I am struggling with my ammonia! Please Help!

[Marcus5150]

My tank is a 45gal fresh water. I have a marineland penguin 200 with bio-wheel, and a Fluval 70 Aqua Clear.. My tank has been setup for over 2 & a half months now.. The fish i have are an angle fish, 2 platties, 1 dwarf male gourami, 5 Danios and a rainbow shark and three ghost shrimp..

The problem i am having is my ammonia is always climbing to 8ppm and i don't know why. i keep my gravel clean, i feed my fish in small doses so hardly no food goes to the bottom. No fish/shrimp have died. i don't have any clue why my ammonia is so high? i have been using ammo-lock to prevent harm to my fish. we have tried doing daily 25% water changes for 4 days and got it to 0 and waited a few days and it was up to 4 then 8 again.. even tried doing a near 100% water change then a regular 20% water change 2 days later still no effect..

we have also tried dosing the tank with these bacteria supps Cycle, Stability, Outbreak, and Safe Start. nothing has seemed to take effect!

Ph is 7.o
Nitrite is 0 but climbs up to .25 very often then falls to 0 again
Nitrate is 5-10

Can someone please help me!!

 

[FeldmansFish]

Cycled?

 

[Marcus5150]

Yes my tank was cycled, i didn't have any problems the first month or so then BAM ammonia hit!

 

[Aqualady40]

You said "2 months"...hmmmmm does not sound like it is cycled... sometime it can take a lil longer...IMO...I would do test every 12 hours and do however many wc as needed to get it down into a safe zone.....8.0 is extreme and harmful for any inhabitant....good luck

 

[kwandrsn]

Did you clean any decorations our change filters? When was the last time you added fish and how many? And how much are you feeding then?

If you clean anything you wash the good bacteria away. If you add too many fish can cause levels to spike and if you are feeding way too much it will.get in the gravel and rot and that will cause a problem

 

[Marcus5150]

all the levels in my tank were at 0 for a good month or so.... i don't understand how i couldn't be cycled?

 

[kwandrsn]

Also what are you using to test?

 

[Marcus5150]

no i have the filter medias setup in a system to where there is always a media with bacteria in it.. no decorations or fish have been added/taken out since the tank was setup..

 

[Marcus5150]

i am using the API Master test kit, and using RO water with water changes..

 

[kwandrsn]

Ok that all is good. Feeding too much can cause ammonia problems as the food starts to rot

 

[Marcus5150]

i feed my fish once a day and give them two or three small pinches of food spaced out and they eat it all hardly none of it hits the bottom and what does my shark and shrimp make quick work of..

 

[kwandrsn]

well I suggest you start doing lots of water changes to keep ammonia down to 0.25 or lower . Your cycle crashed for some reason is what it sound like to me. Someone else can chime in and give some more expertise . Keep ammonia low and watch nitrites as well

 

[Marcus5150]

Okay, Thanks for the advice though!

 

[kwandrsn]

IMO try not using so much chemicals. I use water conditioner and that's it. Some things can hurt your cycle. You might try googling each product and see if anyone else had any problems I've used the cycle you mentioned and that was it

 

[Marcus5150]

I know the bacteria supplements wont, buy I have heard mixed reviews about Ammo-Lock by API.. :/ so I don't know? lol

 

[kwandrsn]

Stuff like safe start might hurt your biological filter. I'm going thru that right now with a saltwater tank. I used a bacteria booster and it has made my levels worse go figure. Trial and error I guess. And I don't know what outbreak is. Were you having a problem with something that needed it?

 

[kwandrsn]

Well you want your biological filter to form naturally. The biological filter is the good bacteria on plants gravel ect. And if you add a booster all your doing is adding it to the water and it will keep your biological filter on the plants and such to not form properly

 

[kwandrsn]

When I cycle a freshwater tank I use a water treatment and stress zyme and that's it

 

[Aqualady40]

all the levels in my tank were at 0 for a good month or so.... i don't understand how i couldn't be cycled?

a cycled tank would have Levels that are as follows ammo-0, trites-0, and trates 20 or less...give ot tak on the 20 some say 40 or less
which is definitely making think more that you are currently in a fish-in cycle with the ammo spiking and soon the trites will follow, then the trates...stay up on your testing and pwc and don't use anything except for dechlorinator to treat the tap water

 

[kwandrsn]

a cycled tank would have Levels that are as follows ammo-0, trites-0, and trates 20 or less...give ot tak on the 20 some say 40 or less

+1 on that

I'm not am expert but I think he may have crashed his cycle with all the chemicals