Spiking Ammonia Levels

[missileman]

I am just the opposite. I have no problem cycling with fish IF it is done right.
If you have a good bacteria source you can cycle a tank with hardly any amonia or nitrite ever showing up. I just did a 30 gallon in January, I put used filter media in my filter along with a little used gravel and a couple of decorations from one of my other tanks.
I tested daily and never saw amonia or nitrite, I had enough good bacteria that the new tank really didn't need to cycle.
I would never consider cycling fish with any over the counter bacteria supliment.

 

[Fishkid]

Just did another test with the liquid test kit. Ammonia is still high, but not as bad and nitrite is slowly coming down as well. Not zero and no where near safe levels yet, but maybe another water change this evening and one in the morning will start to get some more results. Keep plugging away I guess. Maybe moving some of the filter media and gravel is helping faster than I expected.

 

[gzeiger]

I think the advice offered earlier was spot on. Take the filter off your goldfish tank and run it on the new tank overnight. It has enough bacteria built up already to rapidly reduce the toxins in this tank to safe levels. If you don't want to mess with it further (swapping media and stuff they talked about) you can switch it back in the morning, but there's no reason at all you can't take advantage of the good filter you already own. Your goldfish will be fine without a filter for that amount of time, or you can move the new filter over to provide aeration and water movement in the meantime.

 

[Fishkid]

Another water change at 7 pm and just did testing on the water at 9:15. Doing much better (but still not where it needs to be) with the following.

pH 7.2
Ammonia 2.0
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 10ppm
GH and KH are fine as they were before.

Question about the Ammonia blocker. How often can it be used. It says every three days on the bottle. Does it really take out the toxicity that long or should I use it more often until I get the Ammonia down to 0?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I would keep doing water changes to get that level down and would discontinue using ammonia blockers. Get the level down to .5 and do changes accordingly. Or, take the filter pad from the established tank and put it in the new tank filter. Then put a new pad in the old filter. It'll definitely help speed the cycle.

 

[krap101]

I'd would avoid ammonia blockers and stick with like 20-30% wc's. If you do use it, if you use too much, it could starve your bacteria and put you back to square 1.

 

[gzeiger]

I think you guys are talking about different things. If you bought Ammo-chips, they will indeed absorb ammonia and set back the cycle (but only if you actually get ammonia to zero, which you don't seem to be in danger of doing). Liquid ammonia blockers like Prime and Ammo-Lock will not do that. They won't change the readings on your test either. They oxidize the ammonia into a less toxic (but not nontoxic) form that is less harmful to fish, but it remains in the water.

Please take advantage of the good filter you already have in this situation. What are you waiting for?

 

[CaptainAhab]

If you have a good bacteria source you can cycle a tank

I'm not sure I'd consider the cycling the tank IMO. Your not cultivating the bacteria while the fish sit in toxins, your adding a large colony that start working right away. So I would agree that with that approach using fish is much less harmful. I think most refer to cycling with fish to be a) put water in tank, b) heat water c) add fish

 

[missileman]

I'm not sure I'd consider the cycling the tank IMO. Your not cultivating the bacteria while the fish sit in toxins, your adding a large colony that start working right away. So I would agree that with that approach using fish is much less harmful. I think most refer to cycling with fish to be a) put water in tank, b) heat water c) add fish

You are probably right. I am not really cycling a tank at all.
Maybe instant cycle?

 

[Fishkid]

Just so everyone knows, I did take the filter from the good tank and also some of the gravel. I think that and the water changes is keeping things going. Off to do another change and will test a little while later.

Will let you know. So far all the fish seems fine with no signs. They even greeted me this morning wanting their meal. I am going to feed them a tiny bit as it has been two days since last meal.

 

[missileman]

Are you using a siphon of some kind for the water changes?
If so don't worry about feeding them, (what I mean is go ahead and feed them) you can lightly vacuum the top of the gravel when you are doing your water changes to get rid of any excess food.

 

[Fishkid]

Yeah, basic siphon. They seem to like it, maybe because they are pet store fish. Will feed them and WC in about 30 minutes. Don't think there will be much if any leftover food. It is a small amount and they are hungry.

 

[Fishkid]

Some more good news. All your advice is paying off.

Ammonia .25
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 5ppm

Should I be concerned that my pH is 7.6?

Hopefully a few more water changes (one this evening) will get me to zero on the first two.

 

[missileman]

My PH is 7.4 same as my tap water.
7.6 is fine as long as it is stable. Most fish will readily adapt to any PH 6-8 as long as it stays relatively the same. What fish cannot tolerate is constantly changing PH.
PS: I wouldn't shoot for zero through water changes, your bacteria needs some food. Just keep it low and let the bacteria take it to zero.

 

[missileman]

Some more good news. All your advice is paying off.

Ammonia .25
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 5ppm

Should I be concerned that my pH is 7.6?

Hopefully a few more water changes (one this evening) will get me to zero on the first two.

PPS: in fact with those numbers I would not do another water change tonight. Keep an eye on it. If the nitrite or amonia rise do a small water change, 10%-15% sometime tomorrow.

 

[Fishkid]

Cool, will test tonight and tomorrow. Will only change if it rises again.

 

[MrIncredible79]

Try R.O Wa. ter!

I had a similar problem with my 30 gallon tank. You should test you tap water and see what readings you get from that. If you don't like what you see, go to LFS and buy reverse osmosis water. 5 gallons or so should do the trick. you will notice a sudden change in tank water quality. Good luck

 

[Fishkid]

So, this morning my levels went back up slightly. Have not fed them, but my son did leave his light on all night and the water was a little warm at 82 degrees. I know, I need flour lights.

Here are my readings.

Ammonia .5
Nitrite 1.0
Nitrate 10ppm

Should I look to do a WC again, or is this to be expected as the bacteria battle to take over?

I did feed them sparingly this morning.

 

[missileman]

I would do a small WC, 10%-15%
82 deg won't hurt and in fact will help speed up bacterial growth.
Leaving the light on however can cause algae to grow.
PS: 10ppm Nitrate is a very good sign. It was 5ppm yesterday which shows that the bacteria is working, it just need to grow a bit more.

 

[Fishkid]

OK. Here are the new readings with some improvement.

Ammonia - .5
Nitrites - .5
Nitrates - 10 ppm

Should I hols steady and test in the morning?