ok so i now own a monster fish. hes 50cm/20" long. he lives by him self in a 800L tank. the issue i think im having is that he eats lots and the bio load can not filter the amount of excrement hes leaving causing amonia, i have just add'd 5L of matrix and 500ml of purigen into the sump how long with this take to cycle in? will this fix my issue or should i just stop feeding the fish so much? at the moment hes eating 3-4 pilchards a day and 5-10 prawns. never leaves any sitting on the bottom and he he does i scoup it out straight away. i currently put a cycled canister ive had going for about 2 months onto his tank. this has helped but i cant keep it on his tank for ever..
ammonia issue
- Thread starter mangrovedave
- Start date
Howdy,
You should change water, and then feed only very little and only every other day. You did not specify the species, but that is not necessary: Any predator can go for long periods without food - and binge when the opportunity occurs. My wolf once refused food for 3 months. You will be just fine with minimal feeding until the beneficial bacteria have caught up with the bioload - assuming your sump is dimensioned accordingly.
Best of luck,
HarleyK
You should change water, and then feed only very little and only every other day. You did not specify the species, but that is not necessary: Any predator can go for long periods without food - and binge when the opportunity occurs. My wolf once refused food for 3 months. You will be just fine with minimal feeding until the beneficial bacteria have caught up with the bioload - assuming your sump is dimensioned accordingly.
Best of luck,
HarleyK
If you halt ammonia production (by stopping the feeding of your fish) you'll just delay the inevitable.
Instead, (in my head) it makes more sense to do frequent water changes and gradually taper them off. If you want to grow bacteria, keep a low concentration of ammonia in the water. As long as there is food, more bacteria will grow to eat it.
A very simplified example full of made up numbers to illustrate a point
At first, if your bacteria is capable of eating 100ppm of ammonia, and your water is at 200ppm, you would need to do a 50% waterchage frequently in order to keep the level just above 0. After a few days (maybe a week? maybe 1 day?), new bacteria will have grown, and now will be able to take care of 150ppm of ammonia, and so only a 25% water change would be required to maintain levels just above 0.
Basically, until the levels even out you'll need to control them with water changes. Do a water change, and then test the water. Wait 4 hours and test the water again and see what kind of increase there is over that 4 hours. That will give you an idea of how often you need to change water until the bacteria is able to keep up with the bio load.
Instead, (in my head) it makes more sense to do frequent water changes and gradually taper them off. If you want to grow bacteria, keep a low concentration of ammonia in the water. As long as there is food, more bacteria will grow to eat it.
A very simplified example full of made up numbers to illustrate a point
At first, if your bacteria is capable of eating 100ppm of ammonia, and your water is at 200ppm, you would need to do a 50% waterchage frequently in order to keep the level just above 0. After a few days (maybe a week? maybe 1 day?), new bacteria will have grown, and now will be able to take care of 150ppm of ammonia, and so only a 25% water change would be required to maintain levels just above 0.
Basically, until the levels even out you'll need to control them with water changes. Do a water change, and then test the water. Wait 4 hours and test the water again and see what kind of increase there is over that 4 hours. That will give you an idea of how often you need to change water until the bacteria is able to keep up with the bio load.