Here's a little background information...
I have a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium, with a 50 gallon Aqua Clear filter. I currently have Mollies, Platys, Neon Tetras, and Cory Catfish- A total of 15 fish. The tank does not seem to be overstocked, most of the fish are on the smaller side and not anywhere near full grown. I do regular weekly partial water changes, and do not overfeed the fish. The temperature in the tank has remained a constant 82 degrees.
Over the past few months, I had noticed a little bit of a green algae problem. About a month ago, the algae problem seemed to be getting worse along with increasing cloudiness in the water. After doing some testing, I realized that my ammonia levels were out of control at 4 ppm. Prior to this, I had never seen any significant problems with any of the levels in the tank. My filter media had been well established for approximately a year and I originally did a fishless cycle to make sure that I had a strong biofilter.
After talking to someone at the local fish store (family-owned, well-established and credible), we came to the conclusion that something had caused my original biofilter to die off, therefore not effectively removing the ammonia in the tank. At this point, I did a 90% water change and cleaned everything in the tank along with replacing the filter media including a new biofilter from a friend with a well established aquarium (biofilter has been in friends tank for over a year). The biofilter was transported in aquarium water within the period of a half hour, therefore no chance of any of the good bacteria dying off.
So, over the past few weeks I have had multiple fish die unexpectedly. All of the levels have essentially remained the same. The ammonia has been at .25 ppm, ph is at 6.8, nitrites are at 0 ppm, and nitrates are at 5 ppm. It appears that the nitrogen cycle may possibly be stalled or something else might be occurring. There is also a whitish film forming on the glass.
I always use dechlorinator when adding new water to the tank. I did test my tap water and noticed that there is a slight bit of ammonia in it. I have used an ammonia lock product recently to make sure that any ammonia that was in the tank was not harmful to the fish.
I'm not really sure what to do at this point. Any help, suggestions, or advice would be greatly appreciated!
I have a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium, with a 50 gallon Aqua Clear filter. I currently have Mollies, Platys, Neon Tetras, and Cory Catfish- A total of 15 fish. The tank does not seem to be overstocked, most of the fish are on the smaller side and not anywhere near full grown. I do regular weekly partial water changes, and do not overfeed the fish. The temperature in the tank has remained a constant 82 degrees.
Over the past few months, I had noticed a little bit of a green algae problem. About a month ago, the algae problem seemed to be getting worse along with increasing cloudiness in the water. After doing some testing, I realized that my ammonia levels were out of control at 4 ppm. Prior to this, I had never seen any significant problems with any of the levels in the tank. My filter media had been well established for approximately a year and I originally did a fishless cycle to make sure that I had a strong biofilter.
After talking to someone at the local fish store (family-owned, well-established and credible), we came to the conclusion that something had caused my original biofilter to die off, therefore not effectively removing the ammonia in the tank. At this point, I did a 90% water change and cleaned everything in the tank along with replacing the filter media including a new biofilter from a friend with a well established aquarium (biofilter has been in friends tank for over a year). The biofilter was transported in aquarium water within the period of a half hour, therefore no chance of any of the good bacteria dying off.
So, over the past few weeks I have had multiple fish die unexpectedly. All of the levels have essentially remained the same. The ammonia has been at .25 ppm, ph is at 6.8, nitrites are at 0 ppm, and nitrates are at 5 ppm. It appears that the nitrogen cycle may possibly be stalled or something else might be occurring. There is also a whitish film forming on the glass.
I always use dechlorinator when adding new water to the tank. I did test my tap water and noticed that there is a slight bit of ammonia in it. I have used an ammonia lock product recently to make sure that any ammonia that was in the tank was not harmful to the fish.
I'm not really sure what to do at this point. Any help, suggestions, or advice would be greatly appreciated!