ammonia spike

[osis62]

I have a 55 gallon tank. It is 6 weeks old. Still going through the cycle? 350 peguin filter and a heater. Water is at 80 degrees. It has a angel fish and a tinfoil barb. thought the nitritie was going to spike but all of a sudden the ammonia went up to 7 and the nitite is 0. 4 days ago it was 2 and nitites where going up. what is going on? Is the cycle ever going to complete it self. I just did a 30 percent water change treated.

 

[HN1]

What has your water change routine been for the last 6 weeks? What test kit are you using? Ammonia that high for that long would likely kill the fish.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...-but-i-already-have-fish-what-now-116287.html

 

[osis62]

I didnt do any changes the first 4 weeks i was under the impression that i shouldnt change the the water during the cycle. The last two weeks i have been changing the water twice a week. I have a liqiud test kit. test tubes and drops. IIs ther any thing i am doing wrong. The nitrogen cycle is kind of confusing. To many opioions. any advice would help for me and the fish. Cant wait to add more but need the water to settle. I also change one of the filters today. The filter set up has two. I read to change one at a time 4 weeks apart

 

[osis62]

10 percent water changes the last 2 weeks.

 

[HN1]

Ok, read the link I posted first. Trust me, I understand.

The beneficial bacteria is going to predominantly reside on your filter media and the substrate / decor. They are not waterborne for the most part. Changing water will NOT adversely impact your cycle. The only thing that can tell you when you need to change water are your test results. If you have .25 or greater ammonia or nitrite, do a 50-75% change.

i.e. If you have 7ppm ammonia and you do a 10% change, you remove .7ppm and are left with 6.3. A 50% change would take you to 3.5. At levels that high, I would expect your fish to die so water changes are a good thing.

 

[dkpate]

Are you shaking the test bottles really well? I know with the API kit, you need to shake 2 of the #2 bottles really well to get accurate results.
I agree, if your ammonia is that high, I would think your fish would not have made it.
Don't listen to the directions for the filter media on the box, they just want you to buy more products from them. I believe most people on here use the filter media until it's falling apart, they just rinse it in old tank water during a water change. The good bacteria lives on the media, (i.e, the brown junk on it).

 

[HN1]

Are you shaking the test bottles really well? I know with the API kit, you need to shake 2 of the #2 bottles really well to get accurate results.
I agree, if your ammonia is that high, I would think your fish would not have made it.
Don't listen to the directions for the filter media on the box, they just want you to buy more products from them. I believe most people on here use the filter media until it's falling apart, they just rinse it in old tank water during a water change. The good bacteria lives on the media, (i.e, the brown junk on it).

I agree. I forgot to mention that (Thanks DK!). Rinse it out routinely in used tank water and it's good until it literally falls apart (I actually rinse our's in tap... *flame away*).

 

[sumpnfishy]

(I actually rinse our's in tap... *flame away*).

I've been rinsing mine under the tap and it gets the media much cleaner. Never had an issue from that....