Have you tested your water coming out of the tap? Here they add varying levels to keep the chlorine from dissapating too quick. I've gotten high readings right from the tap.
Ammonia issue :(
- Thread starter daitenshi
- Start date
I think I may have worked out the problem.
Blackworms. I used to have a peacock eel in there and was feeding him blackworms. He died
and now there is nothing to eat the blackworms.
Could blackworms be making the ammonia go through the roof?
I'll be taking out all the gravel tomorrow and cleaning it all out to get rid of the little buggers.
Blackworms. I used to have a peacock eel in there and was feeding him blackworms. He died
and now there is nothing to eat the blackworms. Could blackworms be making the ammonia go through the roof?
I'll be taking out all the gravel tomorrow and cleaning it all out to get rid of the little buggers.
daitenshi;1043486; said:I think I may have worked out the problem.
Blackworms. I used to have a peacock eel in there and was feeding him blackworms. He died
Could blackworms be making the ammonia go through the roof?
I'll be taking out all the gravel tomorrow and cleaning it all out to get rid of the little buggers.
Have you been adding the worms to the tank on a daily basis? even with a dead eel ?
You aren't allowing your tank to properly cycle.
Don't remove the gravel...that will take a huge chunk out of your bio-filtration and make the problem worse.
Seems like your water changes were a little much too, especially in a new tank. I don't ever do a water change until the tank is fully cycled.
Don't remove the gravel...that will take a huge chunk out of your bio-filtration and make the problem worse.
Seems like your water changes were a little much too, especially in a new tank. I don't ever do a water change until the tank is fully cycled.
if you were feeding like blackworms to the eel, its possible they are dieing/rotting and increasing the ammonia, but if your tank was properly cycled, then it shouldn't have been too much for the bacteria to handle. something had to happen to your bacteria to kill it off..
do you have kids? or anyone nearby that might have "accidentally" put something in your tank? might you have forgotten to treat the water once maybe?
you're basically going through a whole new cycle... do what you can to get some bacteria in there (get some used gravel/filter media). i'd put a nice healthy dose of Prime in there too if i were you.
do you have kids? or anyone nearby that might have "accidentally" put something in your tank? might you have forgotten to treat the water once maybe?
you're basically going through a whole new cycle... do what you can to get some bacteria in there (get some used gravel/filter media). i'd put a nice healthy dose of Prime in there too if i were you.
As soon as the eel died I stopped putting black worms in the tank. All the other fish ignored the black worms.
I do have a daughter that might be feeding them when I'm not around. But she is very trustworthy and says she doesn't feed the fish.
I can't understand why a cycled tank has to go through this proccess again. I'll try and get as many of the black worms out as I can but leave the gravel in there.
Another clown loach died last night
I do have a daughter that might be feeding them when I'm not around. But she is very trustworthy and says she doesn't feed the fish.
I can't understand why a cycled tank has to go through this proccess again. I'll try and get as many of the black worms out as I can but leave the gravel in there.
Another clown loach died last night
daitenshi;1044418; said:
See, much of the colony of beneficial bacteria lives in your filter media. You mentioned that you were cleaning the media a lot, disturbing that population before it's ready throws it out of balance and doesn't allow the tank to fully cycle. What I'm saying is that the problems you are having now is because it was never fully cycled in the first place.
And then, doing water changes so frequently could affect it as well...and especially if you are putting water straight from the tap into the tank....blasting a tank with chlorine every 2-3 days doesn't help the bacteria colony very much
Sorry about the additional losses. Using Prime will detoxify a lot of the ammonia and hopefully save your remaining fish.
i'm far from an expert.. but we have had ammonia spike issues and i can tell how we fixed them.
first we found that our tap water had high ammonia out of the tap, so we had to start purchasing RO water to do water changes.. which in turn dropped the PH and buffering ability dangerously low, so the ammonia spikes continued and the tank developed a sewage smell.
i searched for a way to bring the PH and buffering up.. finally, i remembered that the other tanks that didn't have problems all had crushed coral in or under the substrate. So i ran out and bought a new bag of crushed coral and covered the substrate with it..
in 24 hours the PH, buffering ability and ammonia were under control and in 2 days the sewage smell went away.
I don't know what is wrong with your tank, but i can say that adding crushed coral to a tank with very low PH is never a bad thing.
first we found that our tap water had high ammonia out of the tap, so we had to start purchasing RO water to do water changes.. which in turn dropped the PH and buffering ability dangerously low, so the ammonia spikes continued and the tank developed a sewage smell.
i searched for a way to bring the PH and buffering up.. finally, i remembered that the other tanks that didn't have problems all had crushed coral in or under the substrate. So i ran out and bought a new bag of crushed coral and covered the substrate with it..
in 24 hours the PH, buffering ability and ammonia were under control and in 2 days the sewage smell went away.
I don't know what is wrong with your tank, but i can say that adding crushed coral to a tank with very low PH is never a bad thing.
Blackworms release alot of waste. Especially if they are dying off in your substrate. 20g isn't alot of water volume for having blackworms live in your gravel.
Your pH is low, and that's why it's not killing your fish. The higher your pH, the moe toxic Ammonia.
Check your tap water for Chloramines.. your W/C's could be adding more Ammonia.
Add more biological media to your filters and quit messing with them so much.
Be patient. I'm a big fan of the chemical 'Stability' by SeaChem for cycling issues.
Your pH is low, and that's why it's not killing your fish. The higher your pH, the moe toxic Ammonia.
Check your tap water for Chloramines.. your W/C's could be adding more Ammonia.
Add more biological media to your filters and quit messing with them so much.
Be patient. I'm a big fan of the chemical 'Stability' by SeaChem for cycling issues.
