ammonia in my 180g

[honda237]

So i have ammonia in my 180g that has been setup for around 3 months, and i don't know why. I do once a week water changes of 50%, i have a chinese FX5, and a sump with 20lbs of submersed ceramic rings and a mag 12. Its been like this for a while i am assuming, and i can't figure it out. I didn't feed my fish all day yesterday and this was the reading.
ammonia- .25
nitrates- ~5
nitrites- 0

any help would be great.

 

[Juxtaroberto]

Have you cross checked with a different test kit? Yours might simply be giving you a false reading. Is it an old test kit?

 

[honda237]

i used it also on my 135g (running for about 6 months) and read 0ppm ammonia, and tested my high tech planted tank that which read 1ppm. Don't worry, the planted tank was started this week and the ammonia is from the substrate and it ony as fish right now.

 

[Laticauda]

Well, if you are showing nitrItes, I'd say your cycle crashed, and is having to cycle again. You will want to add 1tsp per gallon of salt to the water, to protect the fish from nitrIte poisoning (brown blood disease.)

Are you sure you have 0 nitrAtes? Are you doing the test correctly (shaking the bottles for the appropriate time, and the solution, waiting 5 minutes, etc?)

 

[SCGeordie]

Have you checked your tap water, mine tests at ~.25ppm ammonia (whioch is one of the reasons I don't drink water!)? I do 25% WC's and the ammonia in the tap water doesn't affect the tanks - if I do a WC in the morning the tank will read 0 ammonia by mid afternoon.

 

[honda237]

Well, if you are showing nitrItes, I'd say your cycle crashed, and is having to cycle again. You will want to add 1tsp per gallon of salt to the water, to protect the fish from nitrIte poisoning (brown blood disease.)

Are you sure you have 0 nitrAtes? Are you doing the test correctly (shaking the bottles for the appropriate time, and the solution, waiting 5 minutes, etc?)

you mis-read, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are ~5ppm

Have you checked your tap water, mine tests at ~.25ppm ammonia (whioch is one of the reasons I don't drink water!)? I do 25% WC's and the ammonia in the tap water doesn't affect the tanks - if I do a WC in the morning the tank will read 0 ammonia by mid afternoon.

Ya i have well water and i've tested it before and don't have any ammonia, and my other tanks don't have ammonia either. i do water changes every week on sunday afternoons so in about 4 hours so i haven't done one since last sunday.

 

[Juxtaroberto]

Any fish gone missing? A dead fish under an ornament somewhere could be causing the spike. Maybe a wad of rotting, unfinished food under some driftwood, a rock, or something.

 

[honda237]

Any fish gone missing? A dead fish under an ornament somewhere could be causing the spike. Maybe a wad of rotting, unfinished food under some driftwood, a rock, or something.

nope, no fish dead, i feed lightly so its gone in a minute or less. and i don't see any food on the sand anywhere.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Benifical bacteria have 3 limiting factor

- Ammonia
- Dissolved Oxygen
- Surface area

So if there is ammonia, thats means one of the 2 are limiting factors

 

[rhodes_96]

Whats the stocking density of the tank ?

What test kit type and brand are you using ?