Help! Can't get rid of ammonia in tank

[riri7022]

I've set up a new planted tank and I thought things would go smoothly since I did my research before I got started but I'm still having issues with cycling. I have a 70L or roughly 18 gallon tank that I plan to put a betta and maybe some other fish in. I started the cycling process maybe 3-4 weeks ago and I had a sponge filter from a previous tank that I put in the new tank with the intention for it to speed up the cycling process. I've got some basic plants in there, two sponge filters that can handle about 60L maximum together (I've only ever have 60L or less in the tank) and have recently found that there is a bladder snail infestation. I've been doing 20% water changes once a week and also started the cycle using seachem stability but I can't seem to get my ammonia levels down. Additionally, my pH levels are oddly low and I'm not sure what is contributing to all of these issues. GH/KH is around 150 ppm.

I wanted to know where I should go from here with the cycling process. Is it worth starting the cycle again or is it equipment or something else I'm missing that is contributing to the issue. In the picture of the water tubes the two on the left are pH, the middle is ammonia, then nitrite and nitrate. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I'd start off by confirming what your water parameters are in numbers. You are looking at the test tubes with the test chart, hopefully in good natural lighting and can better read the tests. We are looking at a photo, and photos can look different depending on the devices display settings etc.

And let's get the obvious out of the way.

What water conditioner are you using?

Are you sure you are doing the tests correctly?

On the face of it, your ammonia looks off the chart high, so in excess of 5ppm. That's too high. Ammonia of that sort of level will just kill off those microbes responsible for your cycle. All those microbes that you transferred with the established sponge filter, dead. Anything useful from the Seachem Stability, dead. Assuming you are trying to do a fishless cycle, you want ammonia no higher than 2ppm.

I cant see any fish in the photo, so presume you are trying a fishless cycle. Are you dosing ammonia? If you are dosing ammonia or ghost feeding, you are overdoing it. If you arent, then the ammonia is coming from something in the aquarium. The 2 obvious sources are your tap water or your substrate.

Do a set of tests on your tap water and report back.

That looks like some kind of planted substrate, and they are notorious for leaching ammonia into aquariums for several months. So thats a good candidate.

So to start, your ammonia is too high and needs to be lower. 20% weekly water changes are hardly worth doing in those circumstances. A 20% water change will reduce contaminants by 20%. If your ammonia is 5ppm, a 20% water change will bring it down to 4ppm. That's practically no difference. Your small water change isnt bringinh the ammonia down by much, and more is leaching back into water in between the infrequent schedule. You need to be more aggressive with water changes to bring ammonia down to a level where your cycle can establish. Assuming your tap water is ammonia free. Do 50%, 75%, multiple water changes back to back to get your ammonia down below 2ppm. And then keep on top of things. If ammonia is rising through the week do another water change, if its dropping, thats a good sign your cycle is establishing.

These bacteria in a bottle products are very hit and miss. Mostly miss, and Seachem Stability is probably one of the worst. Once you have got your ammonia down to a level that cycling is possible, and you want to give these products a try, then Fritz TurboStart, Fritz #7, Tetra Safestart are the only products that a scientific published study showed had any positive effect on cycling an aquarium. Dr Tims One and Only is the same product as Safestart. Outside of these 4 products dont waste your money. And even with these it's not a guaranteed result.

 

[riri7022]

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely do more frequent water changes to get ammonia down. Disappointing to hear that stability isn't a great product as I was recommended seachem stability and equilibrium by the fish experts in my area as well as the aquasoil.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely do more frequent water changes to get ammonia down. Disappointing to hear that stability isn't a great product as I was recommended seachem stability and equilibrium by the fish experts in my area as well as the aquasoil.

Sadly, the real "fish experts" around the world it seems are dwindling and shops now push products more than factual information. Always ask your " experts" how long they have been keeping fish and how many tanks they have running. Anyone in the hobby less than 10 years (imo) is not an expert. Just an FYI, I spent over 45 years in the fish business and had to deal with many stores world wide and the real " experts" were hard to find. Just sayin'. I always advise to ask 3 people you believe know what they are doing. Follow the majority.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely do more frequent water changes to get ammonia down. Disappointing to hear that stability isn't a great product as I was recommended seachem stability and equilibrium by the fish experts in my area as well as the aquasoil.

Are these local experts in the business of selling you stuff? Seachem are very good at marketing their products. If stores and online retailers made a bigger mark up on API products, and if API had the same army of youtubers pushing QuickStart, everyone would be telling you how great a product QuickStart is. And all everyone would hear is QuickStart, without any real evidence that it actually does anything useful.

I used to regularly see Stability called "nitrite in a bottle" because all anyone saw when they used it was a lot of nitrite. This lead many to speculate that it was literally just nitrite in a bottle with no "live bacteria". Nitrite in a bottle would actually be useful, as you normally have to wait for the ammonia to nitrite stage to establish before the nitrite to nitrate stage can begin. Introducing nitrite at the beginning of the cycle process would get you started on the nitrite to nitrate stage quicker and shorten your overall cycling timescales. Maybe thats what happening.

Seachem are very protective of their products. They won't give any evidence that they work, they wont tell you how they work, they are very protective against chemist's testing their products. They have literally made up scientific terms in their product literature. Im personally sceptical of a lot of their claims because of this. Im not scientifically educated, but I see things from people who are and I trust the scientific process. But I still use Seachem products where I know there is a benefit. Seachem Prime is a good, cost effective water conditioner. It removes chlorine and chloramine, if it didn't people's fish would noticably die.

Those planted substrates are very good at providing high level of nutrients to high demand rooted plants. But anything thats organic is going to break down and release ammonia. Thats just reality. Over time this release tends to slow down, or your cycle kicks in and your high demand plants start to consume the ammonia release.

Unless you keeping high demand plants, that require specialised lighting, injected CO2 and nutrient dosing regimes, gravel or sand substrate is going to be fine, supplemented with root tabs for the rooted plants. On its own, a nutrient rich substrate isnt going to do very much without the high lighting and CO2 so the plants can utilise those nutrients, along with plants that require all those things.

Whats your personal opinion of these things now you have tried them? That's more important than anything that anyone else tells you.