or wait to see what the 50% daily water changes do?

 

[ChrisAF1983]

I'm setting up my new 90g tank but these are problems I've had already


If you have a 4ppm amonia and you do a 50% water change your amonia is going to be 2ppm which is still to high. You need to keep doing 50% once a day until your at .25. It won't affect your bacteria or the cycle if you don't vacuum up the gravel just the water. You basically got yours down to 2 and waited til it raised back up to 4. Your tank could be over stocked like mine is ( which is why I'm switching to a 90). The diatoms is something happening in my new tank it's just from setting up a new tank and your nitrates or ammonia being high. Get that back down if you can and keep checking your levels daily until it's down to .25. I do 20% water changes just to keep it low enough. I lost 3 fish in one day before I figured out how fast my fish made the ammonia go up.


A) do a 50% change today. Wait 20 min and check your levels

B) if your down to 2ppm do another 50% today that should get you to 1

C) if your at 1 do another 50% tomorrow than another 50% in 2 days and your levels should be good

Than make sure your cleaning your gravel enough so that the poop on the bottom is gone and not sitting there for weeks and make sure u don't have any rotting plants or leftover food. All will bring your levels up very fast

Good luck, I hope I was able to help

Thanks! So should I vacuum he gravel or not while doing the water change?

 

[Brookster123]

I always recommend prime, it will help detox the ammo temporarily (24hrs) too, not a solution but will def help ease fish stress.

 

[gilpi]

Neither water conditioner (which you should use with every WC) or prime, which is another water conditioner, will help you much here. You are actually cycling your tank (actually filter) with the fish. Keep the feedings to a minimum and do water changes, eventually all the levels will drop. Patience is the key word here.

 

[threnjen]

What Gilpi said.

I think this issue is easy to diagnose. Your tank isn't cycled. That's all.
Relatively easy to fix, but now you must commit to very frequent water changes

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?! - Aquarium Advice

Just read that and follow it.

I mean you should always use water conditioner when you do water changes but that's not going to help you here to "fix" a "problem". There is no actual problem, you have fish in an uncycled tank so now you must follow the processes of a fish-in cycle to complete your cycle.

Good luck and have fun Remember the work will be a lot less when it's all cycled.

 

[threnjen]

P.S. Don't use that pH Down junk. A fish can acclimate to any pH and using a chemical pH changer is a recipe for trouble, as your tap water in water changes is totally different. You risk shocking your fish every time you do a WC (or, you consign yourself to adding a chemical with every water change). In addition, your cycle is slowed at lower pH's, so you won't be doing yourself any favors to get through the cycling process any faster. At 6.5 the process is seriously slowed.
I'm not kidding - throw it out.

 

[flitabout]

The only chemical you need in your aquarium while fish in cycling is a de-chlorinator. The general consensus is prime the best and for what you get the cheapest. A small bottle treats a 1000g. Now you need to test your water everyday anytime your ammonia or nitrite gets to 0.25ppm do a water change with de-chlorinated water. You are doing a fish in cycle that might and probably will mean daily water changes. You have a very small tank and that means that the water conditions will be much hard to keep stable. Small tanks should never be recommended for a new aquarists. But for some reason lfs will do just that. under the guise of smaller must be easier. It's just not so. Toxins build up really fast and there isn't enough water in there to dilute them out. So when you have an issue it's usually a big one! Don't use pH up or down. That stuff creates more problems than it solves. First one is that it stresses fish to have a swing of .3 plus or minus in a 24hour period. Chances are once you get what you assume to be the right pH even without a water change the water will go right back to what it was before you added it and causing more stress to fish that I would be willing to bet with your ammo levels are already very damaged. Fish will acclimate fine to your tap water conditions. If you do a water change and your levels are still high wait 20 minutes and do another one until they are under 0.25ppm always using de-chlorinated water for each change.

P.S. I have kept wild caught cardinal tetras in a pH of 8.8 for months and they did fine in fact I still have each and every one of them, and they are all fat and sassy!

 

[ChrisAF1983]

Thank you for all the excellent information and advice! I will do water changes until my levels are down and test the conditions every day so I can watch the cycle progress.

You're right, the lfs steered me wrong. Really wish I had done a fishless cycle!

I'll be sure to post back with my results so that others in my situation may learn as well.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

Is just clean the top of the gravel. Don't actually go deep in it because bacteria grows on the gravel too. I get in the gravel every 3 weeks. I just skim the top daily

 

[ChrisAF1983]

Ok. So after doing 2 days of 50% water changes my levels were good. For the past 6 days the readings have been:

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5 ppm

Now, my question is, is it possible that it has already cycled? My concern is that I have always seen 0 nitrites, however there was period of about 3 weeks after starting the tank that I did not take any readings.

What are your thoughts?

 

[gilpi]

Keep checking your tank on a daily basis and let us know in a couple of days what you're getting. If you keep getting 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites I would say it's done but the fact that you have gotten no nitrites readings yet, I would say it's not cycled. In smaller tanks the water parameters can change quick so keep checking and let us know.

 

[ChrisAF1983]

Ok, I tested for another 2 days and my levels are the same. Therefore, for 7 consecutive days, my readings have been:

PH: 8.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5

I also checked my tap water and it reads 0 Nitrates, so the 5ppm Nitrates in the tank must be indicative of a completed cycle right?

It still concerns me that there is no growth at all on the bio wheel of the penguin 100 filter. There is some slimy stuff on the white plastic part of the wheel though.

I'm guessing that the tank is cycled, what are your thoughts?

Also, I'd like to get opinions on stocking the tank. In the end, I'd like to end up with 4 Glofish tetras, 4 bloodfin tetras, and 1 cory cat. Aqadvisor caclulates this stock at 100% capacity. I currently have 2 Glofish tetras and 1 bloodfin. My plan is to add 1 Glofish, 1 bloodfin, and 1 cory cat now, then in a week add the final Glofish and 2 bloodfins. Does this sound reasonable?

Thanks!

 

[threnjen]

I think that you are cycled. Congrats!!

However in a tank your size you must be very conservative adding fish to allow the filter to catch up. I wouldn't add more than 2 fish a week, so I would divide up your plan a bit more.

Cory cats are social fish that need a school of 5+ or they will be stressed - I would leave the cory off of your stocking list entirely

 

[ChrisAF1983]

Thanks for th reply! I'll take your advice of only adding 2 per week. The LFS suggested a cory cat I guess to collect uneaten food off the bottom. Maybe that's not necessary?

What would you suggest for my 10g? Should I just keep it to 5 Glofish and 4 bloodfin? Or is there a way to reduce those number to get some more variety with something else? Or is there a species that is ok solo?

 

[ChrisAF1983]

What about:

4 Glowfish
3 bloodfin tetra
3 harlequin rasbora

 

[threnjen]

Rasboras are too small, plus they are schooling fish. Honestly all of your schools should be 6+

To be perfectly honest I think you're better off picking your favorite schooling fish so you can have 6, then picking some cories (dwarf cories are tiny) and have 6, then find some centerpiece fish that you like.

In the place of the centerpiece fish you could do a different schooling fish but it needs to be a very tiny one.

Fish for a tank this size are not really my specialty. You might want to start a new thread about stocking a 10g.