Crashed Tank?

[afterwinter]

I set my tank up in February using the fishless cycling method. Added my betta and all was well for a while. Had a few hiccups but things were looking fairly good. I don't think my tank truly cycled so I was keeping things under control with 40% weekly water changes. The end of May I went away for 2 weeks(used an automatic feeder that seemed to have done a good job of feeding just enough).

Since then my tank has had huge ammonia spikes. My poor betta looks terrible and I can't seem to keep the ammonia under control. He is the only fish in the 6 gallon tank so I have no idea where all of this ammonia is coming from. He gets 3-4 betta pellets a day with one day of fasting.

Can I fix this? Do I go buy a tiny tank so I can keep him in perfect water while I try to recycle the main tank? I feel so terrible for him.

 

[Brookster123]

What is in there for substrate? Filtration?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[afterwinter]

I have sand substrate and a Marina Slim S10 filter. I try to vacuum all of the debris that I can every week but I wonder if it is just collecting in the sand and then causing spikes. Is gravel easier to keep clean? I am so mad at myself for not waiting a whole week after my tank initially cycled to be sure it was really complete.

 

[Mebbid]

Just do extra water changes. 50% water changes cna be done every other hour so just go crazy with it!

Things will even out eventually.

Just curious though, have you tested the ammonia in your tap water?

 

[jarrod0987]

Sand can build up organic waste over time. Ammonia has to come from organic waste such as fish waste or uneaten food. Perhaps try stirring the sand in little sections. See if a lot of gunk comes out.Or if something is dead under a decoration etc. You can use something like Prime or Amquel plus to lock the ammonia until you find it. Also you could use ammo chips. Those are rechargeable. It sounds like your bio filter died or isn't big enough. That is the only reason why you would have ammonia. How many fish are in the tank and what size tank? If you have sand and a good light you could add a bunch of plants to start helping right away. Plants love to eat ammonia.

 

[Autumnsky]

If you only cycled the tank for a week that is not enough time to create bacteria and cycle a tank. Unless I am misunderstanding.

If you use Prime that should help you through the transition. In addition to plenty of pwc.

Here is an article for you to help learn about fish in cycling.
Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

 

[biondoa]

Lots and lots of water changes, and make sure to use a good dechlorinator, like Prime.
By the way, what kind of automatic feeder did you use?

 

[afterwinter]

That, hrm, I guess I will be doing big water changes forever haha. Right now I only have the betta in the 6.6 gallon tank. I used to have 6 shrimp but they all passed on.

There is a lot of gunk in the sand(when I had shrimp they were pooping like crazy) if I stir it. I get a bacterial bloom if I do a deep cleaning on the tank. Right now I also have two anubius plants.

I haven't checked ph regularly but I wonder if my city water could have experienced a ph change at some point. That could kill off good bacterial right? Soon before my ammonia levels started spiking 3 of my shrimp died very suddenly one after the other with no reason I could find. I am just so confused as to why everything has gone wrong. I cycled the tank over 6 weeks before I added the betta. I just meant I wished I had given it a week after it cycled to be sure it was really done and ready for fish. I only waited two days.

So do I need to treat the tank like I am doing fish in cycling? How can I try to fix the cycle? Sorry for so many questions! Thanks for all of the help.

Oh, and I use prime or stress coat+ when I do water changes. I have been using stress coat to try and get my fish a good slime coat since he is looking pale and has fin rot. In regard to the automatic feeder I used the Hydor Automatic Fish Feeder. I had to modify it so it would only allow 3 pellets a day.

 

[biondoa]

this is a pretty small tank with only one fish in it. I think you should do a very big water change, maybe 70%, and then get some seeded filter media from an already established tank, and put that in your filter. You may be able to get some from your lfs, and somebody said in some thread that there is someone who sells it on this forum.