NH3/Ammonia Est.Tank Help

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FinHunter101

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Mar 22, 2012
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Out Back In The Woods!
Test the water in my 10" Jau Tank Yesterday after work to see what his parameter were due to being a new fish i got Thurs and to my suprise there was a difference... NH3/Ammonia 0.25 ppm, NO2/Nitrites 0 ppm, NO3/Nitrates 20 ppm... So did a 50% water change De-Chlor w/ Prime added Stability for Bio Help & Trace Minerals like i have been doing since it became establshed 3 mnths ago.. todays results are the same as yesterday so what is causing the ammonia in the tank???? He's in a 90Gal Quaratinie Tank only fish fed Heavily thurs due to not eating before shippin.... Fake Log to hide under PFS as substrate 6 fake plants for added cover... What's causing the NH3/Ammonia Spike in the tank guys?
 

I could see that it was first thought as well... But wouldnt a 50% WC eliminated some of the NH3/Ammonia to a point where it should Have been Reduced to less than 0.25ppm... Tested the NH3/Ammonia 4 times today and the same results every time... the NO2/Nitrites are 0ppm though unless its to much food and Nitrites cant keep up with it... Should i be worried??? or will the NO2/Nitrites Consume them in the next day or so???
 
Well the nitrates are good, means u have both bb, but I believe as stated above ur over feeding and u may not have a big enough bb colony to take care of this, big fish plus a lot of food equals ammonia.

Add more bio media, ceramic Chem stars etc.


Go S. Vettel #1 rb8
 
so you're saying you tested the water, did a 50% water change, retested, and got the same reading?

Tested yesterday NH3/Ammonia was 0.25ppm did a 50% WC yesterday tested 10am this Morning still 0.25ppm... would replacing Course & Fine Filter pads help or is it best to leave them alone due to being cycled???
 
Well the nitrates are good, means u have both bb, but I believe as stated above ur over feeding and u may not have a big enough bb colony to take care of this, big fish plus a lot of food equals ammonia.

Add more bio media, ceramic Chem stars etc.
Go S. Vettel #1 rb8

I would add more media if i had room i got the filter maxed out with media and dont have the room near the tank to add a bigger Filter not sure what i can do... i think that i heavily over fed.. had 6 7" oscars in the same tank before i got him and never had a spike in NH3/Ammonia.. they are messy as H***
 
Manage to get some room By moving tank over... so how would i go about the filter swap?? I kno to add the established media over the new media but what do i do after that??? do i need to watch for spikes in NH3/Ammonia & NO2/Nitrites? any tip/advice would be helpful.... Also forgot to not the NH3/Ammonia Has reduced to what appeared to be 0ppm like before... Think i just heavily overfed due to not eatin before shippin out from a friend...
 
putting the old media in the new filter will move much of the bacteria, but there will be some loss since bacteria forms on the filter casing and hoses.
personally I'd put the new media on top of the old so the new is exposed to the wastes directly instead of already filtered waste.
do I think it'll really make a big diff, no.
I'd probably wait a week or so until doing the swap, since they just went through some ammonia issues. there will be a bit for the moved bacteria to raise up their levels again.
the best way to go would be to add the new filter with the new media while still running the old. if possible, running them together for a month would probably completely eliminate the chance of an ammonia spike.
 
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