Over Circulated?

[trotty]

I have an 8 foot tank with extremely high ammonia, Fish SEEM healthy and happy (I have Silver Sharks and Silver Dollars doing mating rituals).
I cant seem to get the ammo down. I do partial watr changes every week have plenty of filtration (get to that later), i dont over feed. An experienced fish keeper said i may have TOO much fitration?
The list goes;
2X CF 1200 canisters flowing 1200ltrs/PH
1 AQUACLEAR 110 Flowing about 1800ltrs/PH (I thinks)
and 1 FX5 flowing 2300ltrs/PH
The tank is only 800ltrs........

CAN there be too much?

Fish as follows; 1 18in Salmon cat, 1 Pleco @ 12in, 2 Silver dollars @ 5in, 3 Silver Sharks @ 7-8in and 1koi karp @ 12 in. This list used to be larger, nearly double and there was never a problem with less fiters....

 

[kaz]

is this a newely startup tank? is it still cycling?

 

[gfink]

Also, test you test kit on another sample of water(bottled for example, or another tank). Sometime they go haywire and give false readings.

 

[YuccaPatrol]

I really don't think you have too much filtration, and even if you did, it would not be the cause of high ammonia readings.

How large are your partial water changes? Perhaps you need to do larger changes more often to bring the water conditions back to where they would be safer for your fish?

 

[trotty]

Wel the tank in its current state has been set up for 4 months, before that it was set up for 6 months. it was a 2 hour down time when moved but set up with same media and water brought with the fish about 100ltrs.... And the PWC are half and weekly. Same food has been used for quite some time too. I have actually stopped all live food in the tank to c if that was the problem. Will let you know.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Either get a new test kit or have the lfs test it. Might have a faulty kit. I had an XP3 and an Emperor 400 on a 55G. It was way overkill, but did it to cycle the 2nd filter before I got my 75G. So I highly doubt it's from overfiltration. I've never seen overfiltration un-cycle a tank. There's got to be another reason for the ammonia levels. What are your nitrite levels as well?

 

[trotty]

ZERO nitrates and nitrites, had my LFS test it and it was the same about 10ppm ammo.... I know its bad....

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I would be inclined to think the Koi (Big goldfish) has something to do with contributing to the ammonia level. they are not a very clean fish and @ 12" it will be adding a tonne of ammonia.. Zero Nitrates is also not a good sign for a "cycled" tank. esp if it isn't heavily planted..

 

[Macrosill]

With those numbers it looks like the tank is cycling from scratch. I do not think you can over filter a tank. 800 liters is about 200 gallons, i think. If so thn=en that seems like alot of heavy waste producing fish in there, I guess that is why you have so much filtration. Looks like you will need to do more pwc's more often to keep then ammonia down. Looks like the start of a cycle. If not then there would be nitrates.

Good Luck,
Brian

 

[FriscoTX]

How are you treating your tap water? Some of the tap water conditioners are also Ammo Blockers and will give a false reading.

 

[trotty]

I treat all my tanks with stress coat and stress zyme. I actually used a whole bottle of ammo lock but to no avail. after numerous water changes still the same reading from both the store and my own testers.... I know the conditioners works as i have discus and other delicates on the same water with no problems. Looks like more PCW's more often..