Ammonia spike issues.

[Mark Lathrop]

Hello, I'm new to the forums, I know your red flags are going up in your minds right now.

I picked up some fish from Petco one day, happy to start up a new tank. Petco gave me zero helpful info. on starting up a tank. I had to find out the hard way about the nitrogen cycle (I lost a couple of fish). I called Petco as soon as one of my fish died, and the aquarium expert was actually giggling about the situation. Since losing the fish, I had set up a 2.5 gallon test tank and placed the fish in there. I then allowed my 10 gallon tank to attempt a nitrogen cycle. I waited a couple of weeks, checking my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. I was excited to see the tank going through it's cycle, did a partial water change after I tested for nitrates, and dropped 3 of my rasboras in the next day or so. They were doing great! I let them remain in the tank, testing the water daily (liquid test kits). After another week or so, I dropped my 2 corydoras into the tank. The tank was great for another week. I did another partial water change just 3 days ago, and just 3 days later, my water turned murky reddish and the ammonia level is spiking...hard! I have a Penguin 100 bio wheel filter. I did rinse the carbon filter, but only in the syphoned water I took out during the partial water change (I didn't want to lose the beneficial bacterias). I didn't even touch the bio-wheel.

I am wondering why I'm having such a hard spike in ammonia levels, and in just 3 days no less? Why did the water turn so gross SO fast?!

Any suggestions?

[Masafi]

Hiya,

You're probably more of an expert on this than me but I have found the sticky post on the ammonia subject (Fishless cycle) great!

I'm on a steep learning curve as I have had tanks in the past but never did the cycle..

From what I know, we need good bacteria in our tanks which consequently eats the ammonia, and you're only going to get this by doing a cycle.

Just a suggestion, did you cycle your tank fishless by introducing ammonia and monitoring the levels?

If you just leave your tank to attempt a cycle it probably wouldn’t happen...or would in a roundabout way

I'm no expert and last night started my cycle in my 90Gal tank... I've now got ammonia at 5PPM and will take more readings tomorrow before I add more ammonia...

There are some great experts in here who I'm sure will comment and help you out....All the best

[Lady Hobbs]

Probably feeding them too much. Food rots in the tank and causes ammonia which raises the levels even more. Feed very sparingly until your tank has finished cycling......like a small amount once a day every 2-3 days. Fish can go much longer so they'll be fine.

Clean nothing, leave filters as they are and do a water change of about half right now. Then about every other day do 25 %. You fish will die if you don't.

[Chrona]

Hello, I'm new to the forums, I know your red flags are going up in your minds right now.

I picked up some fish from Petco one day, happy to start up a new tank. Petco gave me zero helpful info. on starting up a tank. I had to find out the hard way about the nitrogen cycle (I lost a couple of fish). I called Petco as soon as one of my fish died, and the aquarium expert was actually giggling about the situation. Since losing the fish, I had set up a 2.5 gallon test tank and placed the fish in there. I then allowed my 10 gallon tank to attempt a nitrogen cycle. I waited a couple of weeks, checking my ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. I was excited to see the tank going through it's cycle, did a partial water change after I tested for nitrates, and dropped 3 of my rasboras in the next day or so. They were doing great! I let them remain in the tank, testing the water daily (liquid test kits). After another week or so, I dropped my 2 corydoras into the tank. The tank was great for another week. I did another partial water change just 3 days ago, and just 3 days later, my water turned murky reddish and the ammonia level is spiking...hard! I have a Penguin 100 bio wheel filter. I did rinse the carbon filter, but only in the syphoned water I took out during the partial water change (I didn't want to lose the beneficial bacterias). I didn't even touch the bio-wheel.

I am wondering why I'm having such a hard spike in ammonia levels, and in just 3 days no less? Why did the water turn so gross SO fast?!

Any suggestions?

I'm confused. So you put the fish into the 2.5. Was there anything in the 10g while it was "cycling"? Were you adding a source of ammonia during that time?

[jeffs99dime]

I'm confused. So you put the fish into the 2.5. Was there anything in the 10g while it was "cycling"? Were you adding a source of ammonia during that time?

ditto. welcome to a.c.

[Mark Lathrop]

Probably feeding them too much. Food rots in the tank and causes ammonia which raises the levels even more. Feed very sparingly until your tank has finished cycling......like a small amount once a day every 2-3 days. Fish can go much longer so they'll be fine.

Clean nothing, leave filters as they are and do a water change of about half right now. Then about every other day do 25 %. You fish will die if you don't.

Thanks for that answer. I'll get on the 50% water change tonight!


I'm confused. So you put the fish into the 2.5. Was there anything in the 10g while it was "cycling"? Were you adding a source of ammonia during that time?

I had used rocks and decorations, and also was adding flakes. I had the cycle all the way till I was reading nitrates. I figured that was the end of the cycle.

[kenyth]

Small tanks and ignorance about the bacterial ecosystem in a tank probably kill more fish than anything else. You can do a fishless cycle, but if you follow a few tips and tricks, you won't have to.

- I don't recommend anything less than a 20 gallon tank, and that's the bare minimum. More water means that toxins take much longer to accumulate.

- Seed the tank with bacterial cultures, the more the better. This is of the utmost importance! Use 5 gallons or more of dirty water that's been gravel vac'd from an established tank. Take your new filter cartridge and trade it to someone else for their old dirty one. Use a bunch of cheap live plants. All of this will introduce lots of the needed bacterial colonies into your tank. You can be "instantly" cycled if you do all of the above steps.

- Keep bottom feeders, snails, and shrimp, but primarily snails. Snails will eagerly eat excess food and assist in algae removal. Even moldy food that other animals won't touch go down a snails gullet. Two snails are usually plenty for a 20-30 gallon tank.

[Mark Lathrop]

Small tanks and ignorance about the bacterial ecosystem in a tank probably kill more fish than anything else. You can do a fishless cycle, but if you follow a few tips and tricks, you won't have to.

- I don't recommend anything less than a 20 gallon tank, and that's the bare minimum. More water means that toxins take much longer to accumulate.

- Seed the tank with bacterial cultures, the more the better. This is of the utmost importance! Use 5 gallons or more of dirty water that's been gravel vac'd from an established tank. Take your new filter cartridge and trade it to someone else for their old dirty one. Use a bunch of cheap live plants. All of this will introduce lots of the needed bacterial colonies into your tank. You can be "instantly" cycled if you do all of the above steps.

- Keep bottom feeders, snails, and shrimp, but primarily snails. Snails will eagerly eat excess food and assist in algae removal. Even moldy food that other animals won't touch go down a snails gullet. Two snails are usually plenty for a 20-30 gallon tank.

Thanks, that was quite helpful. For now, I'd like to stick with the 5 fish (or so) in the 10g, but I'll refer to this guide for future use. I had a goldfish right before this that was at least 11 yrs. old, but I never had issues with ammonia when he was living in there. I cycled the tank with him with no issues. I just hope that I can get the ammonia levels under control soon.

[Coler]

thing about cycling the tank with fish is that the bacteria grow sufficiently to cope with the bioload of that amount of fish. So when your raspboras went in they were a really small source of ammonia, and then the corys were too much for whatever bacteria had grown to cope with.

So when you add new ones you can get a mini spike as the bacterial filter is behind the curve. This is especially so in a small tank like a 10g. The bacterial cultures reproduce exponentially though so its usually only a couple of days. I like to leave at least a week to be sure though - so after that period you can see 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, nitrates increasing again.

Overfeeding can also be an issue, as the food is a source of ammonia if uneaten. Have you notice uneaten food in the tank ? If its not being eaten, take it out and adjust in the future

[Mark Lathrop]

Overfeeding can also be an issue, as the food is a source of ammonia if uneaten. Have you notice uneaten food in the tank ? If its not being eaten, take it out and adjust in the future

This is a good question. Since dropping in the Cory fish, I scaled back the feeding to only once a day. I would feed the fish a pinch of some Hikari micro-pellets which I just got: [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

And sometimes I'd drop in some sinking pellets for the cory fish which they'd devour within a half hour to an hour.

When cleaning the tank last night, I noticed big clumps of the hikari food (pictured) that looked very cloud like. When I went in with the syphon, they nearly took over the tank! The food looked as if they were growing clumps of moss or something. I didn't think fish waste on such small fish as the cory's or the rasboras were that HUGE, so I'm pretty sure it's the food that is a big problem. I will have to go back to flakes since this appears to be the case. It appeared that even the smallest amount of the pellets that weren't devoured grew to 3 times it's size. The clumps were getting so big that even the filter couldn't fit them through it's tiny openings under the water (I made the slit-like openings a little bigger last night with a knife). Hence, all of it sinking to the bottom of the tank and blending in with my rocks. That, coupled with only minimal nitrites like you suggested, and voila, I have ammonia issues.

Has anybody else had an issue with the Hikari pellets like this? The pellets are SO tiny when originally fed, that after they sink, it's nearly impossible to even see them when they reach the bottom of my tank.

[Coler]

I don't use Hikari but I would reccomend carefully observing them as you feed. If its not being eaten stop feeding. Am I right in saying you have the rasbs and the cories ? If so I would maybe put in the pellets for the corys and then feed the rasbs really carefully, a small pinch at a time for 2 minutes tops.

[Masafi]

Clumps of moss. sounds like what I have.

Is it grey colour?

[Mark Lathrop]

Sort of clearish. Almost a grey. It's almost as if the Hikari semi-sinking pellets are little seeds for it. After a 2nd 50% water change, and the 3rd water change in 2 weeks, I still had a TON of it in the rocks. Switching to the flakes has seemed to really reduce it's numbers, but I have yet to find that out for sure. I just switched over.

What type of fish food are you using?

Sadly, tonight, I lost a cory. :( I didn't see any symptoms of it being sick, and I've monitored all of the fish pretty closely the last few days. His barbs looked normal, no signs of him being tipsy or secluding himself. Just weird. He was sucked up in the filter somehow when I got home from work. I don't know how he got in there as the slits for my filter are quite slim. I dunno if he was looking for food inside of it and squeezed his way in there or what, but it's really sad. He was so healthy looking even just last night. Now I'm down to just 1 Cory, and they are a schooling fish. I can't add any fish till I get the tank well enough established, and to be honest, I'm kinda scared after this passing.

My ammonia levels are dropping. I tested this afternoon and am down from nearly an 8, to now a 4. I also am showing signs of nitrites at .5. This is good! :)