High ammonia...yikes!!!

[rickrollxx]

I have a 20g planted tank that I thought I would try. Love raising fish hence the reason I have 5 tanks. Usually cichlids. Anyway, I changed the substrate to sand and added driftwood, live plants, and added a few tetras with the corys I already had. I was using a aq30 that was already seeded. Now I'm fighting high ammonia levels for week now at about 4-6ppm, nitrites are at 0, and nitrates are at about 10ppm. I since added a second filter that was also seeded and just put in a small sponge filter yesterday (not seeded). I don't get why even with the filters it that high. I have been doing water changes everyday. Any feedback would be so appreciated.

 

[nirbhao]

Are you using any kind of root tabs? My understanding is that they can sometimes leech in the beginning.

 

[rickrollxx]

No, not at all. I have added seachem flourish but nothing else.

 

[Bert2oo1]

No, not at all. I have added seachem flourish but nothing else.

Have you check the expire date of the ammonia test? I had one that was reading wrong that ended up being 2 years out of date (was purchased new from a store). Worth a check.

What kind of driftwood is it? Did you treat it before adding it to the tank?

Just plain aquarium sand?

 

[rickrollxx]

Test isn't out of date and for the hell of it I checked one of my cichlid tanks and it was 0ppm. The sand is regular play sand and the driftwood is Malaysian. I treated the wood by scrubbing and soaking in hot water for a day.

 

[rickrollxx]

I know I upset the tank balance when I changed out the substrate but I didn't think it would hit this hard. Not sure how long this will take. Decore is to new to have any rotting